ActualDbSchema

Does switching between branches in your Rails app mess up the DB schema?

Keep the DB schema actual across branches in your Rails project. Just install actual_db_schema gem and run db:migrate in branches as usual. It automatically rolls back the phantom migrations (non-relevant to the current branch). No additional steps are needed. It works with both schema.rb and structure.sql.

Still not clear why it's needed? To grasp the purpose of this gem and the issue it addresses, review the problem definition outlined below.

Imagine you're working on branch A. You add a not-null column to a database table with a migration. You run the migration. Then you switch to branch B. The code in branch B isn't aware of this newly added field. When it tries to write data to the table, it fails with an error null value provided for non-null field. Why? The existing code is writing a null value into the column with a not-null constraint.

Here's an example of this error:

ActiveRecord::NotNullViolation:
  PG::NotNullViolation: ERROR:  null value in column "log" of relation "check_results" violates not-null constraint
  DETAIL:  Failing row contains (8, 46, success, 2022-10-16 21:47:21.07212, 2022-10-16 21:47:21.07212, null).

Furthermore, the db:migrate task on branch B generates an irrelevant diff on the schema.rb file, reflecting the new column added in branch A.

To fix this, you need to switch back to branch A, find the migration that added the problematic field, and roll it back. We'll call it a phantom migration. It's a pain, especially if you have a lot of branches in your project because you have to remember which branch the phantom migration is in and then manually roll it back.

With actual_db_schema gem you don't need to care about that anymore. It saves you time by handling all this dirty work behind the scenes automatically.

This gem stores all run migrations with their code in the tmp/migrated folder. Whenever you perform a schema dump, it rolls back the phantom migrations.

The phantom migrations list is the difference between the migrations you've executed (in the tmp/migrated folder) and the current ones (in the db/migrate folder).

Therefore, all you do is run rails db:migrate in your current branch. actual_db_schema will ensure the DB schema is up-to-date. You'll never have an inaccurate schema.rb file again.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

group :development do
  gem "actual_db_schema"
end

And then execute:

$ bundle install

If you cannot commit changes to the repo or Gemfile, consider the local Gemfile installation described in this post.

Next, generate your ActualDbSchema initializer file by running:

rake actual_db_schema:install

This will create a config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb file with all the available configuration options so you can adjust them as needed. It will also prompt you to install the post-checkout Git hook for automatic phantom migration rollback when switching branches.

For more details on the available configuration options, see the sections below.

Just run rails db:migrate inside the current branch. It will roll back all phantom migrations for all configured databases in your database.yml.

The gem offers the following rake tasks that can be manually run according to your preferences:

• rails db:rollback_branches - run it to manually rolls back phantom migrations.
• rails db:rollback_branches:manual - run it to manually rolls back phantom migrations one by one.
• rails db:phantom_migrations - displays a list of phantom migrations.

By default, actual_db_schema stores all run migrations in the tmp/migrated folder. However, if you want to change this location, you can configure it in two ways:

Set the environment variable ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_MIGRATED_FOLDER to your desired folder path:

export ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_MIGRATED_FOLDER="custom/migrated"

Add the following line to your initializer file (config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb):

config.migrated_folder = Rails.root.join("custom", "migrated")

The UI for managing migrations is enabled automatically. To access the UI, simply navigate to the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost:3000/rails/phantom_migrations

This page displays a list of phantom migrations for each database connection and provides options to view details and rollback them.

By default, the UI is enabled in the development environment. If you prefer to enable the UI for another environment, you can do so in two ways:

Set the environment variable ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_UI_ENABLED to true:

export ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_UI_ENABLED=true

Add the following line to your initializer file (config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb):

config.ui_enabled = true

With this option, the UI can be disabled for all environments or be enabled in specific ones.

By default, the automatic rollback of migrations is enabled. If you prefer to perform manual rollbacks, you can disable the automatic rollback in two ways:

Set the environment variable ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_AUTO_ROLLBACK_DISABLED to true:

export ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_AUTO_ROLLBACK_DISABLED=true

Add the following line to your initializer file (config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb):

config.auto_rollback_disabled = true

By default, the automatic rollback of migrations on branch switch is disabled. If you prefer to automatically rollback phantom migrations whenever you switch branches with git checkout, you can enable it in two ways:

Set the environment variable ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_GIT_HOOKS_ENABLED to true:

export ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_GIT_HOOKS_ENABLED=true

Add the following line to your initializer file (config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb):

config.git_hooks_enabled = true

After enabling Git hooks in your configuration, run the rake task to install the post-checkout hook:

rake actual_db_schema:install_git_hooks

This task will prompt you to choose one of the three options:

1. Rollback phantom migrations with db:rollback_branches
2. Migrate up to the latest schema with db:migrate
3. Skip installing git hook

Based on your selection, a post-checkout hook will be installed or updated in your .git/hooks folder.

If your application leverages multiple schemas for multi-tenancy — such as those implemented by the apartment gem or similar solutions — you can configure ActualDbSchema to handle migrations across all schemas. To do so, add the following configuration to your initializer file (config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb):

config.multi_tenant_schemas = -> { # list of all active schemas }

config.multi_tenant_schemas = -> { ["public", "tenant1", "tenant2"] }

If schema.rb generates a diff, it can be helpful to find out which migrations caused the changes. This helps you decide whether to resolve the diff on your own or discuss it with your teammates to determine the next steps. The diff_schema_with_migrations Rake task generates a diff of the schema.rb file, annotated with the migrations responsible for each change. This makes it easier to trace which migration introduced a specific schema modification, enabling faster and more informed decision-making regarding how to handle the diff.

By default, the task uses db/schema.rb and db/migrate as the schema and migrations paths. You can also provide custom paths as arguments.

Run the task with default paths:

rake actual_db_schema:diff_schema_with_migrations

Run the task with custom paths:

rake actual_db_schema:diff_schema_with_migrations[path/to/custom_schema.rb, path/to/custom_migrations]

Sometimes, it's necessary to modify the database without creating migration files. This can be useful for fixing a corrupted schema, conducting experiments (such as adding and removing indexes), or quickly adjusting the schema in development. This gem allows you to run the same commands used in migrations directly in the Rails console.

By default, Console Migrations is disabled. You can enable it in two ways:

Set the environment variable ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_CONSOLE_MIGRATIONS_ENABLED to true:

export ACTUAL_DB_SCHEMA_CONSOLE_MIGRATIONS_ENABLED=true

Add the following line to your initializer file (config/initializers/actual_db_schema.rb):

config.console_migrations_enabled = true

Once enabled, you can run migration commands directly in the Rails console:

# Create a new table
create_table :posts do |t|
  t.string :title
end

# Add a column
add_column :users, :age, :integer

# Remove an index
remove_index :users, :email

# Rename a column
rename_column :users, :username, :handle

A migration is considered broken if it has been migrated in the database but the corresponding migration file is missing. This functionality allows you to safely delete these broken versions from the database to keep it clean.

You can delete broken migrations using either of the following methods:

Navigate to the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost:3000/rails/broken_versions

This page lists all broken versions and provides an option to delete them.

To delete all broken migrations, run:

rake actual_db_schema:delete_broken_versions

To delete specific migrations, pass the migration version(s) and optionally a database:

rake actual_db_schema:delete_broken_versions[<version>, <version>]

• <version> – The migration version(s) to delete (space-separated if multiple).
• <database> (optional) – Specify a database if using multiple databases.

# Delete all broken migrations
rake actual_db_schema:delete_broken_versions

# Delete specific migrations
rake actual_db_schema:delete_broken_versions["20250224103352 20250224103358"]

# Delete specific migrations from a specific database
rake actual_db_schema:delete_broken_versions["20250224103352 20250224103358", "primary"]

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake test to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install.

To release a new version do the following in the order:

• update the version number in version.rb;
• update the CHANGELOG;
• bundle install to update Gemfile.lock;
• make the commit and push;
• run bundle exec rake release. This will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and the created tag, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org;
• announce the new release on GitHub;
• close the milestone on GitHub.

The following versions can be specifically tested using Appraisal

• 6.0
• 6.1
• 7.0
• 7.1
• edge

To run tests with a specific version of Rails using Appraisal:

• Run all tests with Rails 6.0:

  bundle exec appraisal rails.6.0 rake test

• Run tests for a specific file:

  bundle exec appraisal rails.6.0 rake test TEST=test/rake_task_test.rb

• Run a specific test:

  bundle exec appraisal rails.6.0 rake test TEST=test/rake_task_test.rb TESTOPTS="--name=/db::db:rollback_branches#test_0003_keeps/"

By default, rake test runs tests using SQLite3. To explicitly run tests with SQLite3, PostgreSQL, or MySQL, you can use the following tasks:

• Run tests with SQLite3:

  bundle exec rake test:sqlite3

• Run tests with PostgreSQL (requires Docker):

  bundle exec rake test:postgresql

• Run tests with MySQL (requires Docker):

  bundle exec rake test:mysql2

• Run tests for all supported adapters:

  bundle exec rake test:all

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/widefix/actual_db_schema. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Everyone interacting in the ActualDbSchema project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.