---
title: "./bin/setup"
teaser:
tags: web,ruby,rails
author: Dan Croak
published_on: 2013-01-25
---

In our [protocol guide](https://github.com/thoughtbot/guides/tree/master/protocol),
we instruct new developers to set up an existing Rails app like this:

    git clone git@github.com:organization/app.git
    cd app
    ./bin/setup

The goal of the `bin/setup` script is quick, reliable, consistent setup. It is
placed in the `bin` directory to match [new Rails conventions about
executables](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/009873aec89a4b843b41accf616b42b7a9917ba8).

Rails [as of version 4.2.0][release-notes] generates a `bin/setup` file by default.

[release-notes]: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/4_2_release_notes.html#railties-notable-changes

Here's an example `bin/setup`:

    #!/bin/sh

    # Set up Rails app. Run this script immediately after cloning the codebase.
    # https://github.com/thoughtbot/guides/tree/master/protocol

    # Set up Ruby dependencies
    bundle install

    # Set up staging and production git remotes
    git remote add staging git@heroku.com:app-staging.git
    git remote add production git@heroku.com:app-production.git

    # Set up database
    bundle exec rake db:setup

    # Set up configurable environment variables for Foreman
    if [ ! -f .env ]; then
      echo "RACK_ENV=development" > .env
    fi

    echo "port: 7000" > .foreman

    # Set up DNS through Pow
    if [ -d ~/.pow ]
    then
      echo 7000 > ~/.pow/`basename $PWD`
    else
      echo "Pow not set up but the team uses it for this project. Setup: http://goo.gl/RaDPO"
    fi

The first section installs or uses cached Ruby dependencies via Bundler.

The second section sets up git remotes for [staging and production commands](https://github.com/thoughtbot/dotfiles/commit/86494030441e88ef9c2e2ceaa00a4da82023e445).

The third section creates the development and test databases, loads the schema,
and initializes with the seed data. It does not need to run all the migrations.

The last two sections use [Foreman as process manager, Pow as DNS server and
HTTP
proxy](https://thoughtbot.com/blog/post/40110176152/foreman-as-process-manager-pow-as-dns-server-and-http).

This is just an example `bin/setup` file. Each project will be different. Some
might not use Pow. Some might test if Redis or MongoDB is installed and run,
install, or print a message if not. Some might want to pull some `ENV` variables
into `.env` from Heroku.

Regardless of the `bin/setup` file's contents, a developer should be able to
clone the project and run a single, consistent, reliable command to start
contributing.