Symfony app deployment: shared files

[plashenkov]

Hi!

I have been trying to make a deployment of Symfony app, and I need to add these shared items:

• var/log (folder)
• var/sessions (folder)
• .env.local (file)
• .env.local.php (file)

I get the following error message on deploy:

TASK [ansistrano.deploy : ANSISTRANO | Create softlinks for shared paths and files] *******
failed: {
    "msg": "src file does not exist, use force=yes if you really want to create the link: /path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/var/../../../shared/var/log", 
    "path": "/path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/var/log",
    "src": "../../../shared/var/log"
}
failed: {
    "msg": "src file does not exist, use force=yes if you really want to create the link: /path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/var/../../../shared/var/sessions",
    "path": "/path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/var/sessions",
    "src": "../../../shared/var/sessions"}
}
failed: {
    "msg": "src file does not exist, use force=yes if you really want to create the link: /path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/../../shared/.env.local",
    "path": "/path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/.env.local",
    "src": "../../shared/.env.local"}
}
failed: {
    "msg": "src file does not exist, use force=yes if you really want to create the link: /path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/../../shared/.env.local.php",
    "path": "/path/to/app/releases/20200222010404Z/.env.local.php",
    "src": "../../shared/.env.local.php"}
}

Yes, I have already viewed the similar issue: https://github.com/ansistrano/deploy/issues/275 and have seen the suggestion to create a hook to ensure the var folder exists inside shared.

But the problem is not the var folder doesn't exist inside shared (I can clearly see that var/log and var/sessions folders are inside shared). The problem is the var folder doesn't exist inside {{ ansistrano_release_path.stdout }}.

Okay... I've created a task file (ansistrano_before_symlink_shared_tasks_file) which creates the var folder inside {{ ansistrano_release_path.stdout }} manually. And now it works!

But now files: .env.local and .env.local.php. Especially the last one (.env.local.php): it shouldn't exist — it will be generated later, but now I need just a softlink to it even if it currently doesn't exist. I do not see a clear way to beautifully workaround this.

And the main question: why not just use force: yes here: https://github.com/ansistrano/deploy/blob/master/tasks/symlink-shared.yml#L16? It looks like it would solve all the problems.

[ricardclau]

Using force: yes will cause all sorts of other problems and undesired side effects if something exists there and ansistrano deletes it with a bad configuration

As you point out, you can for instance easily create the var folder with a .gitkeep file in your repo or as part of your before / after setup hooks. As for .env.local files they should be provided with other ways (either provision it or download it from somewhere as part of your provisioning / deployment) or create a symlink as you say

Closing as this is not an ansistrano issue but something specific to Symfony that can be solved easily without causing undesired side effects in other setups

[plashenkov]

Thank you, you are right. Already configured everything and all is great, thank you.