Capistrano multistage deployment configuration. This example is deployed from the 'dev' branch.

deploy.rb

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
#   Copyright (c) 2011, Michael de Silva <michael@mwdesilva.com>
#   Blog: http://www.bsodmike.com ~ Twitter: @bsodmike 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
set :stages, %w(production)
set :default_stage, "production"  	# this is not ideal
									                  # it should be 'staging' by default
require 'capistrano/ext/multistage' # gem install capistrano-ext

set :application, "app.local"

# git source control
set :scm, :git
set :repository,  "ssh://git@github.com/app-repo.git"
# best define branch in appropriate env file.
# set :branch, 'master'				# default branch for deployment
set :use_sudo, false
set :deploy_to, "/home/appuser/sites/#{application}"
#set :deploy_via, :remote_cache		# prevent each deploy doing a full
                                  # repository clone for each deploy.
set :deploy_env, 'production'
set :scm_verbose, true

# login details
set :user, "appuser"
ssh_options[:forward_agent] = true
default_run_options[:pty] = true

server "linode.com", :app, :web, :db, :primary => true

# role :web, "your web-server here"	# Your HTTP server, Apache/etc
# role :app, "your app-server here"
# role :db,  "your primary db-server here", :primary => true
# 									# This is where Rails migrations will run
# role :db,  "your slave db-server here"

task :uname do
  run "uname -a"
end

# Default config for 'cap deploy:restart'.  This prevents using the
# script/reaper helper as per https://gist.github.com/912747

# If you are using Passenger mod_rails uncomment this:
# if you're still using the script/reapear helper you will need
# these http://github.com/rails/irs_process_scripts
namespace :deploy do
  task :start do ; end
  task :stop do ; end
  task :restart, :roles => :app, :except => { :no_release => true } do
    run "#{try_sudo} touch #{File.join(current_path,'tmp','restart.txt')}"
  end
end

Gemfile

# Deploy with Capistrano
gem 'capistrano'
gem 'capistrano-ext'

production.rb

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
#   Copyright (c) 2011, Michael de Silva <michael@mwdesilva.com>
#   Blog: http://www.bsodmike.com ~ Twitter: @bsodmike 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
set :branch, 'dev'				# branch for deployment

# If you are using Passenger mod_rails uncomment this:
# if you're still using the script/reapear helper you will need
# these http://github.com/rails/irs_process_scripts
namespace :deploy do
  task :start do ; end
  task :stop do ; end
  task :restart, :roles => :app, :except => { :no_release => true } do
    run "#{try_sudo} touch #{File.join(current_path,'tmp','restart.txt')}"
  end
end

namespace :config do
  desc "Symlink the database config file from shared directory to current release directory."
  task :symlink_database_yml, :roles => :app do
    run "ln -nsf #{shared_path}/config/database.yml #{release_path}/config/database.yml"
  end
  after 'deploy:update_code' , 'config:symlink_database_yml'
  # 'deploy:update_code' takes place before 'deploy:restart' 
  # after "deploy", 'config:symlink_database_yml'
end