Active Record Migrations
Migrations can manage the evolution of a schema used by several physical databases. It's a solution to the common problem of adding a field to make a new feature work in your local database, but being unsure of how to push that change to other developers and to the production server. With migrations, you can describe the transformations in self-contained classes that can be checked into version control systems and executed against another database that might be one, two, or five versions behind.
Example of a simple migration:
class AddSsl < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def up
add_column :accounts, :ssl_enabled, :boolean, default: true
end
def down
remove_column :accounts, :ssl_enabled
end
end
This migration will add a boolean flag to the accounts table and remove it if you're backing out of the migration. It shows how all migrations have two methods up
and down
that describes the transformations required to implement or remove the migration. These methods can consist of both the migration specific methods like add_column
and remove_column
, but may also contain regular Ruby code for generating data needed for the transformations.
Example of a more complex migration that also needs to initialize data:
class AddSystemSettings < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def up
create_table :system_settings do |t|
t.string :name
t.string :label
t.text :value
t.string :type
t.integer :position
end
SystemSetting.create name: 'notice',
label: 'Use notice?',
value: 1
end
def down
drop_table :system_settings
end
end
This migration first adds the system_settings
table, then creates the very first row in it using the Active Record model that relies on the table. It also uses the more advanced create_table
syntax where you can specify a complete table schema in one block call.
Available transformations
Creation
-
create_join_table(table_1, table_2, options)
: Creates a join table having its name as the lexical order of the first two arguments. SeeActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::SchemaStatements#create_join_table
for details. -
create_table(name, options)
: Creates a table calledname
and makes the table object available to a block that can then add columns to it, following the same format asadd_column
. See example above. The options hash is for fragments like “DEFAULT CHARSET=UTF-8” that are appended to the create table definition. -
add_column(table_name, column_name, type, options)
: Adds a new column to the table calledtable_name
namedcolumn_name
specified to be one of the following types::string
,:text
,:integer
,:float
,:decimal
,:datetime
,:timestamp
,:time
,:date
,:binary
,:boolean
. A default value can be specified by passing anoptions
hash like{ default: 11 }
. Other options include:limit
and:null
(e.g.{ limit: 50, null: false }
) – seeActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::TableDefinition#column
for details. -
add_foreign_key(from_table, to_table, options)
: Adds a new foreign key.from_table
is the table with the key column,to_table
contains the referenced primary key. -
add_index(table_name, column_names, options)
: Adds a new index with the name of the column. Other options include:name
,:unique
(e.g.{ name: 'users_name_index', unique: true }
) and:order
(e.g.{ order: { name: :desc } }
). -
add_reference(:table_name, :reference_name)
: Adds a new columnreference_name_id
by default an integer. SeeActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::SchemaStatements#add_reference
for details. -
add_timestamps(table_name, options)
: Adds timestamps (created_at
andupdated_at
) columns totable_name
.
Modification
-
change_column(table_name, column_name, type, options)
: Changes the column to a different type using the same parameters as add_column. -
change_column_default(table_name, column_name, default_or_changes)
: Sets a default value forcolumn_name
defined bydefault_or_changes
ontable_name
. Passing a hash containing:from
and:to
asdefault_or_changes
will make this change reversible in the migration. -
change_column_null(table_name, column_name, null, default = nil)
: Sets or removes aNOT NULL
constraint oncolumn_name
. Thenull
flag indicates whether the value can beNULL
. SeeActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::SchemaStatements#change_column_null
for details. -
change_table(name, options)
: Allows to make column alterations to the table calledname
. It makes the table object available to a block that can then add/remove columns, indexes or foreign keys to it. -
rename_column(table_name, column_name, new_column_name)
: Renames a column but keeps the type and content. -
rename_index(table_name, old_name, new_name)
: Renames an index. -
rename_table(old_name, new_name)
: Renames the table calledold_name
tonew_name
.
Deletion
-
drop_table(name)
: Drops the table calledname
. -
drop_join_table(table_1, table_2, options)
: Drops the join table specified by the given arguments. -
remove_column(table_name, column_name, type, options)
: Removes the column namedcolumn_name
from the table calledtable_name
. -
remove_columns(table_name, *column_names)
: Removes the given columns from the table definition. -
remove_foreign_key(from_table, to_table = nil, **options)
: Removes the given foreign key from the table calledtable_name
. -
remove_index(table_name, column: column_names)
: Removes the index specified bycolumn_names
. -
remove_index(table_name, name: index_name)
: Removes the index specified byindex_name
. -
remove_reference(table_name, ref_name, options)
: Removes the reference(s) ontable_name
specified byref_name
. -
remove_timestamps(table_name, options)
: Removes the timestamp columns (created_at
andupdated_at
) from the table definition.
Irreversible transformations
Some transformations are destructive in a manner that cannot be reversed. Migrations of that kind should raise an ActiveRecord::IrreversibleMigration
exception in their down
method.
Running migrations from within Rails
The Rails package has several tools to help create and apply migrations.
To generate a new migration, you can use
bin/rails generate migration MyNewMigration
where MyNewMigration is the name of your migration. The generator will create an empty migration file timestamp_my_new_migration.rb
in the db/migrate/
directory where timestamp
is the UTC formatted date and time that the migration was generated.
There is a special syntactic shortcut to generate migrations that add fields to a table.
bin/rails generate migration add_fieldname_to_tablename fieldname:string
This will generate the file timestamp_add_fieldname_to_tablename.rb
, which will look like this:
class AddFieldnameToTablename < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def change
add_column :tablenames, :fieldname, :string
end
end
To run migrations against the currently configured database, use bin/rails db:migrate
. This will update the database by running all of the pending migrations, creating the schema_migrations
table (see “About the schema_migrations table” section below) if missing. It will also invoke the db:schema:dump command, which will update your db/schema.rb file to match the structure of your database.
To roll the database back to a previous migration version, use bin/rails db:rollback VERSION=X
where X
is the version to which you wish to downgrade. Alternatively, you can also use the STEP option if you wish to rollback last few migrations. bin/rails db:rollback STEP=2
will rollback the latest two migrations.
If any of the migrations throw an ActiveRecord::IrreversibleMigration
exception, that step will fail and you'll have some manual work to do.
More examples
Not all migrations change the schema. Some just fix the data:
class RemoveEmptyTags < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def up
Tag.all.each { |tag| tag.destroy if tag.pages.empty? }
end
def down
# not much we can do to restore deleted data
raise ActiveRecord::IrreversibleMigration, "Can't recover the deleted tags"
end
end
Others remove columns when they migrate up instead of down:
class RemoveUnnecessaryItemAttributes < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def up
remove_column :items, :incomplete_items_count
remove_column :items, :completed_items_count
end
def down
add_column :items, :incomplete_items_count
add_column :items, :completed_items_count
end
end
And sometimes you need to do something in SQL not abstracted directly by migrations:
class MakeJoinUnique < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def up
execute "ALTER TABLE `pages_linked_pages` ADD UNIQUE `page_id_linked_page_id` (`page_id`,`linked_page_id`)"
end
def down
execute "ALTER TABLE `pages_linked_pages` DROP INDEX `page_id_linked_page_id`"
end
end
Using a model after changing its table
Sometimes you'll want to add a column in a migration and populate it immediately after. In that case, you'll need to make a call to Base#reset_column_information
in order to ensure that the model has the latest column data from after the new column was added. Example:
class AddPeopleSalary < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def up
add_column :people, :salary, :integer
Person.reset_column_information
Person.all.each do |p|
p.update_attribute :salary, SalaryCalculator.compute(p)
end
end
end
Controlling verbosity
By default, migrations will describe the actions they are taking, writing them to the console as they happen, along with benchmarks describing how long each step took.
You can quiet them down by setting ActiveRecord::Migration.verbose = false.
You can also insert your own messages and benchmarks by using the say_with_time
method:
def up
...
say_with_time "Updating salaries..." do
Person.all.each do |p|
p.update_attribute :salary, SalaryCalculator.compute(p)
end
end
...
end
The phrase “Updating salaries…” would then be printed, along with the benchmark for the block when the block completes.
Timestamped Migrations
By default, Rails generates migrations that look like:
20080717013526_your_migration_name.rb
The prefix is a generation timestamp (in UTC).
If you'd prefer to use numeric prefixes, you can turn timestamped migrations off by setting:
config.active_record.timestamped_migrations = false
In application.rb.
Reversible Migrations
Reversible migrations are migrations that know how to go down
for you. You simply supply the up
logic, and the Migration
system figures out how to execute the down commands for you.
To define a reversible migration, define the change
method in your migration like this:
class TenderloveMigration < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def change
create_table(:horses) do |t|
t.column :content, :text
t.column :remind_at, :datetime
end
end
end
This migration will create the horses table for you on the way up, and automatically figure out how to drop the table on the way down.
Some commands cannot be reversed. If you care to define how to move up and down in these cases, you should define the up
and down
methods as before.
If a command cannot be reversed, an ActiveRecord::IrreversibleMigration
exception will be raised when the migration is moving down.
For a list of commands that are reversible, please see ActiveRecord::Migration::CommandRecorder
.
Transactional Migrations
If the database adapter supports DDL transactions, all migrations will automatically be wrapped in a transaction. There are queries that you can't execute inside a transaction though, and for these situations you can turn the automatic transactions off.
class ChangeEnum < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
disable_ddl_transaction!
def up
execute "ALTER TYPE model_size ADD VALUE 'new_value'"
end
end
Remember that you can still open your own transactions, even if you are in a Migration
with self.disable_ddl_transaction!
.
- MODULE ActiveRecord::Migration::Compatibility
- CLASS ActiveRecord::Migration::CheckPending
- CLASS ActiveRecord::Migration::CommandRecorder
- #
- A
- C
- D
- E
- L
- M
- N
- P
- R
- S
- U
- W
Attributes
[RW] | name | |
[RW] | version |
Class Public methods
[](version) Link
check_pending!(connection = Base.connection) Link
Raises ActiveRecord::PendingMigrationError
error if any migrations are pending.
current_version() Link
disable_ddl_transaction!() Link
Disable the transaction wrapping this migration. You can still create your own transactions even after calling disable_ddl_transaction!
For more details read the “Transactional Migrations” section above.
load_schema_if_pending!() Link
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb, line 630 def load_schema_if_pending! current_db_config = Base.connection_db_config all_configs = ActiveRecord::Base.configurations.configs_for(env_name: Rails.env) needs_update = !all_configs.all? do |db_config| Tasks::DatabaseTasks.schema_up_to_date?(db_config, ActiveRecord.schema_format) end if needs_update # Roundtrip to Rake to allow plugins to hook into database initialization. root = defined?(ENGINE_ROOT) ? ENGINE_ROOT : Rails.root FileUtils.cd(root) do Base.clear_all_connections! system("bin/rails db:test:prepare") end end # Establish a new connection, the old database may be gone (db:test:prepare uses purge) Base.establish_connection(current_db_config) check_pending! end
migrate(direction) Link
new(name = self.class.name, version = nil) Link
Instance Public methods
announce(message) Link
connection() Link
copy(destination, sources, options = {}) Link
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb, line 936 def copy(destination, sources, options = {}) copied = [] schema_migration = options[:schema_migration] || ActiveRecord::SchemaMigration FileUtils.mkdir_p(destination) unless File.exist?(destination) destination_migrations = ActiveRecord::MigrationContext.new(destination, schema_migration).migrations last = destination_migrations.last sources.each do |scope, path| source_migrations = ActiveRecord::MigrationContext.new(path, schema_migration).migrations source_migrations.each do |migration| source = File.binread(migration.filename) inserted_comment = "# This migration comes from #{scope} (originally #{migration.version})\n" magic_comments = +"" loop do # If we have a magic comment in the original migration, # insert our comment after the first newline(end of the magic comment line) # so the magic keep working. # Note that magic comments must be at the first line(except sh-bang). source.sub!(/\A(?:#.*\b(?:en)?coding:\s*\S+|#\s*frozen_string_literal:\s*(?:true|false)).*\n/) do |magic_comment| magic_comments << magic_comment; "" end || break end if !magic_comments.empty? && source.start_with?("\n") magic_comments << "\n" source = source[1..-1] end source = "#{magic_comments}#{inserted_comment}#{source}" if duplicate = destination_migrations.detect { |m| m.name == migration.name } if options[:on_skip] && duplicate.scope != scope.to_s options[:on_skip].call(scope, migration) end next end migration.version = next_migration_number(last ? last.version + 1 : 0).to_i new_path = File.join(destination, "#{migration.version}_#{migration.name.underscore}.#{scope}.rb") old_path, migration.filename = migration.filename, new_path last = migration File.binwrite(migration.filename, source) copied << migration options[:on_copy].call(scope, migration, old_path) if options[:on_copy] destination_migrations << migration end end copied end
down() Link
exec_migration(conn, direction) Link
method_missing(method, *arguments, &block) Link
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb, line 917 def method_missing(method, *arguments, &block) arg_list = arguments.map(&:inspect) * ", " say_with_time "#{method}(#{arg_list})" do unless connection.respond_to? :revert unless arguments.empty? || [:execute, :enable_extension, :disable_extension].include?(method) arguments[0] = proper_table_name(arguments.first, table_name_options) if method == :rename_table || (method == :remove_foreign_key && !arguments.second.is_a?(Hash)) arguments[1] = proper_table_name(arguments.second, table_name_options) end end end return super unless connection.respond_to?(method) connection.send(method, *arguments, &block) end end
migrate(direction) Link
Execute this migration in the named direction
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb, line 842 def migrate(direction) return unless respond_to?(direction) case direction when :up then announce "migrating" when :down then announce "reverting" end time = nil ActiveRecord::Base.connection_pool.with_connection do |conn| time = Benchmark.measure do exec_migration(conn, direction) end end case direction when :up then announce "migrated (%.4fs)" % time.real; write when :down then announce "reverted (%.4fs)" % time.real; write end end
next_migration_number(number) Link
Determines the version number of the next migration.
proper_table_name(name, options = {}) Link
Finds the correct table name given an Active Record object. Uses the Active Record object's own table_name, or pre/suffix from the options passed in.
reversible() Link
Used to specify an operation that can be run in one direction or another. Call the methods up
and down
of the yielded object to run a block only in one given direction. The whole block will be called in the right order within the migration.
In the following example, the looping on users will always be done when the three columns 'first_name', 'last_name' and 'full_name' exist, even when migrating down:
class SplitNameMigration < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def change
add_column :users, :first_name, :string
add_column :users, :last_name, :string
reversible do |dir|
User.reset_column_information
User.all.each do |u|
dir.up { u.first_name, u.last_name = u.full_name.split(' ') }
dir.down { u.full_name = "#{u.first_name} #{u.last_name}" }
u.save
end
end
revert { add_column :users, :full_name, :string }
end
end
revert(*migration_classes, &block) Link
Reverses the migration commands for the given block and the given migrations.
The following migration will remove the table 'horses' and create the table 'apples' on the way up, and the reverse on the way down.
class FixTLMigration < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def change
revert do
create_table(:horses) do |t|
t.text :content
t.datetime :remind_at
end
end
create_table(:apples) do |t|
t.string :variety
end
end
end
Or equivalently, if TenderloveMigration
is defined as in the documentation for Migration:
require_relative "20121212123456_tenderlove_migration"
class FixupTLMigration < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def change
revert TenderloveMigration
create_table(:apples) do |t|
t.string :variety
end
end
end
This command can be nested.
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb, line 731 def revert(*migration_classes, &block) run(*migration_classes.reverse, revert: true) unless migration_classes.empty? if block_given? if connection.respond_to? :revert connection.revert(&block) else recorder = command_recorder @connection = recorder suppress_messages do connection.revert(&block) end @connection = recorder.delegate recorder.replay(self) end end end
reverting?() Link
run(*migration_classes) Link
Runs the given migration classes. Last argument can specify options:
-
:direction (default is :up)
-
:revert (default is false)
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb, line 815 def run(*migration_classes) opts = migration_classes.extract_options! dir = opts[:direction] || :up dir = (dir == :down ? :up : :down) if opts[:revert] if reverting? # If in revert and going :up, say, we want to execute :down without reverting, so revert { run(*migration_classes, direction: dir, revert: true) } else migration_classes.each do |migration_class| migration_class.new.exec_migration(connection, dir) end end end
say(message, subitem = false) Link
Takes a message argument and outputs it as is. A second boolean argument can be passed to specify whether to indent or not.
say_with_time(message) Link
Outputs text along with how long it took to run its block. If the block returns an integer it assumes it is the number of rows affected.
suppress_messages() Link
Takes a block as an argument and suppresses any output generated by the block.
up() Link
up_only(&block) Link
Used to specify an operation that is only run when migrating up (for example, populating a new column with its initial values).
In the following example, the new column published
will be given the value true
for all existing records.
class AddPublishedToPosts < ActiveRecord::Migration[7.0]
def change
add_column :posts, :published, :boolean, default: false
up_only do
execute "update posts set published = 'true'"
end
end
end