This project automates the setup of a development environment for working on Ruby on Rails itself. Use this virtual machine to work on a pull request with everything ready to hack and run the test suites.
Please note this virtual machine is not designed to be used for Rails application development.
Building the virtual machine is this easy:
host $ git clone https://github.com/rails/rails-dev-box.git
host $ cd rails-dev-box
host $ vagrant up
That's it.
If the base box is not present that command fetches it first. The setup itself takes about 3 minutes in my MacBook Air. After the installation has finished, you can access the virtual machine with
host $ vagrant ssh
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686)
...
vagrant@rails-dev-box:~$
Port 3000 in the host computer is forwarded to port 3000 in the virtual machine. Thus, applications running in the virtual machine can be accessed via localhost:3000 in the host computer.
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Git
-
RVM
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Ruby 2.0.0 (binary RVM install)
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Bundler
-
SQLite3, MySQL, and Postgres
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System dependencies for nokogiri, sqlite3, mysql, mysql2, and pg
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Databases and users needed to run the Active Record test suite
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Node.js for the asset pipeline
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Memcached
The recommended workflow is
-
edit in the host computer and
-
test within the virtual machine.
Just clone your Rails fork in the very directory of the Rails development box in the host computer:
host $ ls
README.md Vagrantfile puppet
host $ git clone [email protected]:<your username>/rails.git
Vagrant mounts that very directory as /vagrant within the virtual machine:
vagrant@rails-dev-box:~$ ls /vagrant
puppet rails README.md Vagrantfile
Install gem dependencies in there:
vagrant@rails-dev-box:~$ cd /vagrant/rails
vagrant@rails-dev-box:/vagrant/rails$ bundle
We are ready to go to edit in the host, and test in the virtual machine.
This workflow is convenient because in the host computer you normally have your editor of choice fine-tuned, Git configured, and SSH keys in place.
When done just log out with ^D and suspend the virtual machine
host $ vagrant suspend
then, resume to hack again
host $ vagrant resume
Run
host $ vagrant halt
to shutdown the virtual machine, and
host $ vagrant up
to boot it again.
You can find out the state of a virtual machine anytime by invoking
host $ vagrant status
Finally, to completely wipe the virtual machine from the disk destroying all its contents:
host $ vagrant destroy # DANGER: all is gone
Please check the Vagrant documentation for more information on Vagrant.