Initialize a new GitHub repo to deploy changes to a remote host

This repository provides directions (and, better yet, a quick script) on how to create and configure a new GitHub repository to sync / deploy changes to a remote host.

We leverage markomarkovic/simple-php-git-deploy for the php/git deploy hooks.

Pre-req

You need to have:

1. A HTTPS domain already created on your hosting provider - subdomains ok; the webserver document root for the domain should exist off of the users home directory; the document root can have contents, we will attempt to back them up locally and remotely.

   Example:

   • https://<DOMAIN>/ should load.
   • ~/<DOMAIN> should exist on your remote host. If files already exist in this directory, the install.sh script will back them up on the remote host, and make them part of the initial commit to the GitHub repo.

2. SSH access to your hosting provider

   Example: You should be able to ssh to <DOMAIN>.

3. An empty GitHub repo - the repo name should match the name of the (sub)domain.

   Example: https://github.com/<USERNAME>/<DOMAIN> should exist and be empty.

Quick Script

Change directories to where you want your GitHub repo to be initialized locally, and run the install.sh script found in this directory.

Try to use the script instead of the manual steps below - automation is nice.

Manual Steps

1. Create new git repo on local machine (git init)
2. Copy any existing files from your remote host into the new git repo you just created above
3. Add the submodule php git deploy hooks (git submodule add https://github.com/markomarkovic/simple-php-git-deploy.git deploy-hooks)
4. Create a strong SECRET_ACCESS_TOKEN (sed "s/[^a-zA-Z0-9]//g" <<<$(openssl rand -base64 128) | head -c 65)
5. Create the deploy-hooks/deploy-config.php file (see deploy-config.example.php for full docs) - use the SECRET_ACCESS_TOKEN created above
6. Create reasonable .gitignore and .htaccess files; examples below:

   .gitignore

   .idea/
   VERSION
   **/deploy-config.php
   

   .htaccess

   Options -Indexes
   
   RewriteEngine On
   
   # Force site to redirect to HTTPS instead of HTTP
   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
   
   # Return 404 for certain files/directories
   RedirectMatch 404 /\.git
   RedirectMatch 404 \.gitignore
   RedirectMatch 404 \.gitmodules
   
   RedirectMatch 404 README\.md
   RedirectMatch 404 VERSION
   

7. Add all the files, and push your code (git add ./ && git commit && git push -u origin main)
8. Configure a webhook at https://github.com/<GH_USERNAME>/<DOMAIN>/settings/hooks
   1. Payload URL: https://<DOMAIN>/deploy-hooks/deploy.php?sat=<SECRET ACCESS TOKEN FROM DEPLOY-CONFIG.PHP>
   2. Content Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   3. Secret: EMPTY
   4. SSL verification: Enable SSL Verification
   5. Which events would you like to trigger this webhook?: Just the push event
   6. Active: Check
9. SSH to your remote host, and checkout your repo (use the git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:<GH_USERNAME>/<DOMAIN>.git ~/<DOMAIN>)
10. Copy the deploy-hooks/deploy-config.php you created above over to your remote host directory ~/<DOMAIN>/deploy-hooks/deploy-config.php
11. Create the ~/<DOMAIN>_backups on your remote host
12. Profit.

You should now be able to push commits to this git repo and have your domain automatically pull the changes.