can bundler be used in rsync deployments?

Question

Can you deploy a Rails3 app using Bundler\'s Gemfile WITHOUT running bundle install... i.e. just by copying a rails project directory to the appropriate

Answer 1

Yes, you can. You have to find a machine with the exact same OS/architecture combination as your production servers, and then run bundle install --deployment on it. Once you've done that, you can copy the entire app directory (including ./vendor/bundle, which contains all the installed gems). Since the gems are all already installed and compiled, your app will just boot.

That said, this is officially unsupported. If you have issues with the approach, while the Bundler team will try to help you, there are no guarantees it will work (or keep working into the future). Here thar be dragons, etc., etc.