MIT Libraries Development Rails/Python Box

This repository contains a VagrantFile and support scripts that will configure a local VM suitable for developing Rails and Python applications.

What it installs

• apt packages necessary for typical rails and python development
• rvm (to manage ruby versions)
• a version of ruby and the bundler gem
• a version of python, pipenv, and tox
• the heroku command line interface tool

How to use it

On your local computer

• Install Virtualbox
• Install Vagrant
• Clone this repo locally
• vagrant up in the cloned directory of this repo
  • NOTE: if you don't like the default of src, you can use SYNCED_FOLDER ENV
  • EXAMPLE: SYNCED_FOLDER="~/projects" vagrant up
• git clone the repo you want to work on into src
  • NOTE: if you changed with ENV['SYNCED_FOLDER'] wherever you change it to
  • NOTE: you can sync a directory containing multiple projects instead of having a VM for each.
• vagrant ssh gets you a shell on the rails vm
• Note: do all your development using your preferred tools on your local computer. Do your git work on your local as well.
• vagrant halt when you want to shutdown the vm (vagrant up to bring it back)

On the rails/python VM

• cd /vagrant/src/YOUR_PROJECT gets you to the linked directory
• Rails:
  • bundle install whenever you need to install gems
  • bin/rails test to run tests
• Python:
  • pipenv install to create a virtualenv and install project dependencies
  • tox to run tests (usually, may vary by project)
• heroku local to run a dev server. We use heroku local instead of bin/rails server so we can easily load environment variables by dropping a .env file in src on your local (or /vagrant/src/YOUR_PROJECT in the vm as they are the same thing)

Caveats

This does not use Ansible due to a requirement to work on Windows.

Making Changes

If you end up needing additional packages installed to get gems to work, adding them to the provision.sh will probably make it easier later if it's a fairly common gem.

Multiple Ruby Versions

If you are working on projects that use a different version of ruby than is installed by default, you can:

• rvm install 2.4.2 (replace 2.4.2 with the version you need)
• gem install bundler
• if your projects use .ruby-version files you are now all set and ruby will be switched to the version each project needs automatically

Multiple Python versions

If you are working on projects that use a different version of python than is installed by default, you can:

• update the Vagrantfile with additional python provisioning lines, e.g. config.vm.provision :shell, path: "install-python.sh", args: "3.6" to install Python 3.6
• run vagrant provision from your local computer to install
• if your projects set a Python version in the Pipfile (e.g. [requires] python_version = "3.6") you are now all set and pipenv will switch to the version each project needs automatically