How to deploy your code from GitHub automatically

github_update.php wouldn't be linked to by any of your pages, so it shouldn't show up in the google index. You could also force it to accept some password as a GET parameter for a wee bit more security.

I agree though, this is still a really simple way to automate deployment.

There are lots of web apps that use update mechanisms like this one. Back in the bad old days, I remember writing something that synced code files by using some convoluted homebrew json protocol. Anyway, the point is: this kind of functionality is normally restricted by the web app, usually requiring admin privileges or some form of authentication.

For example, at work, we have a similar function that pulls down the current SVN repository onto the web servers. We've been doing this for years, it works great - but that doesn't mean people can just call these URLs from the outside. I also believe choosing an obfuscating name for the update file is not sufficiently secure.

Well, (semi) automatic updates would be one use case, as the article details. Furthermore, many apps do require write access to at least a couple of directories to write log files and static content.

The point was magic, automatic updates.

Yeah, that was my first thought, too.