launch – app deployment for node.js

launch is an application deployment framework, essentially a lean set of jake tasks for deploying node apps.

Currently it is tiny, but very extensible.

Installation

launch is for use on projects that have a package.json file in the root to manage their dependencies.

Add launch as a devDependency to your package.json, eg:

"devDependencies" : {
  "launch" : ">=0"
}

And then do

cd /path/to/project && npm install

Since launch is built on top of jake, you will need that too. It's best to install jake globally, so that the binary is in your path, so:

npm install jake -g

The last thing to do is create a Jakefile in your project root. For now, just put the following:

var share = {},
  action = require('launch')(share).action;

To test that launch and jake are installed correctly, do:

jake -T

This should output a list the of namespaced launch tasks.

Usage

You should be familiar with jake

The default set of tasks require a little bit of project metadata. In your package.json, put the following info:

"launchconf" : {
  "remote" : "host-name",
  "remotepath" : "/path/to/apps"
}

Run jake launch:info to make sure you've got this right.

Now you're ready to create some of your own tasks for deployment. Here is an example Jakefile that I currently use:

var share = {}, // Shared info between the
                // Jakefile tasks and the launch tasks
  action = require('launch')(share).action; // Get the launch actions,
                                            // passing in the shared var


/*
 * Run with `jake deploylive`. Depends on `setenvlive` and `restart`
 * which are defined in this file, and `launch:installdeps` which is
 * provided by launch. The task itself is empty, the important things
 * are its dependencies being called in order.
 */
desc('Deploy the current branch to the live environment');
task('deploylive', ['setenvlive', 'launch:symlink', 'restart'], function () {
});

/*
 * Sets the optional enviroment on the shared object
 * to `live`, which is used by a launch task when operating
 * with the remote filesystem. This task depends on the
 * launch task `launch:info` to gather the remote info.
 */
desc('Sets the environment to live');
task('setenvlive', ['launch:info'], function () {
  share.env = 'live';
});


/*
 * A custom task of mine to restart the the site/app
 * (I use upstart). This shows how to execute an arbitrary
 * remote command with launch's `action`s.
 */
desc('Restarts the server given an `env`');
task('restart', function () {

  if (!share.env) {
    action.error('`env` is not set.');
    fail();
  }

  action.remote(share.info.remote,
    'sudo stop site.' + share.info.name + '-' + share.env + ' && '
    + 'sudo start site.' + share.info.name + '-' + share.env, function (exitcode) {
      if (exitcode === 0) {
        action.notice('The site service restarted.');
        action.notice('Check manually to verify that the site is running.')
      } else {
        action.error('Failed to restart site');
        fail();
      }
    });

}, true);

That's it! Enjoy. Oh and here's the obligatory screenshot:

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011 Ben Gourley <[email protected]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.