README

Deployer recipe that detects and warns about files modified directly on the server (via FTP, SFTP, or SSH) before they are silently overwritten by the next deployment.

Early Alpha (v0.1.2-alpha3) — This package is functional but under active development. Task names and configuration keys may change before v1.0. Use in production at your own risk.

The Problem

Deployer uses an atomic symlink swap for zero-downtime deployments. This means there is no Git repository on the production server — only the deployed files exist. When someone modifies files directly on the server (editing a config file, quick-fixing a bug via FTP, uploading an asset), those changes are invisible. The next deployment silently overwrites them.

This recipe solves the problem by:

1. Initializing a shallow Git repository in each release directory after deployment
2. Checking for file changes in the current release before the next deployment starts
3. Warning the developer and requiring explicit confirmation before overwriting

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.2
• Deployer >= 7.0
• Git installed on the remote server

Installation

While in alpha, you need to allow alpha stability explicitly:

composer require --dev oliver-thiele/deployer-git-drift:@alpha

Usage

In your deploy.php:

require 'recipe/common.php';
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/oliver-thiele/deployer-git-drift/src/GitDrift.php';

// Hook into the deployment flow
after('deploy:symlink', 'git-drift:init');
before('deploy:vendors', 'git-drift:check');

Hooks are opt-in by design — the recipe registers tasks only, not automatic hooks.

Configuration

// Always abort when drift is detected (default: false — ask interactively)
set('git_drift_abort_on_drift', true);

// Ignore paths that are expected to differ from the Git state
// Typical candidates: generated files, caches, uploads, installed dependencies
set('git_drift_ignore_paths', [
    'vendor/',
    'node_modules/',
    'public/typo3temp/',
    'var/',
    'public/fileadmin/',
]);

Available Tasks

Run the status check manually at any time:

dep git-drift:status production

Example Output

When drift is detected:

⚠ Server drift detected:

 public/index.php | 5 +++--
 config/system/settings.php | 12 ++++++++----

Untracked files added on server:
public/fileadmin/direct-upload.zip

These changes were made directly on the server.
They will be LOST after this deployment.

Continue deployment and discard changes? [y/N]

How it works

After each deployment, git-drift:init runs git init in the release directory, fetches the deployed branch with --depth=1, and sets FETCH_HEAD as the baseline via git reset. Any subsequent server-side file modifications will appear as changes relative to this baseline.

Paths listed in git_drift_ignore_paths are written to .git/info/exclude (local gitignore, does not modify project files) so generated directories are excluded from drift detection.

License

MIT — Oliver Thiele