Question

I started developing my Rails app for Windows (I know, bad idea). I now want to use Linux in deploying the application.

The question:

How do I port my application in Windows using MySQL to Ubuntu? I am not an Ubuntu savvy person so I need some help doing this. I have already installed Ubuntu with Apache and MySQL. From my research, most people are suggesting using Phusion’s Passenger in running Rails on Apache.

Answer 1

I used to develop on Windows and deploy on Open Solaris. There was only one real gotcha I encountered, and it involved opening/reading/writing files on the native operating system. If you read/write files on the native OS, let me know and I’ll give you the details.

Other than that, your actual rails application code shouldn’t have to change.

As far as Phusion Passenger, that’s a good choice, but it’s not related to developing on Windows/deploying on Unix. Passenger just makes deployment easier. Passenger will introspect the app it’s ask to deploy, and figure out configuration stuff you’d normally have to do manually. It eliminates the need to learn a lot about Apache configuration.

It does more than that, but just think of Passenger as an intelligent intermediary, that knows Rails, and knows Apache, and does a lot of the grunt work involved to ensure your Rails app runs well in production.

When you say ‘not Ubuntu savvy’ does that mean not ‘Unix savvy’?

I’m ‘Solaris’ savvy, but I’ve honestly never done anything on a Linux distro.

So if you’re a Windows guy, new to Unix, then I think you just have to keep your fingers crossed, and hope that your hosting provider has got all the necessary support so you can just say ‘install apache with passenger’, then you just have to tell your installation, ‘OK, Apache/Passenger’, here is my Rails app, make it run!

Hope that makes sense!