Capsitrano deploy recipe : after deploy file listing and modifications - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm currently working on a multi-stage recipe for Capistrano that would, ideally, after deploy, make wise use of the yui compressor for all css and js.
Here's what I currently came up to :
after "deploy", "deploy:cleanup", "minifier:compress"
# Task to minify via Yui-compressor
# Uses compressor bundled with application in #{application}/lib/yuicompressor
namespace :minifier do
def minify(files)
files.each do |file|
cmd = "java -jar lib/yuicompressor/build/yuicompressor-2.4.6.jar #{file} -o #{file}"
puts cmd
ret = system(cmd)
raise "Minification failed for #{file}" if !ret
end
end
desc "minify"
task :compress do
minify_js
minify_css
end
desc "minify javascript"
task :minify_js do
minify(Filelist['public/js/**/*.js'])
end
desc "minify css"
task :minify_css do
minify(Filelist['public/css/**/*.css'])
end
end
What's really puzzling me is the
uninitialized constant Capistrano::Configuration::Filelist (NameError)
I get as soon as Capistrano gets to the point.
As a total newbie to Ruby, Rails, and Capistrano, I understand for some reason FileList isn't a common Capistrano method, but can't figure out what to replace it with.
Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Your task is conceptually wrong, it will run on local system (the one from which you're deploying), because you're call system, you should use the run method which run commands remotely.
def minify(files)
files.each do |file|
cmd = "java -jar lib/yuicompressor/build/yuicompressor-2.4.6.jar #{file} -o #{file}"
puts cmd
ret = system(cmd) # *** SYSTEM RUN LOCAL COMMANDS ***
raise "Minification failed for #{file}" if !ret
end
end
That said, I will change that code with shell scripting, something like (untested)
task :minify
cmd = "java -jar lib/yuicompressor/build/yuicompressor-2.4.6.jar"
run "find #{current_path}/public/css/ -name '*.css' -print0 | xargs -0 -I file #{cmd} file -o file"
run "find #{current_path}/public/js/ -name '*.js' -print0 | xargs -0 -I file #{cmd} file -o file"
end
or if you prefer to use ruby to program it, you should move the code into a rake task (which you can try and debug locally) and then invoke it with Capistrano: How do I run a rake task from Capistrano?