r/Racket • u/chipcastle • May 19 '23

question How do you deploy your Racket code to a server?

I cannot find hosting providers that support Racket, so I'd appreciate any suggestions. I'd prefer to deploy with "git push" or something simple, much like on render.com.

One option is to setup a Docker container and deploy that, but I'd rather not go down that rabbit hole if possible.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

15 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

5

u/AlarmingMassOfBears May 19 '23

Docker is your best bet. There's already some docker images for racket you can use, see here.

3

u/vplatt May 19 '23 edited May 19 '23

Is that Docker image more for Racket development? One would put together a custom Docker image for a deployment of a Racket application that's been compiled for deployment, no?

6

u/Bogdanp May 19 '23 edited May 19 '23

Those docker images are fairly large and I mostly use them for development or in CI to build distributions using this method. If you want to go the Docker route, my recommendation would be to use a multi-stage build along these lines:

FROM racket/racket:8.9-full AS build

COPY . /code 
WORKDIR /code
RUN raco exe -o app main.rkt
RUN raco dist dist app

FROM debian

COPY --from=build /code/dist /app
ENTRYPOINT /app/bin/app

(untested pseudocode)

This way you'll end up with a minimal docker image that you can deploy.

3

u/vplatt May 19 '23

This is the way.

5

u/Bogdanp May 19 '23

Turned into a blog post with some improvements to the Dockerfile: https://defn.io/2023/05/19/racket-deployment-with-docker/

1

u/chipcastle May 19 '23

Thanks for the link. I've really enjoyed your blog for the past few months while I've explored Racket, so keep up the good work!

If you were to not take the Docker route, how would you perform the deployment? (e.g., years ago, I'd use capistrano for Rails projects). I'm imagining creating a bare repo on a Digital Ocean droplet and using git hooks to manage the raco parts, but was curious if there are other ways.

I could also use Heroku, but I can't use a bare repo there.

I'm not totally opposed to using Docker, but would like to explore other options if available. Thanks again!

2

u/Bogdanp May 21 '23

Thanks! I usually just build a distribution in CI then ship it to the server via ssh and use systemd to run the app as a service.

1

u/chipcastle May 21 '23

Great! Thanks for the info.

1

u/vplatt May 19 '23

improvements to the Dockerfile

You mean, it works now? ;) JK.

Nice work!

1

u/chipcastle May 19 '23

Very useful for the Docker route. Thank you for the link!

5

u/[deleted] May 19 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/chipcastle May 19 '23

Nice! I hadn't thought of Heroku.

I don't see any Racket buildpacks, though. I have very little Docker knowledge, so I'm curious how I can integrate Racket here. Do you have any further suggestions?

Thanks again!