When you generate a new Rails 7.1 app, you have a binstub called bin/dev.
The binstub is responsible for launching your development tools defined in
Procfile.dev. By default, Rails uses Foreman to start your app.
Overmind is a better alternative to Foreman. Your project can
support both at the same time, so your team won’t hate you. Here’s how.
What is Foreman?
Manage Procfile-based applications
In a nutshell, it’s a manager for any process that your Rails app needs. It hasn’t been updated in a couple of years already.
What is Overmind?
Overmind is a process manager for Procfile-based applications and tmux.
It’s an alternative that is more advanced. It is updated more regularly, so I recommend it to anyone starting a new Rails project.
Co-using Overmind in your Rails project along with Foreman
Installation
Install Overmind (macOS):
brew install overmind
Note: you don’t need to add anything to your Gemfile.
Tweak bin/dev
Every time I generate a new Rails 7.1 project, I replace bin/dev with the
following content:
#!/usr/bin/env sh
# Default to port 3000 if not specified
export PORT="${PORT:-3000}"
if command -v overmind &> /dev/null
then
overmind start -f Procfile.dev "$@"
exit $?
fi
if ! gem list foreman -i --silent; then
echo "Installing foreman..."
gem install foreman
fi
foreman start -f Procfile.dev "$@"
In this updated version of bin/dev, we added support for Overmind while still
maintaining Foreman support.
If you have Overmind installed, it will use that.
If you don’t have it installed, Foreman will be used as a fallback.
Now you can open a PR against your Rails repository and be happy that your teammates don’t hate you if they prefer Foreman instead.