# Trouble with Capistrano and custom symlink from shared direc

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 7, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578 "2006-11-07T10:48:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/1 "2006-11-07T10:48:47Z")

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Hi there

I have a Rails app which requires the client to upload image files to  
a certain directory.

I’m using capistrano to deploy and have created a directory in shared:  
shared/book\_images

I want to symlink this to my\_rails\_app/public/images/book\_images and  
have this task in my deploy.rb file:

desc “Link to the book images directory where uploads go”  
task :after\_symlink do  
run “ln -nfs #{shared\_dir}/book\_images  
#{release\_path}/public/images/book\_images”  
end

However, iif I ssh into the current release, I see that the symlink  
above is incorrect: the symlink to the shared book\_images directory is  
_inside_ of public/images/book\_images

that is, I end up with public/images/book\_images/book\_images

Any clues on how to resolve this would be appreciated.

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**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/2 "2006-11-07T10:49:25Z")

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Richard S. wrote:

> that is, I end up with public/images/book\_images/book\_images
> 
> Any clues on how to resolve this would be appreciated.

Does your release\_path/public already contain an images/book\_images  
directory _before_ you symlink? I seem to remember having a similar  
problem and it was because I already had a public/photos directory in  
subversion and so when I deployed the app and then tried to link  
public/photos to shared/photos, I remember something screwy happening.  
My quicky hack workaround was to delete the real directory before I did  
the symlink, i.e.:

task :after\_update\_code, :roles =\> :app do  
run “rm -rf #{release\_path}/public/photos”  
run “ln -nfs #{shared\_path}/photos #{release\_path}/public/photos”  
end

HTH,

Jamey

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**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/3 "2006-11-07T10:49:58Z")

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On 11/1/06, Jamey C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Does your release\_path/public already contain an images/book\_images  
> directory _before_ you symlink?

Yes and adding ‘rm -rf’ to the task fixes the issue.

Many thanks Jamey.

–  
Richard S.

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**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/4 "2006-11-07T10:51:23Z")

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You could link the book\_images/ backwards to …/…/shared/book\_images  
and keep the link under version control. Just an idea.

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**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/5 "2006-11-07T10:50:18Z")

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Upon closer inspection, the sylink is created fine, but for some  
reason I can’t access the symlinked directory. It’s permissions are  
the same as other directories but if I try and cd into it, I get ‘no  
such file or directory’.

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**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/6 "2006-11-07T10:51:31Z")

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don’t you mean #{shared\_path}

I do the same thing and it looks like this in my config/deploy.rb :

`
desc “Create the #{shared_dir}/files/production|development|test dirs "
+
“if they don’t exists and add symlink to #{shared_dir}/files from
" +
“the current release path”
task :symlink_files_dir, :roles => :app do
[‘production’,‘development’,‘test’].each do |env|
run “mkdir -p #{shared_path}/files/#{env}” unless
File.exists?(”#{shared_path}/files/#{env}”)
end
change owner and permission of files
sudo “chown --recursive #{user}:#{apache_group} #{shared_path}/files”
sudo “chmod --recursive 774 #{shared_path}/files”
run “mv #{release_path}/files #{release_path}/files.local”
run “ln -s #{shared_path}/files #{release_path}/files”
end
desc “Do these tasks after you update the code”
task :after_update_code do
symlink_files_dir
end
`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@indigoi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/indigoi)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/trouble-with-capistrano-and-custom-symlink-from-shared-direc/74578/7 "2006-11-07T11:00:59Z")

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Yeah - all is working fine now. Many thanks.