Rollback and operations

Tarsail keeps operations close to Docker Compose. The commands are wrappers around a stable remote layout and predictable Compose invocations.

Status

Show remote Compose status:

tarsail status

With explicit config and key:

tarsail --config tarsail.production.yml --identity-file ~/.ssh/my-app-deploy-key status

This runs a remote command equivalent to:

cd /opt/my-app
docker compose -p my-app --env-file current/.tarsail.env --env-file shared/.env -f current/compose.yaml ps

Logs

Show recent logs:

tarsail logs

Show logs for one service:

tarsail logs web

Control line count:

tarsail logs --tail 500 web

Follow logs:

tarsail logs -f web

--tail must be between 1 and 10000.

Service names may contain letters, numbers, dot, underscore, and hyphen.

Rollback

Roll back to the previous release:

tarsail rollback

Rollback:

• lists releases under <target.path>/releases;
• detects the current release from the current symlink;
• selects the previous release;
• reloads bundled images from the previous release;
• updates current;
• runs docker compose up -d;
• prints status.

Rollback does not ask for confirmation in Phase 0.

Rollback limitations

Rollback does not restore:

• databases;
• Docker volumes;
• bind-mounted directories outside current;
• shared/ files;
• DNS;
• certificates;
• cloud firewall rules;
• external service state.

If a failed deployment ran a destructive migration, tarsail rollback cannot undo the database change. Keep migration safety and backup policy in the application deployment plan.

Prune releases

Preview and confirm old release deletion:

tarsail prune

Skip confirmation:

tarsail prune --yes

Global --yes also applies:

tarsail --yes prune

Prune keeps the current release and keeps the newest releases according to deploy.keep_releases.

What prune deletes

Prune deletes old release directories under:

<target.path>/releases/

It does not delete:

• the current release;
• incoming/ bundles;
• shared/;
• Docker images;
• Docker volumes;
• databases;
• files outside the Tarsail target path.

Manual remote inspection

When debugging, it is often useful to inspect the remote layout:

ssh [email protected]
cd /opt/my-app
ls -la
ls -la releases
readlink current
docker compose -p my-app --env-file current/.tarsail.env --env-file shared/.env -f current/compose.yaml ps

To see the active release manifest:

cat current/manifest.json

To confirm the release ID Compose received:

cat current/.tarsail.env

Operational checklist

For routine maintenance:

• run doctor after changing server access, Docker installation, config paths, or secret provisioning;
• run status after every deployment;
• inspect service logs before rollback;
• keep deploy.keep_releases high enough for your rollback needs;
• prune only after confirming recent releases are healthy;
• keep database backup and migration strategy outside Tarsail;
• document application-specific ports, health checks, and recovery steps.