Capistrano deploy strategy that supports git submodules (requires Capistrano v3.1.0 or later)

submodule_strategy.rb

# this include won't work for some reason:
# include Capistrano::Git::DefaultStrategy

module SubmoduleStrategy

  # check for a .git directory
  def test
    test! " [ -d #{repo_path}/.git ] "
  end

  # same as in Capistrano::Git::DefaultStrategy
  def check
    test! :git, :'ls-remote', repo_url
  end

  def clone
    git :clone, '-b', fetch(:branch), '--recursive', repo_url, repo_path
  end

  # same as in Capistrano::Git::DefaultStrategy
  def update
    git :remote, :update
  end

  # put the working tree in a release-branch,
  # make sure the submodules are up-to-date
  # and copy everything to the release path
  def release
    release_branch = fetch(:release_branch, File.basename(release_path))
    git :checkout, '-b', release_branch, fetch(:remote_branch, "origin/#{fetch(:branch)}")
    git :submodule, :update, '--init'
    context.execute "rsync -ar --exclude=.git\* #{repo_path}/ #{release_path}"
  end

end

First, the include needs to be inside the module definition. Second, you might need to require 'capistrano/git'.

How to use this?

I had to use "-B" in git :checkout as I kept running into an error saying the branch already existed, but I haven't been able to track down where that problem originates.

Also, I'm curious whether or not the

git :submodule, :update, "--init"

is necessary in release given that we're doing git clone --recursive in clone.

I guess the branch must be coming from fetch(:branch) in clone. It's working now so I'm probably not going to dig deeper.

I forked this, fixed a couple bugs and added some basic documentation feel free to merge it if you want.

@ngottlieb: If you're requiring 'capistrano/git', you're causing the git rake tasks to be loaded twice. Rake appends new definitions on to the old ones rather than replacing them, so if you load the tasks twice, everything in them gets run twice.