Deploying application updates
with Passenger in Apache mode

In the previous step, you deployed an application to your production server for the first time. But what do you do when you have updated your app, and need to deploy updates? You will learn that on this page.

1 Transferring latest code

1.1 Login to the server as the application's user

Login to your server with SSH:

local-computer$ ssh -i your_ec2_key.pem myappuser@yourserver.com

Replace myappuser with name of the application's OS user account.

1.2 Pull latest code from Git

Go to your application's code directory on the server, then use Git to pull the latest code:

$ cd /var/www/myapp/code
$ git pull

2 Prepare application

2.1 Switch to the appropriate Ruby interpreter

If you have multiple Ruby interpreters on your system, then you must ensure that your shell has activated the same Ruby interpreter that you used when you first deployed your app.

For example, if you are using RVM to manage Ruby interpreters, run the following (assuming your app is supposed to use Ruby 2.3.3).

$ rvm use ruby-2.3.3

2.2 Install app dependencies

Your application's gem dependencies may have changed, so we should install any updated gem dependencies. Run:

$ bundle install --deployment --without development test

2.3 Compile Rails assets and run database migrations

If your app is a Rails app, then you need to compile the latest Rails assets and run any database migrations. If your app is not a Rails app, please skip to the next step.

$ bundle exec rake assets:precompile db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

3 Restart application

Passenger may still be serving an old instance of your application. Now that all application updates have been prepared, tell Passenger to restart your application so that the updates take effect.

$ passenger-config restart-app $(pwd)

Next step