Capistrano::FasterAssets

This gem speeds up asset compilation by skipping the assets:precompile task if none of the assets were changed since last release.

Works only with Capistrano 3+.

Installation

Add this to Gemfile:

group :development do
  gem 'capistrano', '~> 3.1'
  gem 'capistrano-rails', '~> 1.1'
  gem 'capistrano-faster-assets', '~> 1.0'
end

And then:

$ bundle install

Setup and usage

Add this line to Capfile, after require 'capistrano/rails/assets'

require 'capistrano/faster_assets'

Configure your asset depedencies in deploy.rb if you need to check additional paths (e.g. if you have some assets in YOUR_APP/engines/YOUR_ENGINE/app/assets). Default paths are:

set :assets_dependencies, %w(app/assets lib/assets vendor/assets Gemfile.lock config/routes.rb)

Warning

Please keep in mind, that if you use ERB in your assets, you might run into cases where Capistrano won't recompile assets when needed. For instance, let's say you have a CoffeeScript file like this:

text = <%= helper.get_text %>

The assets might not get recompiled, even if they have to, as this gem only checks if the asset file has changed (which is probably the only safe/fast way to do this).

More Capistrano automation?

If you'd like to streamline your Capistrano deploys, you might want to check these zero-configuration, plug-n-play plugins:

• capistrano-unicorn-nginx
  no-configuration unicorn and nginx setup with sensible defaults
• capistrano-postgresql
  plugin that automates postgresql configuration and setup
• capistrano-rbenv-install
  would you like Capistrano to install rubies for you?
• capistrano-safe-deploy-to
  if you're annoyed that Capistrano does not create a deployment path for the app on the server (default /var/www/myapp), this is what you need!

Bug reports and pull requests

...are very welcome!

Thanks

@athal7 - for the original idea and implementation. See https://coderwall.com/p/aridag for more details