ENV['STAGE'] ||= "staging"

paths = {
  :staging          => "stage01.mydomain.com",
  :production       => "mydomain.com"
}

set :application,   "mydomain.com"
set :dir,           paths[ENV['STAGE'].to_sym]
set :user,          "..."

role :web, application
role :app, application
role :db,  application, :primary => true

set :deploy_to, "/home/#{user}/#{dir}"
set :use_sudo, false

As you can see, it defaults to “staging” so any calls like “cap deploy” or “cap update_code” will be performed in a safe sandbox. To go live, I have a “cap_production.bat” in the root folder:

SET STAGE=production
cap %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

class Capistrano::Actor

  # A saner put replacement that doesn't read the whole file into memory...
  def put_file(path, remote_path, options = {})
    raise "put_file can only be used with SFTP" unless Capistrano::SFTP && options.fetch(:sftp, true)

    execute_on_servers(options) do |servers|
      servers.each do |server|
        logger.info "uploading #{File.basename(path)} to #{server}"
        sftp = sessions[server].sftp
        sftp.connect unless sftp.state ==  pen
        sftp.put_file path, remote_path
        logger.debug "done uploading #{File.basename(path)} to #{server}"
      end
    end
  end

end

and I had to update it for Capistrano 2.0:

module Capistrano
  class Configuration
    module Actions
      module FileTransfer

        # A saner put replacement that doesn't read the whole file into memory...
        def put_file(path, remote_path, options = {})
          execute_on_servers(options) do |servers|
            servers.each do |server|
              logger.info "uploading #{File.basename(path)} to #{server}"
              sftp = sessions[server].sftp
              sftp.connect unless sftp.state ==  pen
              sftp.put_file path, remote_path
              logger.debug "done uploading #{File.basename(path)} to #{server}"
            end
          end
        end

      end
    end
  end
end