GitLab Archives - AppCoder

Steps to create a staging environment using GitLab branch

1. Create a new branch for your GitLab project as shown below

1 A. Go to your project page in GitLab and click the option to add New branch

Add new Gitlab branch

1 B. Create a new branch named as dev

2. Create your staging site by copying the files and the necessary databases

3. Follow all the steps mentioned on the article Autodeployment using GitLab Webhooks on your staging sever with only the exception of Step 7 which needs to be modified slightly on the staging server. For the staging server that command would change to

cd some_project.git && GIT_WORK_TREE=/home/USER/public_html git checkout -f dev

1	cd some_project.git && GIT_WORK_TREE=/home/USER/public_html git checkout -f dev

Please note we are checking out only the dev branch on the staging server. So only your changes on the dev branch will be seen on this server.

4. Add the staging webhook.php file also to the list of webhooks on GitLab for Push events as shown below

This completes setting up your staging server to preview your changes on the dev branch before they get merged to the master branch.

Now the question is how do we commit our changes?

Steps to commit your changes

On your local (working) git repository first of all go on to the dev branch before you make any change

git checkout dev

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git checkout dev
Now make changes to the required files and commit your changes. Since you are on dev branch the changes will automatically get committed to the dev branch.

git commit -m "Some message"

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git commit -m "Some message"
Now push your changes to the dev server

git push origin dev

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git push origin dev
Observe the changes on the dev server
Assuming the changes are ok, move on to the master branch

git checkout master

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git checkout master
Merge the dev branch with master

git merge dev

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git merge dev
Push the changes to the production/live server

git push origin master

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git push origin master

Gitlab webhooks

GitLab Webhooks

GitLab provides various Webhooks to perform automated tasks after a certain event. For e.g. Push events Gitlab webhooks will work exactly similar to post-receive hook in GIT. Only thing is it needs a webpage (mostly on your server) which gets executed after a certain commit is made to the GitLab repository. This webpage can perform tasks like updating the local mirror repository and making the corresponding change in the files in your public_html folder. Read more about webhooks in GitLab

Assuming you have a GitLab repository at: git@gitlab.com:username/some_project.git

Steps to follow on your production/live server

SSH to your production/live server
Generate an SSH key for auto deployment to be used by the GitLab server

ssh-keygen -t rsa

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ssh-keygen -t rsa

Name of the key: gitlab_rsa_deploy, keep the passphrase blank
Add the contents of the gitlab_rsa_deploy.pub key to Deyloy Keys section of your Project Settings and Enable it
Create a config file in .ssh folder and add below contents to the file. Add your user key added to GitLab user key settings.

Host gitlab.com Hostname altssh.gitlab.com Port 443 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/YOUR_USER_KEY_NAME_ADDED_TO_GITLAB

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Host gitlab.com
Hostname altssh.gitlab.com
Port 443
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/YOUR_USER_KEY_NAME_ADDED_TO_GITLAB
Create a folder name gitlab preferably outside your public_html folder

mkdir gitlab && cd gitlab

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mkdir gitlab && cd gitlab
Create a mirror repository by cloning your gitlab project

git clone --mirror git@gitlab.com:username/some_project.git

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git clone --mirror git@gitlab.com:username/some_project.git
Set Work Directory

cd some_project.git && GIT_WORK_TREE=/home/USER/public_html git checkout -f

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cd some_project.git && GIT_WORK_TREE=/home/USER/public_html git checkout -f
Perform git fetch once on the mirror repository so that the SSH keys get added to the server

Create the webhook file on your server as webhook.php. Add below contents to the file and save this file inside your public_html folder.

<?php
$repo_dir = '/home/USER/gitlab/some_project.git';
$web_root_dir = '/home/USER/public_html';

// Full path to git binary is required if git is not in your PHP user's path. Otherwise just use 'git'.
$git_bin_path = 'git';

$update = false;

$payload = json_decode($_POST['payload']);

if (empty($payload->commits)){
  $update = true;
} else {
  foreach ($payload->commits as $commit) {
    $branch = $commit->branch;
    if ($branch === 'production' || isset($commit->branches) && in_array('production', $commit->branches)) {
      $update =	true;
      break;
    }
  }
}

if ($update) {
  // Do a git checkout to the web root
  exec('cd ' . $repo_dir . ' && ' . $git_bin_path  . ' fetch');
  exec('cd ' . $repo_dir . ' && GIT_WORK_TREE=' . $web_root_dir . ' ' . $git_bin_path  . ' checkout -f');

  // Log the deployment
  $commit_hash = shell_exec('cd ' . $repo_dir . ' && ' . $git_bin_path  . ' rev-parse --short HEAD');
  file_put_contents('deploy.log', date('m/d/Y h:i:s a') . " Deployed branch: " .  $branch . " Commit: " . $commit_hash . "n", FILE_APPEND);
}
?>

<?php

$repo_dir = '/home/USER/gitlab/some_project.git';

$web_root_dir = '/home/USER/public_html';

// Full path to git binary is required if git is not in your PHP user's path. Otherwise just use 'git'.

$git_bin_path = 'git';

$update = false;

$payload = json_decode($_POST['payload']);

if (empty($payload->commits)){

$update = true;

} else {

foreach ($payload->commits as $commit) {

$branch = $commit->branch;

if ($branch === 'production' || isset($commit->branches) && in_array('production', $commit->branches)) {

$update = true;

break;

}

if ($update) {

// Do a git checkout to the web root

exec('cd ' . $repo_dir . ' && ' . $git_bin_path . ' fetch');

exec('cd ' . $repo_dir . ' && GIT_WORK_TREE=' . $web_root_dir . ' ' . $git_bin_path . ' checkout -f');

// Log the deployment

$commit_hash = shell_exec('cd ' . $repo_dir . ' && ' . $git_bin_path . ' rev-parse --short HEAD');

file_put_contents('deploy.log', date('m/d/Y h:i:s a') . " Deployed branch: " . $branch . " Commit: " . $commit_hash . "n", FILE_APPEND);

}

Add the URL of the webhook.php file to the list of webhooks on GitLab for Push events as shown below
Now just commit some change either through GitLab or through your local repository and check if autodeployment is working

Tag: GitLab

Create staging environment using GitLab

Steps to create a staging environment using GitLab branch

Steps to commit your changes

Autodeployment using GitLab Webhooks

GitLab Webhooks

Steps to follow on your production/live server