Git 2.4 and above have a simple mechanism that allows you to push to a server to deploy files just as you would push to a repository.

Server Setup

This assumes your server is accessible via SSH.

• On your server, create the folder you want to deploy to, and initialize a Git repo in it:

mkdir my-project
cd my-project
git init

• Configure that Git repo to update the current branch upon deployment:

git config receive.denyCurrentBranch updateInstead

Local Setup

• In your local project folder, add the server as a Git remote.

git remote add production ssh://myuser@mydomain.com/var/www/my-project

• To do a deployment:

git push deploy

For info on how to execute commands upon deployment, see Pete Coop's post.