Many of us use Heroku on a daily bases but are not aware of some interesting and useful CLI commands that may help you in your everyday work. Here we will take a look at some useful Heroku CLI commands.
heroku apps:info
OPTIONS -a, --app=app app to run command against -j, --json -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use -s, --shell output more shell friendly key/value pairs
If you want to check some basic information about your app that is running on Heroku, you can do so from your CLI. The command and output look something like this:
heroku apps:info -a name-of-your-app
=== name-of-your-app
Addons: heroku-postgresql:standard-0
heroku-redis:premium-0
timber-logging:free
Auto Cert Mgmt: false
Dynos: web: 2, worker: 1
Git URL: https://git.heroku.com/name-of-your-app.git
Owner: owner@heroku.com
Region: eu
Repo Size: 234 MB
Slug Size: 234 MB
Stack: heroku-18
Web URL: https://name-of-your-app.herokuapp.com/
heroku buildpacks:search [term]
ARGUMENTS
TERM search term that searches across name, namespace, and description
OPTIONS
--description=description buildpack description to filter on
--name=name buildpack names to filter on using a comma
separated list
--namespace=namespace buildpack namespaces to filter on using a comma
separated list
You probably know that you can add or remove buildpacks but one useful command is the buildpack search command. Let's say you want to search for the elastic buildpack, you can find it easily:
heroku buildpacks:search elastic Buildpack Category Description ────────────────────────────────────────── ──────── ─────────────────────────────────── doctolib/heroku-buildpack-ci-elasticsearch tools Installs an in-dyno ElasticSearch … 1 buildpack found
Then you can eventually add the buildpack you just found and see that it is added to the bottom of your buildpacks list. One thing to notice is that this newly added buildpack will be applied to your app the next time you deploy, not instantly:
heroku buildpacks:add doctolib/heroku-buildpack-ci-elasticsearch -a name-of-your-app Buildpack added. Next release on your-app-name will use: 1. heroku/nodejs 2. https://github.com/mojodna/heroku-buildpack-jemalloc 3. heroku/ruby 4. doctolib/heroku-buildpack-ci-elasticsearch
heroku ci
OPTIONS -a, --app=app app name -p, --pipeline=pipeline name of pipeline --json output in json format --watch keep running and watch for new and update tests
If you want to check the latest test runs for a given app or pipeline, you can do so with this command:
heroku ci -a name-of-your-app === Showing latest test runs for the lab pipeline ✓ 2961 last_commit fbe70c8 succeeded ✓ 2960 second_commit 4615132 succeeded ✗ 2959 first_commit a3563a9 failed
heroku:ci debug
OPTIONS -a, --app=app app to run command against -p, --pipeline=pipeline pipeline -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use --no-cache start test run with an empty cache --no-setup start test dyno without running test-setup
One problem that some of you might have seen is tests that pass locally but fail on your Heroku CI. This command opens a new debug test run. This enables you to inspect the Heroku CI environment and the execution of tests inside a test dyno. It will first start the test setup script (if one is present) and then open a new terminal window from inside the new debug dyno, so you can run your tests from inside the CI.
heroku ci:debug -a name-of-your-app Preparing source... done Creating test run... done Running setup and attaching to test dyno... ... ~ $
heroku config:edit [key]
ARGUMENTS KEY edit a single key OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
If you want to quickly edit a config variable that you have in your app, this is a great way. It opens the default text editor set by $VISUAL or $EDITOR. After editing and saving your file, you will be asked to confirm your edit by typing "yes" at the prompt.
heroku config:edit APP_DISTRIBUTOR -a name-of-your-app Fetching config... done Config Diff: APP_DISTRIBUTOR=test APP_DISTRIBUTOR=test-new Update config on ⬢ name-of-your-app with these values?: Update config on ⬢ name-of-your-app with these values?: yes Updating config... done
heroku ps:scale
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
To resize your dynos you can use the ps:scale option. If you enter the command without any options you will see the current dyno formation:
heroku ps:scale -a name-of-your-app console=0:Standard-1X rake=0:Standard-1X release=0:Standard-1X web=2:Standard-1X worker=1:Standard-1X
Let's say you want to scale your worker count up, you can do this in 2 ways:
1.
heroku ps:scale worker=2:Standard-1X -a name-of-your-app Scaling dynos... done, now running worker at 2:Standard-1X
2.
heroku ps:scale worker+1 -a name-of-your-app Scaling dynos... done, now running worker at 2:Standard-1X
The same goes for scaling down, you can type the exact dyno formation you want or you can decrease it with the dash ( - ) sign.
heroku logs
OPTIONS
-a, --app=app (required) app to run command against
-d, --dyno=dyno only show output from this dyno type (such as "web" or
"worker")
-n, --num=num number of lines to display
-r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
-s, --source=source only show output from this source (such as "app" or
"heroku")
-t, --tail continually stream logs
--force-colors force use of colors (even on non-tty output)
To check your application logs you can use the logs command. You can filter by dyno type, edit the number of lines you want to see, continually stream logs etc.
heroku logs -n=4 -a name-of-your-app 2019-11-04T13:34:02.024374+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Restarting 2019-11-04T13:34:02.097510+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from up to starting 2019-11-04T13:34:02.191176+00:00 heroku[worker.1]: Restarting 2019-11-04T13:34:02.264730+00:00 heroku[worker.1]: State changed from up to starting
heroku pg:backups:capture [database]
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use -v, --verbose --wait-interval=wait-interval
To create a new database backup file, you can use this command. You have to enter the name of your database config variable (in this example it is HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_ORANGE_URL). You can find out the correct name for your database by checking the heroku config command. Then just enter the command like this:
heroku pg:backups:create HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_ORANGE_URL -a name-of-your-app ▸ Continuous protection is already enabled for this database. Logical backups of large databases are likely to fail. ▸ See https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-postgres-data-safety-and-continuous-protection#physical-backups-on-heroku-postgres. Starting backup of add-on-name... done Use Ctrl-C at any time to stop monitoring progress; the backup will continue running. Use heroku pg:backups:info to check progress. Stop a running backup with heroku pg:backups:cancel. Backing up ORANGE to b002... done
To download you newly created backup, first check the backup_id:
heroku pg:backups -a name-of-your-app === Backups ID Created at Status Size Database ──── ───────────────────────── ─────────────────────────────────── ──────── ──────── b002 2019-11-04 13:56:58 +0000 Completed 2019-11-04 14:02:24 +0000 397.92MB ORANGE
and then you can download it:
heroku pg:backups:download b002 -a name-of-your-app Getting backup from ⬢ name-of-your-app... done, #2 Downloading latest.dump... ████████████████████████▏ 100% 00:00 397.92MB
heroku pg:bloat [database]
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
To show information about table and index bloat in your database, you can use this command:
heroku pg:bloat HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_ORANGE_URL -a name-of-your-app type | schemaname | object_name | bloat | waste -------+------------+-------------------------------------+-------+------------ table | public | table_1 | 1.1 | 41 MB table | public | table_2 | 1.1 | 7360 kB table | public | table_3 | 1.1 | 4656 kB table | public | table_4 | 1.0 | 2480 kB
The bloat column shows the bloat factor, which is the fraction of the original table that exists as bloat. Because it is a ratio, there are no units. The waste column shows the total bloat (in bytes) in each table and index in the system.
heroku pg:psql [database]
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -c, --command=command SQL command to run -f, --file=file SQL file to run -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use --credential=credential credential to use
You can access a psql shell of your database this way:
heroku pg:psql HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_ORANGE_URL -a name-of-your-app --> Connecting to add-on-name psql (11.3, server 11.5 (Ubuntu 11.5-1.pgdg16.04+1)) SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.2, cipher: cipher-code, bits: 256, compression: off) Type "help" for help. name-of-your-app::HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_ORANGE=>
You can now query your database with standard SQL commands, do insert, update or delete statements if you need to.
heroku pg:pull source target
OPTIONS
-a, --app=app (required) app to run command against
-r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
--exclude-table-data=exclude-table-data tables for which data should be
excluded (use ';' to split multiple
names)
DESCRIPTION
Pull from SOURCE into TARGET.
TARGET must be one of:
* a database name (i.e. on a local PostgreSQL server) => TARGET must not
exist and will be created
* a fully qualified URL to a local PostgreSQL server => TARGET must not
exist and will be created
* a fully qualified URL to a remote PostgreSQL server => TARGET must exist
and be empty
This command can come in handy if your local database is not big enough but you want to test some feature. This way, you can copy a staging/production database to a new local database:
heroku pg:pull HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_ORANGE_URL name_of_local_new_db -a name-of-your-app heroku-cli: Pulling add-on-name ---> name_of_local_new_db ... heroku-cli: Pulling complete.
You can also do the opposite, to push one of your local databases to Heroku, with pg:push.
heroku pipelines:diff
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
If you want to check if your staging and production app are in sync, you can do so with the pipelines:diff command:
heroku pipelines:diff -a name-of-your-staging-app Fetching apps from pipeline... done Fetching release info for all apps... done ⬢ name-of-your-staging-app is up to date with ⬢ name-of-your-production-app
If they are not in sync, you will get a detailed commit diff with the differences:
heroku pipelines:diff -a name-of-your-staging-app Fetching apps from pipeline... done Fetching release info for all apps... done === ⬢ name-of-your-staging-app is ahead of ⬢ name-of-your-production-app by 2 commits SHA Date Author Message some-sha 2019-10-23T11:56:47Z sinanmujan Update Ruby version to 2.6.5 some-sha 2019-10-10T07:00:08Z sinanmujan Fix redirect middleware
heroku ps
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use --json display as json
To get information about all the dynos in your application, their startup command and up time, you can do this:
heroku ps -a name-of-your-app === web (Standard-1X): jemalloc.sh bundle exec puma -C config/puma.rb (1) web.1: up 2019/11/05 00:40:48 +0100 (~ 10h ago) === worker (Standard-1X): bundle exec sidekiq -e production -C config/sidekiq.yml (1) worker.1: up 2019/11/04 17:44:06 +0100 (~ 17h ago)
heroku ps:exec
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -d, --dyno=dyno specify the dyno to connect to -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use --ssh use native ssh --status lists the status of the SSH server in the dyno
If you want to connect to one of your dynos through SSH, you can do so like this:
heroku ps:exec -a name-of-your-app Establishing credentials... done Connecting to web.1 on ⬢ name-of-your-app... ~ $
heroku redis:cli
OPTIONS -a, --app=app (required) app to run command against -c, --confirm=confirm -r, --remote=remote git remote of app to use
You can access the Redis resource of your application:
heroku redis:cli -a name-of-your-app Connecting to redis-horizontal-35620 (REDIS_URL): some-redis-url:20099>
Copy database between Heroku apps
If you want to copy the entire database from one Heroku application to another, you can do it this way:
heroku pg:copy source_app::source_db_name destination_db_name -a destination_app
Copy ENV variables between Heroku apps
If you want to copy ENV variables between 2 Heroku apps, there is an easy way to do this. First, we need to copy the settings from the current app to a text file on your local machine:
heroku config -s -a existing-heroku-app > config.txt
Then you can add the contents of this config file to your new Heroku app:
cat config.txt | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs heroku config:set -a new-heroku-app
Summary
These were just some interesting and hopefully helpful Heroku commands. You may find more useful tips and tricks in the official Heroku documentation.
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