Capistrano::FasterAssets

This gem speeds up asset compilation by skipping the assets:precompile task if none of the assets were changed since last release.

Works only with Capistrano 3+.

Add this to Gemfile:

group :development do
  gem 'capistrano', '~> 3.1'
  gem 'capistrano-rails', '~> 1.1'
  gem 'capistrano-faster-assets', '~> 1.0'
end

And then:

$ bundle install

Add this line to Capfile, after require 'capistrano/rails/assets'

require 'capistrano/faster_assets'

Configure your asset depedencies in deploy.rb if you need to check additional paths (e.g. if you have some assets in YOUR_APP/engines/YOUR_ENGINE/app/assets). Default paths are:

set :assets_dependencies, %w(app/assets lib/assets vendor/assets Gemfile.lock config/routes.rb)

Please keep in mind, that if you use ERB in your assets, you might run into cases where Capistrano won't recompile assets when needed. For instance, let's say you have a CoffeeScript file like this:

text = <%= helper.get_text %>

The assets might not get recompiled, even if they have to, as this gem only checks if the asset file has changed (which is probably the only safe/fast way to do this).

If you'd like to streamline your Capistrano deploys, you might want to check these zero-configuration, plug-n-play plugins:

• capistrano-unicorn-nginx
  no-configuration unicorn and nginx setup with sensible defaults
• capistrano-postgresql
  plugin that automates postgresql configuration and setup
• capistrano-rbenv-install
  would you like Capistrano to install rubies for you?
• capistrano-safe-deploy-to
  if you're annoyed that Capistrano does not create a deployment path for the app on the server (default /var/www/myapp), this is what you need!

...are very welcome!

@athal7 - for the original idea and implementation. See https://coderwall.com/p/aridag for more details