# SwitchTower to skip config/ directory

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 19, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380 "2006-02-19T09:16:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/1 "2006-02-19T09:16:41Z")

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Hello,  
I am trying to figure out how to use switch tower.I have a local copy  
of  
source code and I want to put it on the host.Now I dont want to put  
directories like config/ because the settings on the host and the one on  
my  
machine are different.  
Any way to do this?

Also is svn necessary to use SwitchTower?

Vivek

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/2 "2006-02-19T20:10:01Z")

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On Feb 19, 2006, at 12:13 AM, Vivek K. wrote:

> I am trying to figure out how to use switch tower.I have a local  
> copy of source code and I want to put it on the host.Now I dont  
> want to put directories like config/ because the settings on the  
> host and the one on my machine are different.

Vivek, Rails allows for 3 different configs, development, test and  
production.

Are you saying that you have a need to deploy two “production”  
environments  
for some reason, like staging (final QA) and real live production?

If it’s just development and production, there’s no reason you  
couldn’t use the  
same configs.

That said, if you really need it, I’d recommend committing BOTH  
versions into  
your change management system, and using switchtower to deploy both,  
then  
symlinking or moving the correct versions into place with each  
deployment.

–  
– Tom M.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/3 "2006-02-20T04:44:57Z")

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On 2/20/06, Tom M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Are you saying that you have a need to deploy two “production”  
> environments  
> for some reason, like staging (final QA) and real live production?

No, I need only 1 production environment but which is on the host.On my  
local machine its a development environment.But I see in the recipes  
file  
that it includes the config directory too.Thats what I want to avoid  
because  
things like database.yml are different on the host.

If it’s just development and production, there’s no reason you

> couldn’t use the  
> same configs.
> 
> That said, if you really need it, I’d recommend committing BOTH  
> versions into  
> your change management system, and using switchtower to deploy both,  
> then  
> symlinking or moving the correct versions into place with each  
> deployment.

I think so.but I am wondering if this isnt a common problem which  
everyone  
faces.So that means I need to set up a svn repository on my local  
machine?  
Vivek

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/4 "2006-02-20T07:55:44Z")

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On Feb 19, 2006, at 7:42 PM, Vivek K. wrote:

> Are you saying that you have a need to deploy two “production”  
> environments for some reason, like staging (final QA) and real  
> live production?
> 
> No, I need only 1 production environment but which is on the  
> host.On my local machine its a development environment.But I see in  
> the recipes file that it includes the config directory too.Thats  
> what I want to avoid because things like database.yml are different  
> on the host.

Vivek, I don’t understand.

Rails is designed to handle this without problem.

A single application can have three entirely different  
environments with the default core set of files.

There’s absolutely zero need for trickery in your case.

–  
– Tom M.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/5 "2006-02-20T04:47:58Z")

</div>

Here is a task I just hacked up to use switchtower to deploy to my  
servers by copying a local directory to the servers, rather than have  
the servers use svn. I actually create my local directory using an svn  
export, but you can do whatever you like here, and also exclude whatever  
directories you want. You may have to use the after\_update\_code as I  
have to patch up files for the production version…  
This needs some work to make it “nice” (get rid of hard coded temp names  
etc, and the cleanup doesn’t get run if it fails). YMMV 🙂

desc “fix up database and .htaccess”  
task :after\_update\_code do  
run “cp #{release\_path}/config/database.yml.templ  
#{release\_path}/config/database.yml”  
run “cp #{release\_path}/public/dot.htaccess.deploy  
#{release\_path}/public/.htaccess”  
end

desc \<\<DESC  
Update all servers with the latest release of the source code.  
This is a modified version that copies a local copy to the remote site  
DESC

task :update\_code, :roles =\> [:app, :db, :web] do  
on\_rollback { delete release\_path, :recursive =\> true }

```
#puts "doing my update_code"
temp_dest= "tmp_code"

#puts "...get a local copy of the code into #{temp_dest} from local 

```

svn"  
# but this could also just be your local development folder  
system(“svn export -q #{configuration.repository} #{temp\_dest}”)

```
#puts "...tar the folder"
# you could exclude files here that you don't want on your 

```

production server  
system(“tar -C #{temp\_dest} -c -z -f code\_update.tar.gz .”)

```
#puts "...Sending tar file to remote server"
put(File.read("code_update.tar.gz"), "code_update.tar.gz")

#puts "...detar code on server"
run <<-CMD
    mkdir -p #{release_path} &&
    tar -C #{release_path} -x -z -f code_update.tar.gz &&
    rm -rf code_update.tar.gz &&
    rm -rf #{release_path}/log #{release_path}/public/system &&
    ln -nfs #{shared_path}/log #{release_path}/log &&
    ln -nfs #{shared_path}/system #{release_path}/public/system
CMD

#puts "...cleanup"
system("rm -rf #{temp_dest} code_update.tar.gz")

```

end

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 9:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/6 "2006-02-20T09:35:12Z")

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Vivek K. wrote:

> ```
> Vivek, Rails allows for 3 different configs, development, test and
> 
> ```
> 
> avoid because things like database.yml are different on the host.  
> Maybe there’s a smarter way to do it, but I have just removed  
> database.yml from my SVN repository. I now do this manually, but I guess  
> you can setup a deployment task that copies the existing database.yml to  
> a temp directory, checks out the latest version from SVN and then copies  
> the version from temp back into the config directory.

Jeroen

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 8:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/7 "2006-02-20T08:28:50Z")

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On Feb 19, 2006, at 10:54 PM, Tom M. wrote:

> > are different on the host.
> 
> Vivek, I don’t understand.
> 
> Rails is designed to handle this without problem.
> 
> A single application can have three entirely different  
> environments with the default core set of files.
> 
> There’s absolutely zero need for trickery in your case.

Here’s a URL that explains why there’s zero need:

[http://glu.ttono.us/articles/2005/09/05/environments-in-rails-0-13-1](http://glu.ttono.us/articles/2005/09/05/environments-in-rails-0-13-1)

–  
– Tom M.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 7:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/8 "2006-02-21T07:12:38Z")

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On Feb 20, 2006, at 7:38 PM, Vivek K. wrote:

> The only hitch is that I run script/console on my host and that  
> needs a devp environment.

No, that’s not a hitch at all!

script/console production

I do it all the time.

–  
– Tom M.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/77aa72/32.png) [@vivek](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/vivek)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/switchtower-to-skip-config-directory/70380/9 "2006-02-21T04:40:06Z")

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On 2/20/06, Tom M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > > host.On my local machine its a development environment.But I see
> > 
> > There’s absolutely zero need for trickery in your case.
> 
> Here’s a URL that explains why there’s zero need:
> 
> [http://glu.ttono.us/articles/2005/09/05/environments-in-rails-0-13-1](http://glu.ttono.us/articles/2005/09/05/environments-in-rails-0-13-1)

Hi,  
Ok I get it now…you suggest that I use the development mode settings  
on my  
local m/c and the the production mode on the server.Both can be in the  
same  
yml file and can be interchanged between server and local m/c. The only  
hitch is that I run script/console on my host and that needs a devp  
environment.  
Vivek