Using capistrano to deploy from different git branches

Question

I am using capistrano to deploy a RoR application. The codebase is in a git repository, and branching is widely used in development. Capistrano uses deploy.rb f

Answer 1

This solution should work with all versions of Capistrano.

def branch_name(default_branch)
  branch = ENV.fetch('BRANCH', default_branch)

  if branch == '.'
    # current branch
    `git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`.chomp
  else
    branch
  end
end

set :branch, branch_name('master')

Usage:

BRANCH=. cap [staging] deploy
# => deploy current branch

BRANCH=master cap [staging] deploy
# => deploy master branch

cap [staging] deploy
# => deploy default branch