Capistrano deploy:migrate and db:migrate run all migrations every time - ruby-on-rails

Question

So, I'm diddling around with rails (ruby 1.9.3p392, rails 3.2, sqlite3 db) and I'm trying to deploy the ubiquitous blog tutorial code to a "production" server (apache, passenger, ubuntu). My deploy.rb looks like this:
require 'bundler/capistrano'
require 'rvm/capistrano'
load 'deploy/assets'
set :rvm_ruby_string, ENV['GEM_HOME'].gsub(/.*\//,"")
set :rvm_type, :user
set :user, 'blah'
set :application, 'railsTest'
set :domain, 'www.blah.com'
set :applicationdir, "/home/sean/public/blah.com/public"
set :scm, 'git'
set :repository, "ssh://blah#1.1.1.1/home/blah/public/bla.com/public/capDep.git"
#set :git_enable_submodules, 1 # if you have vendored rails
set :branch, 'master'
set :git_shallow_clone, 1
set :scm_verbose, true
set :use_sudo, false
# roles (servers)
role :web, domain
role :app, domain
role :db, domain, :primary => true
# deploy config
set :deploy_to, applicationdir
set :deploy_via, :export
set :migrate_target, :latest
# additional settings
default_run_options[:pty] = true # Forgo errors when deploying from windows
#ssh_options[:keys] = %w(/home/blah/.ssh/id_rsa)
ssh_options[:forward_agent] = true
# if you want to clean up old releases on each deploy uncomment this:
# If you are using Passenger mod_rails uncomment this:
namespace :deploy do
task :start do ; end
task :stop do ; end
task :restart, :roles => :app, :except => { :no_release => true } do
run "#{try_sudo} touch #{File.join(current_path,'tmp','restart.txt')}"
end
end
#after "deploy:update_code", "deploy:migrate"
Now, I am sure that must look like a big hot mess to those who know what they are doing with capistrano, but I am an utter rube. In the end, despite my inadequacies, the deploy seems to work, because when I run the following
cap deploy:setup
cap deploy
my app is up and running and, just because I can, I add a few rows to a table in the db via the web ui that was created for me by rails. Now, I get bold and create a migration, adding a column to a table. I push my changes to git. To my horror, when I run
cap deploy
ALL the migrations are run, which recreates the tables, thus destroying all my data. I have repeated this painful process several times. My schema_migrations table looks like this:
20130620210004
20130620220229
20130628213331
20130628214946
20130628223002
What am I missing here?
UPDATE: I recently gave #TheMahrvin's suggestion regarding running deploy:migrations at the command line and removing it from the deploy.rb. It didn't work... once again, all migrations were run. My muse must have whispered something in my ear, because I decided to try running db:migrate on the server itself. I was astonished to see this output after running just "rake":
20130717230110 CreateHighScores
20130717230342 CreateGames
20130717231041 AddGameTypeToGame
20130717233707 AddGamePublisherToGame
20130717234124 AddGameRatingToGame
20130731210558 AddGameMechanicToGame
Only the last migrations should be pending. So, perhaps this isn't a problem with Capistrano at all (I've updated the title of this question to reflect that). So, why are the previous migrations still being flagged as pending? I know they were run in the past, both because I saw them in the output and verified the db schema after they ran.
UPDATE #2: Setup another migration and ssh'd into the server and cd'd my way to the "current" directory, which if I understand capistrano at all (fat chance) is where the current files are. Running
bundle exec rake db:migrate:status
got me:
Status Migration ID Migration Name
--------------------------------------------------
down 20130717230110 Create high scores
down 20130717230342 Create games
down 20130717231041 Add game type to game
down 20130717233707 Add game publisher to game
down 20130717234124 Add game rating to game
down 20130731210558 Add game mechanic to game
down 20130731212454 Add publish year to game
down 20130731214515 Add game rank to game
down 20130731214928 Add game abbr to game
down 20130731215749 Add crazy field to game
I can't help feeling that there is something profoundly wrong with what I am trying to do.

Answer 1

OK, figured it out... though how anybody else in the stackosphere was supposed to do the same based on the red herrings in my original question is beyond me.
The problem was that my production database was set to
db/production.sqlite3
Because it was a sqlite database in the main project directory, it was getting axed every time I ran
cap deploy
Then, when I would run
cap deploy:migrate
It would find an empty database and think all migrations needed to be run. I solved this by changing the database path to
/my_absolute_path/shared/db/production.sqlite3
Thanks to #TheMahvin and anyone else who attempted to take on the hopeless task of answering my poorly worded question!
H/T to this question, which made the scales fall from my eyes:
Capistrano Deploy Wipes Database?

Answer 2

I haven't seen:
after "deploy:update_code", "deploy:migrate"
before. Try deleting that line and run:
bundle exec cap deploy:migrations (deploys code and migrations)
or
bundle exec cap deploy:migrate (runs the migrate rake task on the server)
instead.
The rest of your deploy.rb seems OK to me, though I don't know anything about the rvm/capistrano integration or the windows adjustment.

Answer 3

How did you "add a few rows to a table in the db"?
I suspect your data loss results from mixing migrations and your own db changes.
Rails expects you to do all the database changes via migrations.
There's some debate on migrations in general in the Rails community, but right now (especially if you're a beginner) always use migrations to change your database. That way you have a complete blueprint for your db allowing you to deploy on several machines from scratch without fiddling with your db and to make sure other contributors have the same db to work with.
I don't know a lot about these kinds of internals, but from what I understand your data loss resulted something like that:
After your manual changes Rails couldn't match the db-layout to the result of any migration (via the timestamps in your migrations and your schema respectively) thus treating the db as if it was new. To get to the state defined by all migrations, all of them needed to be executed, including the migrations that create tables, thus discarding everything in them.
I hope this helps,
Andy