Getting Started with OpenShift

Chapter 3. Making Code Modifications

In Chapter 2 we used OpenShift and a single RHC command to create a Python application running in the cloud. In a matter of seconds the application was live on the Internet; when we visited its URL we got back the OpenShift equivalent of a Hello World page, including some useful information on what to do next. Spinning up an application quickly and easily like this is pretty cool, but a static page can only entertain for so long. In this chapter we will modify the default application to do something more exciting and deploy the changes to OpenShift.

Cloning Code to Your Local Machine

When you create an OpenShift application with the RHC command-line tools, by default the new Git repository created on the OpenShift gear will be cloned to your local machine. The contents will end up in a new directory with the same name as the application, created inside the directory in which you ran the rhc app create command. If you would like the repository to be cloned to a different location, specify this by adding the --repo repo_dir_path option to your rhc app create command; the repository contents will be cloned into the directory specified, which should either be empty or not yet exist. If you do not wish to clone the Git repository as part of the app creation process, you can add the --no-git flag.

If you choose not to clone the OpenShift application repository when you create the app, or something goes wrong and the clone fails, you can clone it later ...