

Ask HN: Now that my site is live, how do I make changes to the source code? - crowdguy

	As a newbie web programmer, I&#x27;ve been editing the source files directly through an SSH connection. Now that the site has traffic, I&#x27;m not sure how to make new updates and furthermore test new features that are guaranteed to be broken upon their release.<p>Am I supposed to be using some form of revision control system, or is this a game of hidden subfolders and permissions?<p>Thanks
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ablerman
Here are a few thoughts, some people may disagree with me, but you're new, so
you don't get to be one of them.

1) Use git. Go create an account on github and use that. If you don't know how
to use git, there's a tutorial at
[http://try.github.io/](http://try.github.io/)

2) Do all of your development on your local machine. That means that your
local machine should be able to run your site.

3) Try to make your deployment process as simple as possible. Since it sounds
like your site is small, you can probably get away with pulling the new code
and restarting your web server. Total downtime should only be a few seconds.
You can make it more complex as you get your feet under you.

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crowdguy
What happens if I open up a live .php file and just paste new working code and
hit "Save"? What happens on the end user-side if I do that? Furthermore, I'm
with DO and I don't think I've ever rebooted my virtual server.

~~~
ablerman
Ah, I was unclear. When I said restart your web server, I didn't mean to
reboot the machine. Just restart the web server process. Nginx or Apache or
whichever you're using.

~~~
crowdguy
Why does it need to be restarted ? It seems that when I save a file, the
changes reflect on the site automatically

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sengopal
I work for an ecommerce site and we generally have a diff. sub domain which
will have the "beta" or "test" version of code in live. Users are welcome to
use it, but with fair warning. We also trickle, small percentage of users to
the newer experience to gather feedback before enabling it site wide (A/B
testing).

~~~
crowdguy
So you're sayign what I can do it duplicate my site onto a subdomain, test the
features there, and when they're bug-free, I can just copy paste the new code
into the source files on the live site?

