GitHub Auto Deployer

This is a simple program to perform deploys on web hooks. It has the following redeeming features:

• Single self contained binary - easy to deploy.

• Supports GitHub HMAC authentication to validate incoming requests.

Deploying

• Drop the binary somewhere useful, lets say /usr/local/bin for this guide.

• Decide on how to make sure it stays running. This is platform dependent, but upstart, svrun, systemd, SMF and so on are all valid choices.

• Generate a secret key. This will be used to authenticate requests from GitHub.

• Set configuration through environment variables:

  • GAD_LISTEN_ADDRESS: the address to listen for HTTP requests on

  • GAD_DEPLOY_COMMAND: the command to run when performing deploys

  • GAD_GITHUB_SECRET: the secret generated above, used to authenticate requests from GitHub

• Start it up.

• Configure GitHub.

  • Add a WebHook.

  • Set the "Payload URL" to the address and listen port of the machine to receive the push hooks.

  • Set the "Secret" to the secret generated above.

  • Test it; you can see requests and responses under "Recent Deliveries".

Example

A simple script to correctly start gad might then look like this:

cd /srv/www/my-site-to-deploy
export GAD_LISTEN_ADDRESS=:8876
export GAD_DEPLOY_COMMAND="git pull"
export GAD_GITHUB_SECRET=86486a6c-b488-11e4-9ff9-679075158ddc
exec /usr/local/bin/gad

Note that we cd to the working directory where the deploy command will be run.

This would then correspond to the payload URL http://your-site-address:8876/ and the secret 86486a6c-b488-11e4-9ff9-679075158ddc.

For security reasons, the command is not run through a shell, so wildcards and semicolon separated commands can't be used un GAD_DEPLOY_COMMAND. You you need that, create a shell script for the deploy and set this as the deploy command.