Mix Releases for Elixir: everything you need to know

Mix Releases: they're pretty handy, but can be kind of frustrating too. Here's my best take at getting you using them in your Elixir/Phoenix projects.

We're going to go over the key documentation sources, including those for mix tasks and Phoenix-related commands for releases, and practical aspects of mix releases, such as creating Docker images and dealing with configuration settings across different environments.

Tips on handling issues like the absence of the mix command line tool in production, using bash scripts for migrations, and configuring Docker for building and running releases are covered too. The video also addresses Docker's compatibility with mix releases, nuances of Elixir app configuration, and the significance of runtime configuration. Towards the end, we'll set up Docker Compose for local development, including setting environment variables, the hostname, and other stuff correctly.

0:00 Mix Releases Crash Course
01:10 Documentation
02:00 What's a mix release?
05:49 Releasing a new Phoenix App
06:42 Release Environments
07:56 Naming releases and configuring mix.exs
10:59 Overlays
13:00 Commands of the release bash script
13:39 OS Build Targets
14:27 The mix phx.gen.release task
19:07 Docker
21:59 Running docker images
23:47 Mix Configuration
27:47 System vs Application Config
31:07 Docker Compose
36:31 Setting the Endpoint hostname
38:48 Wrapping up