Ridgepole

What Ridgepole is

Ridgepole is a free, self-hosted Ruby gem for managing database schemas with Rails DSL. You define the desired schema, then Ridgepole can export a database schema to a Schemafile, compare definitions, and apply changes. Its --dry-run option previews schema changes before they are applied. The README demonstrates table and column renames, foreign keys, check constraints, indexes, generated columns, and SQL execution. It documents MySQL and PostgreSQL examples, but not SQLite support. The repository identifies the license as MIT. Ridgepole can be added to an application's Gemfile or installed with gem install ridgepole. The README associates Ridgepole v3.1.0 with Rails 8.1 and v3.0.0 with Rails 8.0. From v1.0 onward, dropping tables is skipped by default and requires --drop-table; partitioning is no longer supported from v1.1.0. A table using renamed_from needs other changes applied separately. For check constraints, the README advises matching expressions to the database's exported form to avoid unnecessary migrations.

Who it suits

Ridgepole suits developers who want to define database schemas with Rails DSL and apply changes from code. It is relevant to teams using MySQL or PostgreSQL who can work with a self-hosted Ruby gem.

Limits

Ridgepole does not support SQLite, and partitioning is unavailable from v1.1.0. Table deletion is skipped by default and requires the --drop-table option.

Getting started

1. Open the Ridgepole GitHub repository
2. Add Ridgepole to your application's Gemfile or install it with gem install ridgepole
3. Define the desired schema with Rails DSL
4. Export the database schema to a Schemafile
5. Compare definitions and review the dry run
6. Apply the schema changes

Verdict

Ridgepole offers code-based schema comparison and updates, with a dry-run preview and support examples for MySQL and PostgreSQL. Check its database and migration constraints before adopting it.