---
stage: Release
group: Release
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
type: tutorial
---

# Running Composer and npm scripts with deployment via SCP in GitLab CI/CD **(FREE)**

This guide covers the building of dependencies of a PHP project while compiling assets via an npm script using [GitLab CI/CD](../../index.md).

While it is possible to create your own image with custom PHP and Node.js versions, for brevity we use an existing [Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/tetraweb/php/) that contains both PHP and Node.js installed.

```yaml
image: tetraweb/php
```

The next step is to install zip/unzip packages and make composer available. We place these in the `before_script` section:

```yaml
before_script:
  - apt-get update
  - apt-get install zip unzip
  - php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
  - php composer-setup.php
  - php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
```

This makes sure we have all requirements ready. Next, run `composer install` to fetch all PHP dependencies and `npm install` to load Node.js packages. Then run the `npm` script. We need to append them into `before_script` section:

```yaml
before_script:
  # ...
  - php composer.phar install
  - npm install
  - npm run deploy
```

In this particular case, the `npm deploy` script is a Gulp script that does the following:

1. Compile CSS & JS
1. Create sprites
1. Copy various assets (images, fonts) around
1. Replace some strings

All these operations put all files into a `build` folder, which is ready to be deployed to a live server.

## How to transfer files to a live server

You have multiple options: rsync, SCP, SFTP, and so on. For now, use SCP.

To make this work, you must add a GitLab CI/CD Variable (accessible on `gitlab.example/your-project-name/variables`). Name this variable `STAGING_PRIVATE_KEY` and set it to the **private** SSH key of your server.

### Security tip

Create a user that has access **only** to the folder that needs to be updated.

After you create that variable, make sure that key is added to the Docker container on run:

```yaml
before_script:
  # - ....
  - 'which ssh-agent || ( apt-get update -y && apt-get install openssh-client -y )'
  - mkdir -p ~/.ssh
  - eval $(ssh-agent -s)
  - '[[ -f /.dockerenv ]] && echo -e "Host *\n\tStrictHostKeyChecking no\n\n" > ~/.ssh/config'
```

In order, this means that:

1. We check if the `ssh-agent` is available and we install it if it's not.
1. We create the `~/.ssh` folder.
1. We make sure we're running bash.
1. We disable host checking (we don't ask for user accept when we first connect to a server, and since every job equals a first connect, we need this).

And this is basically all you need in the `before_script` section.

## How to deploy

As we stated above, we need to deploy the `build` folder from the Docker image to our server. To do so, we create a new job:

```yaml
stage_deploy:
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - build/
  only:
    - dev
  script:
    - ssh-add <(echo "$STAGING_PRIVATE_KEY")
    - ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "mkdir htdocs/wp-content/themes/_tmp"
    - scp -P22 -r build/* server_user@server_host:htdocs/wp-content/themes/_tmp
    - ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "mv htdocs/wp-content/themes/live htdocs/wp-content/themes/_old && mv htdocs/wp-content/themes/_tmp htdocs/wp-content/themes/live"
    - ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "rm -rf htdocs/wp-content/themes/_old"
```

Here's the breakdown:

1. `only:dev` means that this build runs only when something is pushed to the `dev` branch. You can remove this block completely and have everything run on every push (but probably this is something you don't want).
1. `ssh-add ...` we add that private key you added on the web UI to the Docker container.
1. We connect via `ssh` and create a new `_tmp` folder.
1. We connect via `scp` and upload the `build` folder (which was generated by a `npm` script) to our previously created `_tmp` folder.
1. We connect again via `ssh` and move the `live` folder to an `_old` folder, then move `_tmp` to `live`.
1. We connect to SSH and remove the `_old` folder.

What's the deal with the artifacts? We tell GitLab CI/CD to keep the `build` directory (later on, you can download that as needed).

### Why we do it this way

If you're using this only for stage server, you could do this in two steps:

```yaml
- ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "rm -rf htdocs/wp-content/themes/live/*"
- scp -P22 -r build/* server_user@server_host:htdocs/wp-content/themes/live
```

The problem is that there's a small period of time when you don't have the app on your server.

Therefore, for a production environment we use additional steps to ensure that at any given time, a functional app is in place.

## Where to go next

Since this was a WordPress project, I gave real life code snippets. Some further ideas you can pursue:

- Having a slightly different script for the default branch allows you to deploy to a production server from that branch and to a stage server from any other branches.
- Instead of pushing it live, you can push it to WordPress official repository.
- You could generate i18n text domains on the fly.

---

Our final `.gitlab-ci.yml` looks like this:

```yaml
image: tetraweb/php

before_script:
  - apt-get update
  - apt-get install zip unzip
  - php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
  - php composer-setup.php
  - php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"
  - php composer.phar install
  - npm install
  - npm run deploy
  - 'which ssh-agent || ( apt-get update -y && apt-get install openssh-client -y )'
  - mkdir -p ~/.ssh
  - eval $(ssh-agent -s)
  - '[[ -f /.dockerenv ]] && echo -e "Host *\n\tStrictHostKeyChecking no\n\n" > ~/.ssh/config'

stage_deploy:
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - build/
  only:
    - dev
  script:
    - ssh-add <(echo "$STAGING_PRIVATE_KEY")
    - ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "mkdir htdocs/wp-content/themes/_tmp"
    - scp -P22 -r build/* server_user@server_host:htdocs/wp-content/themes/_tmp
    - ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "mv htdocs/wp-content/themes/live htdocs/wp-content/themes/_old && mv htdocs/wp-content/themes/_tmp htdocs/wp-content/themes/live"
    - ssh -p22 server_user@server_host "rm -rf htdocs/wp-content/themes/_old"
```