Simple SSH/rsync based continuous deployment of a Nuxt.js static frontend project with GitLab CI/CD

.gitlab-ci.yml

image: node:current

variables:
  # In case you did not set up $SSH_KNOWN_HOSTS variable:
  # SSH_OPTS: '-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null'
  SSH_OPTS: ''
  BASE_DIR: public_html/blog
  KEEP: 5

default:
  before_script:
    - mkdir -p ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh
    - echo "$SSH_KNOWN_HOSTS" > ~/.ssh/known_hosts
    - chmod 644 ~/.ssh/known_hosts
    - chmod 600 ${SSH_KEY}
    - export COMMIT_TIME=$(git show -s --format=%ct $CI_COMMIT_SHA)

cache:
  paths:
    - node_modules

# combined build and deploy step to speed it up
build_deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    # build
    - cp .env.prod .env
    - yarn install
    - yarn generate
    # deploy
    - apt-get update -y && apt-get install -y rsync
    - ssh -i ${SSH_KEY} ${SSH_OPTS} ${SSH_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST} "cd ${BASE_DIR} && test ! -h current || cp -r \$(ls -td */ | grep -v current | head -n1) deploy_tmp"
    - rsync -aHv --delete -e "ssh -i ${SSH_KEY} ${SSH_OPTS}" dist/ ${SSH_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST}:${BASE_DIR}/deploy_tmp
    - ssh -i ${SSH_KEY} ${SSH_OPTS} ${SSH_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST} "cd ${BASE_DIR} && mv deploy_tmp ${COMMIT_TIME} && rm -f current && ln -s ${COMMIT_TIME} current"
    - ssh -i ${SSH_KEY} ${SSH_OPTS} ${SSH_USER}@${DEPLOY_HOST} "cd ${BASE_DIR} && rm -rf \$(ls -dt */ | grep -v current | tail -n +$(($KEEP+1)))"
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"