This action is a part of GitHub Actions Library created by rtCamp.

Deploy WordPress - GitHub Action

A GitHub Action to deploy WordPress on a server using PHP's Deployer.org project.

Please note that, this action expects git repo structure in a certain way. Your webroot should include content inside wp-content except uploads. You may use our WordPress Skeleton as a base, or restructre existing project to fit in.

During deployment, by default this action will download WordPress, put the content of the repo in wp-content directory and then deploy the entire WordPress setup on the deploy path specified in hosts.yml.

hosts.yml is Deployer's inventory file.

Usage

1. Create a .github/workflows/deploy.yml file in your GitHub repo, if one doesn't exist already.
2. Add the following code to the deploy.yml file.

on: push
name: Deploying WordPress Site
jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Deploy
        uses: rtCamp/action-deploy-wordpress@v3
        env:
          SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

3. Create SSH_PRIVATE_KEY secret using GitHub Action's Secret and store the private key that you use use to ssh to server(s) defined in hosts.yml.
4. Create .github/hosts.yml inventory file, based on Deployer inventory file format. Make sure you explictly define GitHub branch mapping. Only the GitHub branches mapped in hosts.yml will be deployed, rest will be filtered out. Here is a sample hosts.yml.

Inventory file Variables

Mandatory

Variable	Default	Possible Values	Purpose
user	null	valid username. eg: root	Username for ssh.
deploy_path	null	valid path. eg: /opt/easyengine/sites/example.com/app/htdocs	path where action will deploy.
hostname	null	hostname/ip. eg: example.com	hostname for ssh.

Optional

Variable	Default	Possible Values	Description
block_emails	null	true/false	If set to true, this will enable email blocking functionality.
block_emails_plugin_path	null	Accept relative path from wp-content directory, eg: custom-mu-plugins	If you have set the MU_PLUGIN_DIR constant in your wp-config.php file to specify a custom path for mu-plugins, you can use this variable to install Block Emails into your custom mu-plugins directory.
block_emails_plugin_file_name	000-block-emails	String without the .php extension.	If you wish to modify the loading position of this plugin within the mu-plugins loading phase.
WP_VERSION	null	Any valid WordPress version	If you specify a WordPress version, then that speicifc WordPress version will be downloaded, instead of latest WordPress version. Note: Please use double quotes while giving value to this variable. This will have higher priority then the one defined in workflow file.

Environment Variables

This GitHub action's behavior can be customized using following environment variables:

Variable	Default	Possible Values	Purpose
MU_PLUGINS_URL	null	vip, any git repo url	If value is vip, then action will clone VIP's MU plugins as mu-plugins folder. If you want to specifiy a non-VIP mu-plugins repo, you can provide a publicly accessible mu-plugins repo URL as the value.
WP_VERSION	latest	Any valid WordPress version	If you specify a WordPress version, then that speicifc WordPress version will be downloaded, instead of latest WordPress version. Note: Please use double quotes while giving value to this variable. Also, WP_VERSION, if defined in hosts.yml will have higher priority then the one defined in workflow file.
WP_MINOR_UPDATE	null	true / false	If set to true, latest minor version of WP_VERSION will be taken.
JUMPHOST_SERVER	null	Hostname/IP address of the jumphost server	If the deployment server is not directly accessible, and needs a jumphost, then this method should be used. (Note: The SSH_PRIVATE_KEY env variable should have access to the jumphost as well as deployment server for this to work. Also, this method does not work with vault.)
SUBMODULE_DEPLOY_KEY	null	Read access deploy key created in the submodule repo's deploy keys.	Only required for privated submodule repo. For now only one private submodule deploy key is allowed. All public submodules in repo will be fetched by default without the need of this env variable. (To create a deploy key go to: Settings > Deploy Keys > Add deploy key)
SKIP_WP_TASKS	null	true/false	If set to true, WordPress specific deplyment tasks will skipped.
PHP_VERSION	7.4	Valid PHP version	Determines the cachetool version compatible to use for purging opcache.
NPM_VERSION	null	Valid NPM Version	NPM Version. If not specified, latest version will be used.
NODE_VERSION	null	Valid Node Version	If not specified, default version built into action will be used.
NODE_BUILD_DIRECTORY	null	path to valid directory on repository.	Build directory. Generally root directory or directory like frontend.
NODE_BUILD_COMMAND	null	npm run build or similar command.	Command used to to build the dependencies needed on deployment.
NODE_BUILD_SCRIPT	null	path to valid shell script	Custom or predefined script to run after compilation.

All node related variables are completely optional. You can use them if your site needs to have node dependencies built.

Server Setup

The Deployer.org expects server setup in a particular way.

Using EasyEngine v4

New Site

1. Pass flag --public-dir=current during site creation.
2. Delete the current folder using rm -r /opt/easyengine/sites/example.com/app/htdocs/current.

The current folder will be automatically created by Deployer during execution.

Existing Site

1. Open file /opt/easyengine/sites/example.com/config/nginx/conf.d/main.conf.
2. Replace /var/www/htdocs with /var/www/htdocs/current.
3. Run ee site reload example.com.
4. Move wp-config.php to htdocs. You can use following command:

mv /opt/easyengine/sites/example.com/app/wp-config.php /opt/easyengine/sites/example.com/app/htdocs/wp-config.php

Not using EasyEngine

1. Make sure your web server points to current subdirectory inside original webroot. Make sure current subdirectory do NOT exist actually.
2. You may need to reload your webserver.
3. You may need to change location of wp-config.php as we need in above section.

Hashicorp Vault (Optional)

This GitHub action supports Hashicorp Vault. This comes in handy if you manage multiple servers and providing SSH_PRIVATE_KEY as GitHub secret per project becomes cumbersome.

To enable Hashicorp Vault support, please define following GitHub secrets:

Variable	Purpose	Example Vaule
VAULT_ADDR	Vault server address	https://example.com:8200
VAULT_TOKEN	Vault token	s.gIX5MKov9TUp7iiIqhrP1HgN

You will need to change secrets line in deploy.yml file to look like below.

on: push
name: Deploying WordPress Site using vault
jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Deploy
        uses: rtCamp/action-deploy-wordpress@v3
        env:
          VAULT_ADDR: ${{ secrets.VAULT_ADDR }}
          VAULT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VAULT_TOKEN }}

GitHub action uses VAULT_TOKEN to connect to VAULT_ADDR to retrieve Signed SSH Certificates and uses it for deployment.

Please remember that you must configure each of your target deployment server to accept ssh connection via signed certificate using Vault beforehand. Ususally, you need to run following commands once per server:

export VAULT_ADDR='https://example.com:8200'
export VAULT_TOKEN='s.gIX5MKov9TUp7iiIqhrP1HgN'

# Add the public key to all target host's SSH configuration.
curl -o /etc/ssh/trusted-user-ca-keys.pem "$VAULT_ADDR/v1/ssh-client-signer/public_key"

# Add the path where the public key contents are stored to the SSH configuration file as the TrustedUserCAKeys option.
echo "TrustedUserCAKeys /etc/ssh/trusted-user-ca-keys.pem" >> /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Restart ssh service. This may differ according to the OS.
systemctl restart ssh

Overriding default deployement behavior

1. If you would like to completely override this actions deployer recipe. Create a file at location .github/deploy/deploy.php in your git repository to provide your own Deployer.org script.
   • Please note that it will completely override this action's original deploy.php. So if you need some portion of original deploy.php, you need to copy that to your own .github/deploy/deploy.php.
2. If you need to add one or a few custom tasks on top of this actions deploy.php, you can create a file at location .github/deploy/addon.php in your git repository. Checkout the example addon.php to see how to customize it.
3. If you need to modify the main.sh shell script of this action, you can create a file at location .github/deploy/addon.sh in your git repository. Checkout the example addon.sh to see how to customize.

License

MIT © 2022 rtCamp

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