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Envoy Task Runner

Introduction

Laravel Envoy provides a clean, minimal syntax for defining common tasks you run on your remote servers. Using a Blade style syntax, you can easily setup tasks for deployment, Artisan commands, and more. Currently, Envoy only supports the Mac and Linux operating systems.

Installation

First, install Envoy using the Composer global command:

composer global require "laravel/envoy=~1.0"

Make sure to place the ~/.composer/vendor/bin directory in your PATH so the envoy executable is found when you run the envoy command in your terminal.

Updating Envoy

You may also use Composer to keep your Envoy installation up to date:

composer global update

Writing Tasks

All of your Envoy tasks should be defined in an Envoy.blade.php file in the root of your project. Here's an example to get you started:

@servers(['web' => '[email protected]'])
 
@task('foo', ['on' => 'web'])
    ls -la
@endtask

As you can see, an array of @servers is defined at the top of the file, allowing you to reference these servers in the on option of your task declarations. Within your @task declarations, you should place the Bash code that will be run on your server when the task is executed.

Local Tasks

You can define a script to run locally by defining a server reference to the local host:

@servers(['localhost' => '127.0.0.1'])

Bootstrapping

Sometimes, you may need to execute some PHP code before evaluating your Envoy tasks. You may use the @setup directive to declare variables and do general PHP work inside the Envoy file:

@setup
    $now = new DateTime();
 
    $environment = isset($env) ? $env : "testing";
@endsetup

You may also use @include to include any outside PHP files:

@include('vendor/autoload.php')

Confirming Tasks

If you would like to be prompted for confirmation before running a given task on your servers, you may add the confirm directive to your task declaration:

@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web', 'confirm' => true])
    cd site
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate
@endtask

Task Variables

If needed, you may pass variables into the Envoy file using command line switches, allowing you to customize your tasks:

envoy run deploy --branch=master

You may use the options in your tasks via Blade's "echo" syntax:

@servers(['web' => '192.168.1.1'])
 
@task('deploy', ['on' => 'web'])
    cd site
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate
@endtask

Multiple Servers

You may easily run a task across multiple servers. First, add additional servers to your @servers declaration. Each server should be assigned a unique name. Once you have defined your additional servers, simply list the servers in the task declaration's on array:

@servers(['web-1' => '192.168.1.1', 'web-2' => '192.168.1.2'])
 
@task('deploy', ['on' => ['web-1', 'web-2']])
    cd site
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate
@endtask

By default, the task will be executed on each server serially. Meaning, the task will finish running on the first server before proceeding to execute on the next server.

Parallel Execution

If you would like to run a task across multiple servers in parallel, add the parallel option to your task declaration:

@servers(['web-1' => '192.168.1.1', 'web-2' => '192.168.1.2'])
 
@task('deploy', ['on' => ['web-1', 'web-2'], 'parallel' => true])
    cd site
    git pull origin {{ $branch }}
    php artisan migrate
@endtask

Task Macros

Macros allow you to define a set of tasks to be run in sequence using a single command. For instance, a deploy macro may run the git and composer tasks:

@servers(['web' => '192.168.1.1'])
 
@macro('deploy')
    git
    composer
@endmacro
 
@task('git')
    git pull origin master
@endtask
 
@task('composer')
    composer install
@endtask

Once the macro has been defined, you may run it via single, simple command:

envoy run deploy

Running Tasks

To run a task from your Envoy.blade.php file, execute Envoy's run command, passing the command the name of the task or macro you would like to execute. Envoy will run the task and display the output from the servers as the task is running:

envoy run task

Notifications

HipChat

After running a task, you may send a notification to your team's HipChat room using Envoy's @hipchat directive. The directive accepts an API token, the name of the room, and the username to be displayed as the sender of the message:

@servers(['web' => '192.168.1.1'])
 
@task('foo', ['on' => 'web'])
    ls -la
@endtask
 
@after
    @hipchat('token', 'room', 'Envoy')
@endafter

If you wish, you may also pass a custom message to send to the HipChat room. Any variables available to your Envoy tasks will also be available when constructing the message:

@after
    @hipchat('token', 'room', 'Envoy', "$task ran in the $env environment.")
@endafter

Slack

In addition to HipChat, Envoy also supports sending notifications to Slack. The @slack directive accepts a Slack hook URL, a channel name, and the message you wish to send to the channel:

@after
    @slack('hook', 'channel', 'message')
@endafter

You may retrieve your webhook URL by creating an Incoming WebHooks integration on Slack's website. The hook argument should be the entire webhook URL provided by the Incoming Webhooks Slack Integration. For example:

https://hooks.slack.com/services/ZZZZZZZZZ/YYYYYYYYY/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You may provide one of the following as the channel argument:

  • To send the notification to a channel: #channel
  • To send the notification to a user: @user