Git Deployment
New
Subcommands introduced in 0.12.0
git:initialize <app> # Initialize a git repository for an app
git:report [<app>] [<flag>] # Displays a git report for one or more apps
git:set <app> <key> (<value>) # Set or clear a git property for an app
Git-based deployment has been the traditional method of deploying applications in Dokku. As of v0.12.0, Dokku introduces a few ways to customize the experience of deploying via git push. A Git-based deployment currently supports building applications via:
Usage
Initializing an application
When an application is created via git push, Dokku will create the proper pre-receive hook in order to execute the build pipeline. In certain cases - such as when fronting deploys with the git-http-backend - this may not be correctly created. As an alternative, the git:initialize command can be used to trigger this creation:
In order for the above command to succeed, the application must already exist.
Warning
If the pre-receive hook was customized in any way, this will overwrite that hook with the current defaults for Dokku.
Changing the deploy branch
By default, Dokku will deploy code pushed to the master branch. In order to quickly deploy a different local branch, the following Git command can be used:
# on the local machine
# where `SOME_BRANCH_NAME` is the name of the branch
git push dokku SOME_BRANCH_NAME:master
In 0.12.0, the correct way to change the deploy branch is to use the git:set Dokku command.
# on the Dokku host
# override for all applications
dokku git:set --global deploy-branch SOME_BRANCH_NAME
# override for a specific app
# where `SOME_BRANCH_NAME` is the name of the branch
dokku git:set node-js-app deploy-branch SOME_BRANCH_NAME
Pushing multiple branches can also be supported by creating a receive-branch plugin trigger in a custom plugin.
Configuring the GIT_REV environment variable
New
Introduced in 0.12.0
Application deployments will include a special GIT_REV environment variable containing the current deployment sha being deployed. For rebuilds, this SHA will remain the same.
To configure the name of the GIT_REV environment variable, run the git:set command as follows:
# on the Dokku host
# override for a specific app
dokku git:set node-js-app rev-env-var DOKKU_GIT_REV
This behavior can be disabled entirely on a per-app basis by setting the rev-env-var value to an empty string:
Keeping the .git directory
By default, Dokku will remove the contents of the .git before triggering a build for a given app. This is generally a safe default as shipping the entire source code history of your app in the deployed image artifact is unnecessary as it increases bloat and potentially can leak information if there are any security issues with your app code.
To enable the .git directory, run the git:set command as follows:
# on the Dokku host
# keep the .git directory during builds
dokku git:set node-js-app keep-git-dir true
The default behavior is to delete this directory and it's contents. To revert to the default behavior, the keep-git-dir value can be set to either an empty string or false.