git-deploy-node

Deploy a node app using git for continuous deployment.

Introduction

We will setup a remote repository just for deployments on the production server.

When you are finished, you will be able to do continuous deployment using the following command (from your local machine):

git push production master

Setup production server

ssh example.com

This is where you will deploy to

mkdir -p ~/deploy/example.com

This is where the post-receive hook will export production code to (and served from by nginx)

mkdir -p ~/www/versions

This is where logs will go:

mkdir -p ~/log

Setup deploy branch

cd ~/deploy/example.com
git init --bare

Copy post-receive hook into repo

cp ~/projects/git-deploy-node/post-receive ~/deploy/example.com/hooks/

Modify post-receive as needed. This is your build process.

npm install
NODE_ENV=production grunt deploy

Setup local dev machine (laptop)

Add a remote named 'prod' to deploy to from local working copy (this is where you will deploy from).

git remote add production ssh://example.com/home/user/deploy/example.com

List remotes

git remote -v

Deploy master branch to production

git push production master

Tips

You can repeat this process for 'stage' and 'test' environments as well. I usually use a separate sub-domain like 'test.example.com' for a new environment.

You can add a remote called 'test' instead of 'prod':

git remote add test ssh://example.com/home/user/deploy/test.example.com

...and then deploy with:

git push test master

Its a good idea to tag your release with the following command (although I always deploy master to environments, as the post-receive hook only supports master branch).

git tag v0.0.1

Installing node

Mac:

brew install node

From source: http://nodejs.org/download/

For local installations where you do not have root:

mkdir -p $HOME/opt/node

Download latest node source code and unpack, then build:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/opt/node
make
make install

Other platforms (Linux, Windows):

Follow the instructions from Joyent: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Installing-Node.js-via-package-manager