tern

README

Tern - The SQL Fan's Migrator

Tern is a standalone migration tool for PostgreSQL.

Features

• Multi-platform
• Stand-alone binary
• SSH tunnel support built-in
• Data variable interpolation into migrations

Installation

go get -u github.com/jackc/tern

Creating a Tern Project

To create a new tern project in the current directory run:

tern init

Or to create the project somewhere else:

tern init path/to/project

Tern projects are composed of a directory of migrations and optionally a config file. See the sample directory for an example.

Configuration

Database connection settings can be specified via the standard PostgreSQL environment variables (PGHOST, PGPORT, PGDATABASE, PGUSER, PGPASSWORD, and PGSSLMODE), via program arguments, or in a config file. By default tern will look in the current directory for the config file tern.conf and the migrations.

The tern.conf file is stored in the ini format with two sections, database and data. The database section contains settings for connection to the database server.

Values in the data section will be available for interpolation into migrations. This can help in scenarios where migrations are managing permissions and the user to which permissions are granted should be configurable.

If all database settings are supplied by PG* environment variables or program arguments the config file is not required.

The entire tern.conf file is processed through the Go standard text/template package. The program environment is available at .env.

Example tern.conf:

[database]
# host supports TCP addresses and Unix domain sockets
# host = /private/tmp
host = 127.0.0.1
# port = 5432
database = tern_test
user = jack
password = {{.env.MIGRATOR_PASSWORD}}
# version_table = schema_version
#
# sslmode generally matches the behavior described in:
# http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/libpq-ssl.html#LIBPQ-SSL-PROTECTION
#
# There are only two modes that most users should use:
# prefer - on trusted networks where security is not required
# verify-full - require SSL connection
# sslmode = prefer

# Proxy the above database connection via SSH
# [ssh-tunnel]
# host =
# port = 22
# user defaults to OS user
# user =
# password is not required if using SSH agent authentication
# password =

[data]
prefix = foo
app_user = joe

This flexibility configuration style allows handling multiple environments such as test, development, and production in several ways.

• Separate config file for each environment
• Environment variables for database settings and optionally one config file for shared settings
• Program arguments for database settings and optionally one config file for shared settings

Migrations

To create a new migration:

tern new name_of_migration

This will create a migration file with the given name prefixed by the next available sequence number (e.g. 001, 002, 003).

The migrations themselves have an extremely simple file format. They are simply the up and down SQL statements divided by a magic comment.

---- create above / drop below ----

Example:

create table t1(
  id serial primary key
);

---- create above / drop below ----

drop table t1;

If a migration is irreversible such as a drop table, simply delete the magic comment.

drop table widgets;

To interpolate a custom data value from the config file prefix the name with a dot and surround the whole with double curly braces.

create table {{.prefix}}config(
  id serial primary key
);

Migrations are read from files in the migration directory in the order of the numerical prefix. Each migration is run in a transaction.

Any SQL files in subdirectories of the migration directory, will be available for inclusion with the template command. This can be especially useful for definitions of views and functions that may have to be dropped and recreated when the underlying table(s) change.

// Include the file shared/v1_001.sql. Note the trailing dot.
// It is necessary if the shared file needs access to custom data values.
{{ template "shared/v1_001.sql" . }}
);

Tern uses the standard Go text/template package so conditionals and other advanced templating features are available if needed. See the package docs for details.

Migrating

To migrate up to the last version using migrations and config file located in the same directory simply run tern:

tern migrate

To migrate up or down to a specific version:

tern migrate --destination 42

To migrate up N versions:

tern migrate --destination +3

To migrate down N versions:

tern migrate --destination -3

To migrate down and rerun the previous N versions:

tern migrate --destination -+3

To use a different config file:

tern migrate --config path/to/tern.json

To use a different migrations directory:

tern migrate --migrations path/to/migrations

SSH Tunnel

Tern includes SSH tunnel support. Simply supply the SSH host, and optionally port, user, and password in the config file or as program arguments and Tern will tunnel the database connection through that server. When using a SSH tunnel the database host should be from the context of the SSH server. For example, if your PostgreSQL server is pg.example.com, but you only have SSH access, then your SSH host would be pg.example.com and your database host would be localhost.

Tern will automatically use an SSH agent if available.

Embedding Tern

All the actual functionality of tern is in the github.com/jackc/tern/migrate library. If you need to embed migrations into your own application this library can help.

Running the Tests

To run the tests tern requires a test database to run migrations against.

1. Create a new database for main tern program tests.

2. Open testdata/tern.conf.example

3. Enter the connection information.

4. Save as testdata/tern.conf.

5. Create another database for the migrate library tests.

6. Open migrate/connection_settings_test.go.example.

7. Enter the second database's connection information.

8. Save as migrate/connection_settings_test.go.

   go test ./...

Prior Ruby Gem Version

The projects using the prior version of tern that was distributed as a Ruby Gem are incompatible with the version 1 release. However, that version of tern is still available through RubyGems and the source code is on the ruby branch.

Version History

1.7.1 (January 30, 2016)

• Simplify SSH tunnel code so it does not listen on localhost

1.7.0 (January 17, 2016)

• Add SSH tunnel support

1.6.1 (January 16, 2016)

• Fix version output
• Evaluate config files through text/template with ENV

1.6.0 (January 15, 2016)

• Optionally read database connection settings from environment
• Accept database connection settings via program arguments
• Make config file optional

1.5.0 (October 1, 2015)

• Add status command
• Add relative migration destinations
• Add redo migration destinations

1.4.0 (May 15, 2015)

• Add TLS support

1.3.3 (May 1, 2015)

• Fix version output

1.3.2 (May 1, 2015)

• Better error messages

1.3.1 (December 24, 2014)

• Fix custom version table name

1.3.0 (December 23, 2014)

• Prefer host config whether connecting with unix domain socket or TCP

1.2.2 (May 30, 2014)

• Fix new migration short name

1.2.1 (May 18, 2014)

• Support socket directory as well as socket file

1.2.0 (May 6, 2014)

• Move to subcommand interface
• Require migrations to begin with ascending, gapless numbers
• Fix: migrations directory can contain other files
• Fix: gracefully handle invalid current version
• Fix: gracefully handle migrations with duplicate sequence number

1.1.1 (April 22, 2014)

• Do not require user -- default to OS user

1.1.0 (April 22, 2014)

• Add sub-template support
• Switch to ini for config files
• Add custom data merging

1.0.0 (April 19, 2014)

• Total rewrite in Go

0.7.1

• Print friendly error message when database error occurs instead of stack trace.

0.7.0

• Added ERB processing to SQL files

License

Copyright (c) 2011-2014 Jack Christensen, released under the MIT license