For local development
Generate a secret using rails secret
Method #1: Store this secret in your .bashrc or .zshrc
see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/356441/how-to-add-permanent-environment-variable-in-zsh for
Method #2: Use the dotenv Gem
Once you have this gem installed, you then create a .env file in the root of your Rails app that does NOT get checked-into the source control.
https://github.com/bkeepers/dotenv
Method #3 (if using rhc Openshift client)
rhc set-env SECRET_KEY_BASE=3dc8b0885b3043c0e38aa2e1dc64******************** -a myapp
For the server
Method #1: Heroku
Option 1: Store the SECRET_KEY_BASE directly onto the environment
heroku config:set SECRET_KEY_BASE=xxxx
Option 2: Store the secret encrypted with the app and use the master.key file to decrypt it.
Method #2:
For AWS, use AWS Secret Manager to store the master key.
Method #3: For RHC Openshift
connect to your server via SSH and run env so you should see your SECRET_KEY_BASE in the list.
Now restart you app rhc app-stop myapp and rhc app-start myapp