Starting to add the actual extra recipes against my better judgement

bin/capify

@@ -50,16 +50,17 @@ files = {
     # and restart your mongrel application, or if you rely on the database
     # migration code, please uncomment the lines you require below
     
-    # require 'recipes/rails/mongrel'
-    # require 'recipes/rails/migrations'
-    # require 'recipes/rails/passenger_mod_rails'
+    # require 'ext/recipes/rails/mongrel'
+    # require 'ext/recipes/rails/migrations'
+    # require 'ext/recipes/rails/passenger_mod_rails'
     
     # There are also new utility libaries shipped with the core these 
     # include the following, please see individual files for more
     # documentation, or run `cap -T` with the following lines commented out
     # to see what they make available.
     
-    # require 'recipes/apache'
+    # require 'ext/recipes/apache'
+    # require 'ext/recipes/web-disable-enable'
 
     # If you aren't deploying to /u/apps/\#{application} on the target
     # servers (which is the default), you can specify the actual location

lib/capistrano/recipes/ext/web-disable-enable.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+namespace :web do
+  desc <<-DESC
+    Present a maintenance page to visitors. Disables your application's web \
+    interface by writing a "maintenance.html" file to each web server. The \
+    servers must be configured to detect the presence of this file, and if \
+    it is present, always display it instead of performing the request.
+
+    By default, the maintenance page will just say the site is down for \
+    "maintenance", and will be back "shortly", but you can customize the \
+    page by specifying the REASON and UNTIL environment variables:
+
+      $ cap deploy:web:disable \\
+            REASON="hardware upgrade" \\
+            UNTIL="12pm Central Time"
+
+    Further customization will require that you write your own task.
+  DESC
+  task :disable, :roles => :web, :except => { :no_release => true } do
+    require 'erb'
+    on_rollback { run "rm #{shared_path}/system/maintenance.html" }
+
+    reason = ENV['REASON']
+    deadline = ENV['UNTIL']
+
+    template = File.read(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), "templates", "maintenance.rhtml"))
+    result = ERB.new(template).result(binding)
+
+    put result, "#{shared_path}/system/maintenance.html", :mode => 0644
+  end
+
+  desc <<-DESC
+    Makes the application web-accessible again. Removes the \
+    "maintenance.html" page generated by deploy:web:disable, which (if your \
+    web servers are configured correctly) will make your application \
+    web-accessible again.
+  DESC
+  task :enable, :roles => :web, :except => { :no_release => true } do
+    run "rm #{shared_path}/system/maintenance.html"
+  end
+end