Unable to Rollback Migrations in Contember

[NotSugat]

I am experiencing an issue with rolling back migrations in Contember. Currently, there seems to be no direct command to rollback a specific migration, which complicates the process of reverting changes.

Steps Taken:

1. Attempted Rollback Using Available Commands:

   • I tried to use various Contember commands like migrations:execute, migrations:rebase, and migrations:status, but none provided an option to directly rollback a specific migration.

2. Manually Created Revert Migrations:

   • As a workaround, I created new migration files to manually revert the changes introduced by previous migrations. However, this approach is cumbersome and error-prone.

Issue Details:

• I need to revert the changes made by specific migrations without having to manually write new revert migrations.
• Example migrations I need to rollback:
  • 2024-08-26-080246-add-delivery-date-order

Expected Behavior:

• A command or feature within Contember that allows for the rollback of specific migrations, reverting their effects automatically.

Additional Information:

• I have explored all relevant documentation and commands, but there appears to be no built-in functionality for this purpose.

Request:

• Guidance on how to properly rollback specific migrations.
• If this feature is not currently available, a feature request to include migration rollback functionality in Contember would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[matej21]

Thank you for your detailed report.

At this time, Contember does not support the concept of "rolling back" migrations, particularly in production environments. The reasoning behind this is that rollbacks can introduce significant risks in production, such as data loss or inconsistencies, which is why we have intentionally designed the migration system with forward-only migrations in mind.

However, we do recognize that having a more straightforward rollback mechanism could be beneficial during development. While we do not plan to introduce rollback functionality for production deployments, we are open to considering a feature that improves the development workflow by allowing easier migration reverts.

For now, the best tool available in Contember is the migration:amend command. This command allows you to modify the latest migration. If you revert the changes in your model and then use migration:amend, it should effectively undo the changes introduced by the latest migration. Additionally, migration:amend supports specifying a migration other than the latest, which may help in your case.

Please note, that migration:amend is also a development-only feature and is disabled in a production environment.

If you have further questions or need any assistance, feel free to reach out.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention!