Running Rails in Local Production Environment

Below are instructions for how to get started running a Rails 5.2 application in a local production environment.

Start in the Rails application directory

• Make sure all necessary gems are installed

  bundle install
  

• Set up the production database

  RAILS_ENV=production rake db:{create,migrate,seed}
  

• Make some changes to the production configuration

# within app/config/envrionments/production.rb

# change the below line to be commented out
config.public_file_server.enabled = ENV['RAILS_SERVE_STATIC_FILES'].present?

# change to equal true
config.assets.compile = false

• Precompile the assets

  RAILS_ENV=production rails assets:precompile
  

• Start the server for the production environment

  RAILS_ENV=production rails s
  

• Navigate to your app in the browser to see how it looks

Important to Remember

• If you are making changes to your assets and want to see those updates you will need to do the following:
  • Stop the server
  • Run rails assets:clobber This will remove the assets in the public folder
  • Run rails assets:precompile This will create new assets with the changes
  • Start the server
• Once you are finished running you application in your local production environment
  • Run rails assets:clobber
  • Undo the changes made in the app/config/envrionments/production.rb
  • This will help to ensure that there isn’t any issues with your assets when you deploy to Heroku.