How to create a Capistrano hook but only within the context of another task?

Question

In Capistrano 2 the deploy:cold task looks like this:

namespace :deploy do
  task :cold do
    update
    migrate
    start
  end

  task :migrate do
     ...
  end
end

I would like to create a before hook on migrate:

before('deploy:migrate', createdb)

but have it apply only when running deploy:cold and not on anything else that calls migrate. I do not want to redefine deploy:cold.

"I do not want to redefine deploy:cold" – any reason for that? Adding create_db inside deploy:cold right before migrate would be the most straight-forward solution I can think of. — Stefan
– Stefan, Commented Oct 20 at 9:35

mechnicov · Accepted Answer · 2025-10-19 10:38:21Z

It's idea as some kind of workaround using boolean flag cold_deploy

namespace :deploy do
  task :_mark_cold do
    set :cold_deploy, true
  end
end

before "deploy:cold", "deploy:_mark_cold"

task :createdb_if_cold do
  createdb if fetch(:cold_deploy, false)
end

before "deploy:migrate", "createdb_if_cold"

Running deploy:cold triggers deploy:_mark_cold, which sets cold_deploy as true

When deploy:cold later calls deploy:migrate, the before hook runs createdb_if_cold, sees the flag and runs createdb

Calling deploy:migrate directly (or via other tasks) will not set this flag, so createdb will be skipped

In this case you don't need to redefine deploy:cold task

May be you can redefine the task? Solution will be much cleaner:

namespace :deploy do
  task :cold do
    update
    createdb # just add one line instead of hooks workarounds
    migrate
    start
  end
end

Starscream512 · Accepted Answer · 2025-10-19 14:09:16Z

1

It turns out that you can actually nest hooks like this:

before('deploy:cold') do
  before('deploy:migrate', createdb)
end

which answers my question exactly. But keep in mind that you actually want to hook createdb in a different spot rather than at deploy:migrate.

answered Oct 19 at 14:09

Starscream512

1709 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to create a Capistrano hook but only within the context of another task?

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related