Welcome to IST

Below is some basic information for all IST employees.

Creating SSH Keys

IST uses Code@Berkeley to hold its repositories. Code@Berkeley uses public key authentication and key-based SSH login to authenticate users who are able to access these repositories. The public and private keys can be generated on any OS.

Ubuntu

1. Open up a terminal and type in

    $ mkdir ~/.ssh  
    $ chmod 700 ~/.ssh  
    $ ssh-keygen
   

2. You can keep the keys in the selected directory and you can choose to create a passphrase or leave it blank.

3. ls into your .ssh folder and search for your public key. Open up a text editor and copy down the information in the public key.

4. Go to Code@Berkeley. Log in with your CalNet credentials. Go to "Manage SSH Public Keys" and click "New SSH Public Key". Paste your public key information into the text box. Make sure your key name matches the file name of the public key.

Setting Up Ruby

To allow us to be most flexible in using and testing with different versions of Ruby, you will want to use rbenv along with ruby-build. These will allow for installing and changing versions of Ruby without affecting your system's version of Ruby. They are publicly available on GitHub, and we've provided instructions on setting each one up below. Note that we are explicitly avoiding rvm and that rbenv is incompatible with rvm. Things will appear to work until you try to install a gem. The problem is that rvm actually overrides the gem and cd commands with shell functions! Please remove any references to rvm before using rbenv by following the instructions [here] (https://raw.github.com/SixArm/sixarm_unix_shell_scripts/master/rvm-uninstall-danger).

rbenv

This will get you going with the latest version of rbenv and make it easy to fork and contribute any changes back upstream.

1. Check out rbenv into ~/.rbenv.

    $ cd
    $ git clone git://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv.git .rbenv
   

2. Add ~/.rbenv/bin to your $PATH for access to the rbenv command-line utility.

    $ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
   

   Zsh note: Modify your ~/.zshenv file instead of ~/.bash_profile.

   Ubuntu note: Modify your ~/.bashrc file instead of ~/.bash_profile.

3. Add rbenv init to your shell to enable shims and autocompletion.

    $ echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile
   

   Zsh note: Modify your ~/.zshenv file instead of ~/.bash_profile.

   Ubuntu note: Modify your ~/.bashrc file instead of ~/.bash_profile.

4. Restart your shell so the path changes take effect. You can now begin using rbenv.

    $ exec $SHELL
   

5. Since we are using ruby-build, we can simply call an rbenv install command to install new versions of Ruby. To install 1.9.3-p194 for example, do the following once you set up ruby-build (below):

    $ rbenv install 1.9.3-p194
   

6. Rebuild the shim binaries. You should do this any time you install a new Ruby binary (for example, when installing a new Ruby version, or when installing a gem that provides a binary).

    $ rbenv rehash
   

ruby-build

ruby-build provides a simple way to compile and install different versions of Ruby on UNIX-like systems.

To install, simply get a copy of the repo and use the install script

$ git clone git://github.com/sstephenson/ruby-build.git
$ cd ruby-build
$ ./install.sh

This will install ruby-build into /usr/local. If you do not have write permission to /usr/local, you will need to run sudo ./install.sh instead. You can install to a different prefix by setting the PREFIX environment variable.

If you only intend to use ruby-build via rbenv then you can install it locally as a plugin:

$ mkdir -p ~/.rbenv/plugins
$ cd ~/.rbenv/plugins
$ git clone git://github.com/sstephenson/ruby-build.git

Use the above commands if you get the rbenv: no such command 'install' error.

Setting up your Postgres Database from a database.template.yml

When setting up a Rails project from a repository, IST uses a database.template.yml file to outline the database for the project. We don't want to send the original database.yml file since that contains sensitive information such as passwords. To get the project up and running, you need to create a database for the project with the same properties as in the template file. We're going to be using Postgres for this example.

###Set up Postgres on your machine

First, Postgres needs to be installed on your machine so enter the following in the terminal.

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql

This will make a postgres user on your machine, whose password we need to change in order to access the postgres server.

$ sudo su - postgres

to change to the postgres user, then

$ \passwd postgres

to set its password.

###Make your databases

Now with the server set up, we want to make some databases for the Ruby on Rails project. This can be done with command-line or using pgadmin3, a nice application providing a user interface for interacting with your postgres server and its databases. We'll use pgadmin first.

#####pgadmin

To get pgadmin3 on your machine, simply use apt-get

$ apt-get install pgadmin3

Now start up pgadmin. With pgadmin running, click the power-plug button to make a connection to your server and fill out the following fields:

Name: (something like postgres-server, as this is your server for your entire machine)
Host: localhost
Password: (password you made for your postgres user)

Make sure the Username field is 'postgres', and click Ok. It may propmt you about storing your password; you can ignore that.

That should set up a connection to your server. Expand Server Groups and Servers to see your server with the name you entered for your connection. Expand that to see your Database, Tablespaces, and Login Roles. The first thing we want to do is make a new Login Role for the project. Postgres considers Roles like Users, so you'll see that the postgres user is already there. To make a new role, right-click on Login Roles and select New Login Role.... Fill out the Name (something to do with the project), then on the Definition tab, fill out the password for this role (hopefully different from your postgres user). On the Role privileges tab, make sure Can create databse objects is checked. Now click Ok. If you ever need to change the role settings, just right-click the role, and select Properties.

Now we can finally make a new database for our project. Right-click on Databases and select New Database.... Fill out the name to be (project_name)_development, and set the Owner to be the Role you just created. That should be all you need, so click Ok. This database will be for use when developing the Rails app. You'll want to make another database for your project called (project_name)_test for running tests on.

###Connect your Rails project to the databases

Now armed with your new databases, lets finally go into your Ruby on Rails project. Take your database.template.yml file and make a copy called database.yml. This is the file that will actually be used. Edit the file and ensure that database: is the name of the databse you want to use, and that the username: and password: match the owner role you made for the database. Now all you need to do is

$ bundle exec rake db:migrate

and your database should be set up. Running $ rails server should work properly and you can view your Rails app!

Note: Be sure to place database.yml in your version control's ignore file.

#####Peer authentication failed!

When doing the db:migrate, you may get a Peer authentication failed error. First, check that your password is correct and if so, you'll need to make a change to a Postgres file. First,

$ cd /etc/postgresql/(version)/main/

Then edit pg_hba.conf (you'll have to sudo). Look for the lines that reads

# TYPE  DATABASE           USER               ADDRESS               METHOD

# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local    all                all                                      peer

What you want to change is that bottom line, making the method md5

local    all                all                                      md5

That should fix the Peer authentication error.

###Different Rails environment

As noted above, you'll probably have different databases for development and running tests (and maybe production). In order to migrate the database into a different environment, run the following

$ bundle exec rake environment RAILS_ENV=(new_environment) db:migrate

For example, to change to the test environment:

$ bundle exec rake environment RAILS_ENV=test db:migrate