What’s the Best Way to Deploy Backend Applications in Real Life?

I get what you mean about jank! The old school way involved manually deploying code directly on servers which was messy. Now with tools like Terraform and CI/CD, you can automate a lot of the deployment process. But as you scale up, keeping things organized really helps.

I now use a GitHub Action for my Elixir app that builds a Docker image and deploys it seamlessly. It's a learning curve, but once you nail the CI/CD pipeline, it simplifies the deployment process tremendously!

Systemd isn't jank at all; it's actually what it's designed for! Many people have similar stories about juggling dependencies and updates, especially as projects grow. If you're considering more advanced methods, automated CI/CD solutions with tools like Docker or Kubernetes can really improve efficiency.

Every project has some level of jank. I recently deployed a Laravel app by SSHing into my Digital Ocean server, cloning my project, and tweaking it until it was working. Now I’m using Ansible for setup, and while CI/CD is a great tool, not every project needs it. Sometimes manual deployments fit the bill!

Most applications these days are containerized and pushed to platforms like AWS ECS or Google Cloud Run, especially if they need scalability. But there’s still a place for manual setups or scripts, especially in smaller projects. It boils down to what fits your project needs!