[ANN] Capistrano 1.1

Capistrano is a utility for executing tasks in parallel across
multiple remote hosts. It was formerly known as SwitchTower.

Installation:

gem install capistrano

Manual:

http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/book/17

Version 1.1 introduces a few changes:

  • Renamed! Due to the trademark infringement debacle of last week, we
    had to change the name. Moving forward it will be known as Capistrano.

  • The generated capistrano.rake file is simpler now than it used to
    be. You can easily append custom options to individual tasks now. For
    instance, if you want the deploy to be silent, instead of verbose,
    just add “-q” to the parameter list for that task.

  • The generated capistrano.rake file uses the “remote” namespace, so
    you’ll need to have at least Rake 0.7.0. You can still do “rake
    deploy” and “rake rollback”, but the other tasks must be prefixed
    with the namespace (“rake remote:exec”, “rake remote:show_tasks”, etc.)

  • The ‘switchtower’ command is replaced by the ‘cap’ command.

  • The cap utility is verbose by default. If you want it to be silent,
    use the -q option. If you want it to be less verbose, you can specify
    the -v or -vv flags explicitly.

  • The cap utility uses more rake-like command-line semantics. Instead
    of needing to do “cap -r config/deploy -a deploy”, you can just do
    “cap deploy”. It will look for config/deploy.rb, capfile, or Capfile
    automatically, and will treat raw parameters as action names.

Upgrading/switching from SwitchTower to Capistrano is a little
inconvenient. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

  • gem uninstall switchtower (remove all versions)
  • gem install capistrano
  • For each of your Rails projects, do “cap -A .”, keeping your
    existing deploy.rb
  • For each of your Rails projects, remove lib/tasks/switchtower.rake

Enjoy!

  • Jamis

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 12:08:51PM -0700, Jamis B. wrote:

Version 1.1 introduces a few changes:

  • Renamed! Due to the trademark infringement debacle of last week, we
    had to change the name. Moving forward it will be known as Capistrano.

Why “Capistrano”? Does this mean something? If not, it seems
needlessly confusing.


- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ Adam Fields (weblog) - - entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day ] … Blog
[ Adam Fields Resume ]… Experience
[ Adam Fields | Flickr ] … Photos
[ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ]…Wiki

Adam F. wrote:

http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/book/17

Version 1.1 introduces a few changes:

  • Renamed! Due to the trademark infringement debacle of last week, we
    had to change the name. Moving forward it will be known as Capistrano.

Why “Capistrano”? Does this mean something? If not, it seems
needlessly confusing.

He thought of it while swallowing some San Juan tequila.

Thanks, I’m here all week.

Dan

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 12:26:15PM -0700, Daniel B. wrote:

Why “Capistrano”? Does this mean something? If not, it seems
needlessly confusing.

He thought of it while swallowing some San Juan tequila.

Thanks, I’m here all week.

I think someone needs to reread page 121 of Getting Real.


- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ Adam Fields (weblog) - - entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day ] … Blog
[ Adam Fields Resume ]… Experience
[ Adam Fields | Flickr ] … Photos
[ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ]…Wiki

On Mar 6, 2006, at 2:17 PM, Adam F. wrote:

http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/book/17


- Adam

http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/03/06/switchtower-renamed

Why would this be confusing? Did switchtower really hold all that
much meaning as to the purpose of the software?

-Derrick

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 02:32:34PM -0500, Derrick S. wrote:

http://jamis.jamisbuck.org/articles/2006/03/06/switchtower-renamed

Why would this be confusing? Did switchtower really hold all that
much meaning as to the purpose of the software?

Um. Yes.

A switch tower is an actual thing that controls where the trains go,
that prevents the trains from crashing into each other.

That seems like a highly descriptive metaphor. Capistrano is
meaningless in this context.


- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ Adam Fields (weblog) - - entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day ] … Blog
[ Adam Fields Resume ]… Experience
[ Adam Fields | Flickr ] … Photos
[ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ]…Wiki

On Mar 6, 2006, at 2:43 PM, Adam F. wrote:

That seems like a highly descriptive metaphor. Capistrano is
meaningless in this context.


- Adam

And a macintosh is a type of apple. Aside from the time Steve Jobs
spent in Asia, it seems meaningless to name a computer company after
this. Yet it has been wildly successful. I don’t know, I guess I
just don’t see what the big deal is.

-Derrick

Nice…

I thought you may have thought it up during the last “Full Moon”…

http://www.eccentricamerica.com/moon.htm

Bwaaaahahahhahahahah!

/cam

On Mar 6, 2006, at 11:26 AM, Daniel B. wrote:

Adam F. wrote:

http://manuals.rubyonrails.org/read/book/17

Version 1.1 introduces a few changes:

  • Renamed! Due to the trademark infringement debacle of last
    week, we > had to change the name. Moving forward it will be known
    as Capistrano.
    Why “Capistrano”? Does this mean something? If not, it seems
    needlessly confusing.

He thought of it while swallowing some San Juan tequila.

Thanks, I’m here all week.

Dan


Rails mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

On Mar 6, 2006, at 12:33 PM, Adam F. wrote:

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 12:26:15PM -0700, Daniel B. wrote:

Why “Capistrano”? Does this mean something? If not, it seems
needlessly confusing.

He thought of it while swallowing some San Juan tequila.

Thanks, I’m here all week.

I think someone needs to reread page 121 of Getting Real.

I think someone needs to understand the context of page 121 is data
that you put into your app, not the name of your app.

  • Jamis

On Mar 6, 2006, at 12:57 PM, Derrick S. wrote:

after this. Yet it has been wildly successful. I don’t know, I
guess I just don’t see what the big deal is.

Thank-you, Derrick. That’s exactly it.

  • Jamis

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 02:57:41PM -0500, Derrick S. wrote:
[…]

And a macintosh is a type of apple. Aside from the time Steve Jobs
spent in Asia, it seems meaningless to name a computer company after
this. Yet it has been wildly successful. I don’t know, I guess I
just don’t see what the big deal is.

And a “Lisa” is not a kind of apple, and look where that went.

It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I think that
names at least try to have some relation to their purpose. Names for
products should have some reason why they’re better than other words
for that product, and Capistrano, while not bad, is simply no better
than anything else. Why not “Larry”, then? It’s at least short and
easy to remember.


- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ Adam Fields (weblog) - - entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day ] … Blog
[ Adam Fields Resume ]… Experience
[ Adam Fields | Flickr ] … Photos
[ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ]…Wiki

On Mar 6, 2006, at 1:11 PM, Adam F. wrote:

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 01:02:03PM -0700, Jamis B. wrote:
[…]

I think someone needs to reread page 121 of Getting Real.

I think someone needs to understand the context of page 121 is data
that you put into your app, not the name of your app.

I’m sorry - were we not supposed to extrapolate from specific examples
to general principles?

Sure, that’s always a good thing. But there is also a difference
between extrapolating and putting words in people’s mouths. I
understand you don’t like the name, Adam. You are entitled that
opinion, and I’m sorry we’ve disappointed you. I hope you can
appreciate our position, though, and understand that many others do
like the name. Myself, I’ve actually grown to like it more than
SwitchTower (which, frankly, didn’t really describe what the product
did either–if someone had said “there’s this program called
SwitchTower” to you, would you have had any idea what it did before
they told you?).

  • Jamis

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 01:02:03PM -0700, Jamis B. wrote:
[…]

I think someone needs to reread page 121 of Getting Real.

I think someone needs to understand the context of page 121 is data
that you put into your app, not the name of your app.

I’m sorry - were we not supposed to extrapolate from specific examples
to general principles?


- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ Adam Fields (weblog) - - entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day ] … Blog
[ Adam Fields Resume ]… Experience
[ Adam Fields | Flickr ] … Photos
[ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ]…Wiki

FYI the gem uninstall does not remove /usr/local/bin/switchtower

no biggy :slight_smile:

On 6 Mar 2006, at 19:57, Derrick S. wrote:

And a macintosh is a type of apple. Aside from the time Steve Jobs
spent in Asia, it seems meaningless to name a computer company
after this. Yet it has been wildly successful. I don’t know, I
guess I just don’t see what the big deal is.

For what it’s worth, the name Apple (as opposed to Macintosh) has a
very specific meaning, very closely related to the history of
computing. It is a eulogy to Alan Turing, and is intended as a sign
of respect to the modern father of computing who died quite close to
where I type this, after being persecuted for something that is no
longer a crime here:

Alan_Turing#Prosecution_for_homosexuality_and_Turing.27s_death

Now - if you didn’t know before - you know why the Apple logo has a
bite taken out of it. Think about that the next time you look at it.
It perhaps puts a slightly different angle on those people who have
it tattooed on their arms as well I suppose…

Anyway, I don’t care about the name of software I use as long as:

a) I can remember it
b) I can spell it first time when I type it into Google trying to
debug errors
c) It’s unique enough for it to show up in Google on the first page
at least

Apart from c) which will no doubt be fixed when we all go blog this,
I see no problem.


Paul R.

I upgraded as suggested…
5905 sudo gem uninstall switchtower
5906 sudo gem install capistrano
5917 sudo gem update rake

then did…

cap -A .
exists config
overwrite config/deploy.rb? [Ynaq] n
skip config/deploy.rb
exists lib/tasks
create lib/tasks/capistrano.rake

rm lib/tasks/switchtower.rake

Then when I try this…

rake remote_exec ACTION=disable_web
(in …)
rake aborted!
Don’t know how to build task ‘remote_exec’

(See full trace by running task with --trace)

Did I screw up?

On Mon, Mar 06, 2006 at 01:35:59PM -0700, Jamis B. wrote:
[…]

Sure, that’s always a good thing. But there is also a difference
between extrapolating and putting words in people’s mouths. I
understand you don’t like the name, Adam. You are entitled that
opinion, and I’m sorry we’ve disappointed you. I hope you can
appreciate our position, though, and understand that many others do
like the name. Myself, I’ve actually grown to like it more than
SwitchTower (which, frankly, didn’t really describe what the product
did either–if someone had said “there’s this program called
SwitchTower” to you, would you have had any idea what it did before
they told you?).

Look - we’re just sort of arguing for the sake of arguing here. At the
end of the day, does it really matter? Probably not.

However, I stand by my earlier statement - I think product names
should stand out as something better than all of the other possible
words that could be tied to the product.

Switchtower, while maybe not evident without comment, does click
immediately when you explain it. It’s evocative of its function. A
switch tower is a real analogue with a real meaning. I think you’ve
given something up by settling on a name that doesn’t have the same
import. The only explanation that goes with Capistrano (and it’s
telling that I had to look up at the subject line to even remember
what that word was again) is “uh, we couldn’t find anything better”.

Names matter. Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da… all
good choices! Would these have been as successful if they’d been
called “Paris”, “London”, “Sacramento”, “Milan”, and “New York”?
Those are all perfectly nice names too.


- Adam

** Expert Technical Project and Business Management
**** System Performance Analysis and Architecture
****** [ http://www.adamfields.com ]

[ Adam Fields (weblog) - - entertaining hundreds of millions of eyeball atoms every day ] … Blog
[ Adam Fields Resume ]… Experience
[ Adam Fields | Flickr ] … Photos
[ http://www.aquicki.com/wiki ]…Wiki

Not to be contradictory but…

On 3/6/06, Paul R. [email protected] wrote:

For what it’s worth, the name Apple (as opposed to Macintosh) has a
very specific meaning, very closely related to the history of
computing. It is a eulogy to Alan Turing, and is intended as a sign
of respect to the modern father of computing who died quite close to
where I type this, after being persecuted for something that is no
longer a crime here:

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alan_Turing#Prosecution_for_homosexuality_and_Turing.27s_death

This article refutes that theory. So do nearly all of the official and
unofficial Apple / Jobs biographies that mention the event that I’ve
come across.

Now - if you didn’t know before - you know why the Apple logo has a
bite taken out of it. Think about that the next time you look at it.
It perhaps puts a slightly different angle on those people who have
it tattooed on their arms as well I suppose…

Take a look at that photo - the bite in the apple comes from the old
version of the logo where the lower case ‘a’ partially intersected
with the apple image.

-Pawel

Never mind found it…

rake remote:exec ACTION=disable_web

guess the docs need updating :slight_smile:

On Mar 6, 2006, at 3:51 PM, Adam F. wrote:

The only explanation that goes with Capistrano (and it’s
telling that I had to look up at the subject line to even remember
what that word was again) is “uh, we couldn’t find anything better”.

Actually, Capistrano is a delicious italian lunchmeat. The name fit’s
perfectly with Jamis’ deployment tool; both are lean and delicious,
well deserving of some fine cheese and a french roll.