how to run a simple file on heroku

say I've got my rails app 开发者_运维技巧on github and am deploying the github repo on heroku.

I've got a situation where I have a simple text file with bunch of words (it is in my github repo). I want to insert these words (using a simple ruby program) into a database. Instead of using the tap command, is it possible in heroku to just run my simple ruby program and insert the words into the database...or maybe just show them on the terminal?

maybe confusing but basically I want to know how to run simple ruby script from heroku command line?

With cedar, you can run bash:

heroku run bash

Put your ruby script in a bin directory and git push it to Heroku. Now you can execute a shell command in the heroku console.

For example, if your Ruby script is bin/foo.rb, you can run the following command in the Heroku console:

`ruby bin/foo.rb`

Note the use of backticks.

Since you're talking about a Rails app on Heroku, how about using rails runner:

heroku run bundle exec rails runner ./path/to/script.rb -a <your-app>

Have a look at the RailsGuides for rails runner for more details.

Alternatively, turn that script into a rake task if runner is not your cup of tea (eg, for recurring tasks).

cd /path/to/my/local/repository
heroku console
require 'my_word_importing_script'

Failing that, try a simple Sinatra application as importer.rb?

require 'sinatra'
require 'sequel'

configure do
  // connect to the database with sequel
end

get '/import/a-long-unguessable-url-fdsjklgfuiwfnjfkdsklfds' do
  words = YAML.load(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "my_list_of_words.yaml"))
  words.each do |word|
    // Your logic for inserting into the database with sequel
  end
end

Hitting http://example.com/import/a-long-unguessable-url-fdsjklgfuiwfnjfkdsklfds in your browser would kick off the import. Handy for an external cron task.

You would also need a config.ru file in the repo:

require 'importer'
run Sinatra::Application

If you want to run arbitrary local Ruby files on Heroku, check out the blog post at

http://www.22ideastreet.com/debug/run-local-scripts-on-heroku

There are some things to watch out for (long run times, etc.) but it might be useful if you have a file that you haven't checked in that you want to test or run on a Heroku instance.