Capistrano Deleting Paperclip Images - ruby-on-rails

Question

For some reason Capistrano deletes all the images in my database every time I cap all the images get removed from all the users. Typically what I have done is have to refill the databased with the same images that had been delete by capistrano. I've attached my deploy.rb file, can someone give me some insight.
require "bundler/capistrano"
set :rvm_ruby_string, '1.9.3p429'
set :rvm_type, :user
set :user, ""
set :password, ""
set :domain, ""
set :applicationdir, ""
set :scm, :git
set :repository, ""
set :git_enable_submodules, 1 # if you have vendored rails
set :branch, "release"
set :rails_env, 'production'
#set :git_shallow_clone, 1
set :scm_verbose, true
# roles (servers)
role :web, domain
role :app, domain
role :db, domain, :primary => true
set :port, 22
# deploy config
set :deploy_to, applicationdir
set :deploy_via, :remote_cache
# additional settings
default_run_options[:pty] = true # Forgo errors when deploying from windows
ssh_options[:forward_agent] = true
#ssh_options[:keys] = %w(/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa) # If you are using ssh_keysset :chmod755, "app config db lib public vendor script script/* public/disp*"set :use_sudo, false
# runtime dependencies
depend :remote, :gem, "bundler", ">=1.0.0.rc.2"
# tasks
namespace :deploy do
task :start, :roles => :app do
run "touch #{current_path}/tmp/restart.txt"
end
task :stop, :roles => :app do
# Do nothing.
end
desc "Restart Application"
task :restart, :roles => :app do
run "touch #{current_path}/tmp/restart.txt"
end
desc "Symlink shared resources on each release"
task :symlink_shared, :roles => :app do
#run "ln -nfs #{shared_path}/config/database.yml #{release_path}/config/database.yml"
end
end
after 'deploy:update_code', 'deploy:symlink_shared'
namespace :bundler do
desc "Symlink bundled gems on each release"
task :symlink_bundled_gems, :roles => :app do
run "mkdir -p #{shared_path}/bundled_gems"
run "ln -nfs #{shared_path}/bundled_gems #{release_path}/vendor/bundle"
end
desc "Install for production"
task :install, :roles => :app do
run "cd #{release_path} && bundle install --without development test"
end
end
after 'deploy:update_code', 'bundler:symlink_bundled_gems'
after 'deploy:update_code', 'bundler:install'

Answer 1

2 years later, same trouble...
Here's my fix. In your deploy.rb :
# Default value for linked_dirs is []
# set :linked_dirs, fetch(:linked_dirs, []).push('bin', 'log', 'tmp/pids', 'tmp/cache', 'tmp/sockets', 'vendor/bundle', 'public/system')
set :linked_dirs, fetch(:linked_dirs, []).push('public/system')
This will store your images in yourapp/shared/system (instead of yourapp/current/system) and create symlinks on each deploy.
Source : https://github.com/capistrano/rails/issues/104#issuecomment-72766586

Answer 2

More than likely your public/images (or wherever Paperclip stores images) is not a shared symlink, and thus when Capistrano links a new release, the images are not copied.
There's documentation about this right in the Paperclip README file, covering how not to fall into this trap.