Fix production boot crash: install libffi8 in Railway runtime image - #1869
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web and worker have been crashing on boot since 2026-08-19 with LoadError: libffi.so.8: cannot open shared object file, from the ffi gem's native extension (required transitively via sassc -> sassc-rails). Railpack doesn't auto-detect libffi as a runtime dependency for Ruby's ffi gem, and something changed on Railway's builder side that stopped carrying libffi.so.8 into the deploy image. Explicitly declaring it in railpack.json's deploy.aptPackages restores it. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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🚅 Deployed to the wod-tracker-pr-1869 environment in wod-tracker
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Explains the ffi -> sassc -> sassc-rails -> rails_admin chain and the Railpack v0.37.0 Debian 13 migration that dropped libffi.so.8 from the runtime image, so this doesn't look like an arbitrary apt package pin. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Summary
webandworkerhave been crashing on boot in production since 2026-08-19 02:48 UTC withLoadError: libffi.so.8: cannot open shared object file, originating from theffigem's native extension (pulled in transitively viasassc->sassc-rails, required inconfig/application.rb).ffi(1.15.5) has been unchanged inGemfile.lockfor a long time and no recent app commit touches it, ruby version, or sassc — the three deploys since the last successful one (2026-08-17 14:40) all fail identically at container start, and a cache-cleared rebuild-from-source reproduces the same failure. This points to a change on Railway's builder (Railpack) side that stopped carryinglibffi.so.8into the runtime image.ffigem, so this needs to be declared explicitly.railpack.jsondeclaringlibffi8as an additionaldeploy.aptPackagesentry (extending, not replacing, Railpack's auto-detected list via the"..."syntax), so the runtime image has the shared library the compiledffi_c.soextension links against.Test plan
libffi.so.8LoadError.webandworkerdeploy and start cleanly on Railway.🤖 Generated with Claude Code