gistfile1.rb

desc 'backup the production database'
task :backup do

  server = "your server"
  username = "your user"
  keypair = "#{Merb.root}/path/to/your/keypair"
  databases = ["your", "databases", "here" ]

  ssh_command =  "ssh -i #{keypair} -L 5985:localhost:5984 #{username}@#{server}"
  pid, stdin, stdout, stderr = Open4::popen4 ssh_command
  sleep(2) # Hack to let the connection finish setting up
  databases.each do |db|
    puts "Replicating #{db}"
    `curl -s -X POST -d '{"source":"http://127.0.0.1:5985/depot-#{db}","target":"production-#{db}"}' http://localhost:5984/_replicate`
  end
  `kill #{pid}`
end