Best way to sync between developement and live server

[n00bfreak]

I am new to web development, I recently started freelancing online for a few clients and got some projects lined up.

 

TLDR: I want an easy to manage my web dev projects (hosted on my laptop) and sync them with my webserver online.

 

Now here is my situation:

 

I have a laptop where I do my work and test it on, this laptop runs Ubuntu 10.04.

I have a VPS online, which runs CentOS, it is mainly used to upload the demo work of my projects so I can show them to my clients and blow there minds away.

 

My problem here is:

 

The time I am wasting, and the effort in uploading and updating everything I do once I am done with it on my laptop, its pretty irritating, I have to tar everything up, upload it to the server, put it in the right place, make sure all permissions are correct, upload the MySQL database, import it to the VPS, edit the config files to match the new username and password.. etc etc..

 

What I really want to have:

 

Is an easier way to do all that, I want to be able to press a button or type a command, that will automatically sync my laptop files with the right directory on my VPS. so it cant be just a simple way where it just simply uploads the files, it needs to be able to manage each project separately.

 

I can't wait to read your comments, hopefully someone will give me a detailed solution to what I need to do, thanks!

 

[Mchl]

Like automated build systems? http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/  http://www.phpundercontrol.org/about.html

Or version control systems?  http://subversion.tigris.org/

[n00bfreak]

I think its more like the version control systems, how do I go about implementing that on both the server and the laptop?

 

Thanks a lot for your help Mchl

[Mchl]

There's a good book on subversion's page that explains work flow pretty well.

[n00bfreak]

I am using NetBeans IDE, noticed there is a subversion option there as well...

 

If you don't mind can you point me to where I can read about setting that up?

[Mchl]

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/

[systemick]

I'd highly recommend the tutorial at :

 

http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/index.html

 

I don't use Netbeans but I'm sure that if you goggle Netbeans Subversion tutorial you will find something

[Mchl]

There's not much learning about Netbeans Subversion plugin. Once you learn how SVN works, you notice that the plugin just provides you with easy access to basic SVN commands, plus some eye candy like highlighting modified files/code, or really cool diff view.

[ignace]

RSync:

 

#  can update whole directory trees and filesystems

# optionally preserves symbolic links, hard links, file ownership, permissions, devices and times

 

http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/features.html

[Mchl]

A good tool but not necessarily useful for deploying applications.

[n00bfreak]

Thanks guys,

 

for anyone who wants to have a similar setup, I found this tutorial helpful:

 

http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/255/svn-command-line-tutorial-for-beginners-1/

 

 

[n00bfreak]

Ok I managed to get the SVN repo working locally, but now it still wont solve my problem, I need to sync it remotely.. how can I do that?

 

I cannot connect from my server to my laptop, so syncing from my laptop repo on the server wont really work, I need my laptop to connect to my server and update the repo files from the laptop, to the server..

[n00bfreak]

I have got the remote server working as well thanks to

 

http://www.tonyspencer.com/2007/03/02/setup-a-subversion-server-in-4-minutes/

 

all good now, thanks for everyones help. now I can develop and implement much faster and better..