Installing a Gem on Scalingo from a Private GitHub Repo

private_gem_on_scalingo.md

Installing a Gem on Scalingo from a Private GitHub Repo

Sometimes you want to use a gem on Scalingo that is in a private repository on GitHub.

Using git over http you can authenticate to GitHub using basic authentication. However, we don't want to embed usernames and passwords in Gemfiles. Instead, we can use authentication tokens.

1. Get an OAuth Token from GitHub

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First you will need to get an OAuth Token from GitHub using your own username and "note"

$ curl -u 'masonforest' -d '{"scopes":["repo"],"note":"Ventana Example App"}' https://api.github.com/authorizations

2. Authenticate bundler to GitHub via OAuth Token

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Add this line to your Gemfile replacing "your_token" with the token you got from step 1. In this example we are installing the 'ventana' gem:

gem 'ventana', git: "https://your_token:x-oauth-basic@github.com/thoughtbot/ventana.git"

EXPERIMENTAL ALTERNATIVE: Storing the OAuth token in an environment variable (more secure)

For additional security you can store your OAuth token in an environment variable. This way your token is not included in your codebase which is insecure.

Change the line in your Gemfile to

gem 'ventana', git: "https://#{ENV['GITHUB_TOKEN']}:x-oauth-basic@github.com/thoughtbot/ventana.git"

Then set the your access token locally using the token you got from above:

$ export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token

Now bundle and if everything works locally you are ready to deploy to Scalingo!

Finally add the GITHUB_TOKEN to your Scalingo environment

$ scalingo env-set GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token

And deploy

$ git push scalingo master

You now have a private gem installed on Scalingo!