deploytool

deploytool

A small single-binary CLI for deploying Git projects to a Linux server. One command, deploytool deploy <project>, pulls the latest code from your repo, rotates the previous release into a numbered backup, wires in a shared .env, and (optionally) rebuilds and restarts the project with Docker Compose or a Dockerfile.

It is a lightweight, personal-scale alternative to a full CI/CD pipeline: no agents, no YAML pipelines, just a config file and a binary on the server.

How it works

Each project you register lives under root_dir/<project>/ with this layout:

<root_dir>/<project>/
├── current/      the live checkout (freshly cloned on every deploy)
├── backup/       previous releases, rotated into numbered folders (1, 2, 3, ...)
└── shared/       files that persist across deploys, e.g. your real .env

Running a deploy does, in order:

1. Reads the project's entry from .config.
2. Verifies Git access (git ls-remote).
3. Moves the current release into backup/<n+1>/.
4. Clones a fresh copy of the repo into current/.
5. Copies shared/.env into current/.env.
6. If current/ contains a docker-compose.yaml, prompts to run docker compose up -d --build prod-<project>; otherwise, if a Dockerfile is present, prompts to build an image and run it on the project's port.

Requirements

• A Linux server (the build targets linux/amd64)
• Go 1.19+ to build the binary
• git
• docker with the Compose plugin (only needed for the Docker deploy step)

Install

Build the linux/amd64 binary and put it on your PATH. From a clone on the server (or build locally and copy the binary over):

git clone https://github.com/3uba/deploytool
cd deploytool
./build                 # produces ./app/deploytool (linux/amd64)

# install it somewhere on PATH and point DT_PATH at the tool directory
sudo mkdir -p /opt/deploytool
sudo cp app/deploytool /opt/deploytool/
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/opt/deploytool'   >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export DT_PATH=/opt/deploytool'      >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

DT_PATH tells deploytool where it is installed (used by update and uninstall).

Configuration

Projects are stored in a .config file next to the tool. Copy the example and fill it in, or use the interactive deploytool create command.

# .config
root_dir=/home/ubuntu

# one block per project
myapp_user=git-username
myapp_token=ghp_your_access_token
myapp_git_url=github.com/you/myapp.git
myapp_port=8080

root_dir is the base directory under which every project's current/backup/shared tree is created. The per-project fields are the Git credentials used to clone, plus the port used for the Dockerfile deploy path.

Security note: deploytool authenticates to Git by embedding the token in the clone URL (https://user:token@host). That token can be visible in the server's process list while a clone runs, and it is stored in plaintext in .config. Use a scoped, least-privilege deploy token, keep .config readable only by the deploy user (chmod 600 .config), and never commit it (it is in .gitignore).

Usage

deploytool create             # interactively register a new project in .config
deploytool deploy <project>   # deploy that project (alias: d)
deploytool update             # update deploytool itself (git pull in DT_PATH)
deploytool uninstall          # remove deploytool
deploytool nginx              # nginx setup (not implemented yet)

The <project> passed to deploy is the name you gave it in create.

Status

This is a personal deployment helper, built for my own servers. It works for the flow above but is intentionally small. The nginx command is a stub and does nothing yet. Contributions and issues are welcome.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.