# How to deploy

!!! info "This is how **we** deploy"

    This page describes how the main instance is deployed, and is mainly meant as a
    way to share the knowledge. You can obviously do things differently.

## Services

"La chariotte" uses different domains:

- **docs.chariotte.fr**, the docs you are reading now. It's handled by [readthedocs.org](https://readthedocs.org).
- **chariotte.fr**, the main instance. It's deployed on Alwaysdata
- **blog.chariotte.fr**, our blog. It's [a static website](https://gitlab.com/la-chariotte/la-chariotte.gitlab.io) deployed on Gitlab pages.

## The main instance

### Alwaysdata, our hosting provider

[Alwaysdata](https://www.alwaysdata.com) offers [a free plan for open source
projects](https://www.alwaysdata.com/en/open-source/), which we are using for
the main instance of la chariotte.

Thanks to them for supporting open source!

### Getting access

To get access, you'll need to generate an ssh keypair, and give your public key to a known admin.

```bash
ssh-keygen
```

This will generate a private a public key. You need to share the **public** key.
On unix systems, it's stored under `~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub` by default.

### Connecting to ssh

Once your key is generated and you're known to the server, you can connect there.

```bash
ssh chariotte@ssh-chariotte.alwaysdata.net
```

### Configuration file

The chariotte application is run by [uwsgi](https://uwsgi-docs.readthedocs.io/
en/latest/), managed by AlwaysData.

The production settings are stored in `~/ la_chariotte/prod_settings.py`, and
the secrets are defined in the admin console.

### The different sites

In the AD console, here are the defined sites:

- `app.chariotte.fr`, redirecting to `chariotte.fr`
- `chariotte.fr/static`, hosting the static files, it just serves the collected static files stored in `/static/`
- `chariotte.fr`, the main website, defined in the next section

`chariotte.fr` is configured as a Python WSGI app:

- application path: `/la_chariotte/la_chariotte/wsgi.py`
- working directory: `/la_chariotte`
- venv location: `/venv`

Environment variables:

```
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=prod_settings
```

### How to deploy

To deploy a new version, we'll need to:

- get the new code
- update the database
- collect the static files
- restart the daemon

Here's how:

```bash
# Activate the venv
source venv/bin/activate
cd la_chariotte

# Get the code
git fetch
git checkout tag # if we're using a tag, otherwise, just checkout the main branch

python manage.py updatedb
python manage.py collectstatic
```

Then you'll need to restart the server from AD's interface.

### What about SSL certificates?

The SSL certificates are issued directly by AlwaysData (they use [Let's Encrypt]
(https://letsencrypt.org/) behind the scenes)

## Mails

Mails are hosted by alwaysdata, as part of their opensource plan.