Configuration Parameters

Available Configuration Parameter

This is a probably incomplete list of all configuration parameters for Webistrano and Capistrano.

Capistrano variables can be set like so:

set :name, 'value'

To see a listing of specific Capistrano variables consult the Capistrano Variables page.

In Webistrano you create a new configuration parameter on the project or stage.

The most important parameters are the following:

Name	Default	Optional?	Description
application		no	Name of application, referenced by other variables
deploy_to	“/u/apps/#{application}”	yes	Absolute path to deployment base
deploy_via	:checkout	yes	Deployment strategy to use, a :checkout will do a full SCM checkout, while a :copy will checkout locally, then tar and gzip the copy and sftp it to the remote servers. Allowed values are :checkout, :export, :copy and :remote_cache. See also the copy_strategy and copy_compression parameter
repository		no	SCM path for project, e.g. svn+ssh://svn.host.com/project
password		no	SSH Password for user
user	local UNIX user	yes	Username for SSH login on remote hosts
scm_password	password	yes	SCM password for scm_user
scm_username	user	yes	Username for SCM
use_sudo	true	yes	Whether to use sudo for remote commands
runner	app	yes	Remote User sudo to if use_sudo is true
scm	:subversion	yes	SCM class to use, allowed: :subversion, :cvs, :bzr, :darcs, :mercurial, :perforce, :none
copy_strategy	:checkout	yes	If you use deploy_via with :copy, this defines how the local files are created. :checkout or :export allowed.
branch	HEAD	yes	Git branch, tag or SHA1 to deploy
remote	origin	yes	Git: Name of remote tracking repository. This option is intended for use with the :remote_cache strategy in a distributed git environment

For further tuning:

Name	Default	Optional?	Description
copy_compression	:gzip	yes	Compression method for copying to the SCM file to the remote servers Allowed: :gzip, :gz, :bzip2, :bz2, :zip
repository_cache	cached-copy	yes	Name of directory under shared_path that will be used for :remote_cache SCM strategy
copy_remote_dir	/tmp	yes	Name of directory that the :copy SCM strategy will use on the remote host for temp. unpacking of project
copy_dir	Dir.tmpdir	yes	Name of directory that the :copy SCM strategy will use on the local host for temp. packing of project
rails_env	production	yes	RAILS_ENV, used by migrations. For the RAILS_ENV of the application server set it either in your our mongrel.conf or in your spin script if you use FastCGI
rake	rake	yes	Name and path of Rake program
sudo	sudo	yes	Name and path of sudo program
scm_command		yes	Dependent of SCM strategie, e.g. ‘svn’ for subversion
scm_verbose	false	yes	If set to true the output the the SCM command will be logged
scm_passphrase		yes	Git: passphrase for the user’s key
scm_prefer_prompt	false	yes	By default Capistrano will pass the SCM password as a command line argument (—password XXXX) to subversion. If set to true Capistrano will wait for subversion to prompt for the password and then pass it.
scm_auth_cache	false	yes	If set to true subversion will cache the authentication (so no —no-auth-cache is passed).
migrate_env	rails_env	yes	Additional Environment variables for rake db:migrate can be set here. The migraion environment itself is set through rails_env.
migrate_target	:latest	yes	VERSION for db:migrate by default the lastest
gem_command	gem	yes	Name and path of gem program
keep_releases	5	yes	How many releases to keep after deploy:cleanup is run
gateway		yes	Name of SSH gateway
admin_runner	root	yes	User to sudo to for deploy:setup and deploy:cleanup
normalize_asset_timestamps	true	yes	Set to false to disable asset timestamping with touch
default_shell	/bin/bash	yes	default shell for tasks
shell	/bin/bash	yes	shell for tasks
git_enable_submodules	false	yes	will init and update git submodules
git_shallow_clone	false	yes	Git: Set to ‘1’ for faster git cloning. This will set the ‘—depth’ flag using the depth specified. This cannot be used together with the :remote_cache strategy.

Webistrano specific:

Name	Default	Optional?	Description
mongrel_config		no for Mongrel projects	Absolute path to mongrel_cluster configuration file
mod_rails_restart_file		no for mod_rails projects	Absolut path to restart.txt
apache_init_script		no for mod_rails projects	Absolut path to Apache2.2 init script, e.g. /etc/init.d/apache22
ssh_port		yes	Global setting of the SSH port of all remote hosts. In pure Capistrano this is set through ssh_options[:port]
ssh_keys		yes	List of paths to SSH key ids, in pure Capistrano this is set through ssh_options[:keys]. Make sure to also have the public key next to the private key. If ssh_keys is set to /my/path/id_rsa then there should be a /my/path/id_rsa.pub file accessible to the user running Webistrano.
webistrano_stage		yes	Access to the current stage that you’re deploying. Useful if you have stage-specific configs that you need to symlink against.