Publish to a gh-pages branch on GitHub (or any other branch on any other remote)
The gh-pages npm package is a utility for deploying projects to GitHub Pages. It simplifies the process of publishing content to a GitHub repository's gh-pages branch, which is used to serve static sites directly from the repository.
Deploying to GitHub Pages
This feature allows you to deploy the contents of a directory (in this case, 'dist') to the gh-pages branch of your repository. The callback function handles any errors that occur during the deployment process.
const ghpages = require('gh-pages');
ghpages.publish('dist', function(err) {
if (err) {
console.error('Deployment failed:', err);
} else {
console.log('Deployment successful!');
}
});Customizing Deployment
This feature allows you to customize the deployment by specifying options such as the branch to deploy to, the repository URL, and user information for the commit.
const ghpages = require('gh-pages');
ghpages.publish('dist', {
branch: 'custom-branch',
repo: 'https://github.com/user/repo.git',
user: {
name: 'Your Name',
email: 'your-email@example.com'
}
}, function(err) {
if (err) {
console.error('Deployment failed:', err);
} else {
console.log('Deployment successful!');
}
});Cleaning Up Before Deployment
This feature allows you to clean up the local cache before deploying. This can be useful to ensure that no old files are left over from previous deployments.
const ghpages = require('gh-pages');
ghpages.clean();
ghpages.publish('dist', function(err) {
if (err) {
console.error('Deployment failed:', err);
} else {
console.log('Deployment successful!');
}
});Netlify CLI is a command-line tool for interacting with Netlify's platform. It allows you to deploy sites, manage DNS settings, and more. Unlike gh-pages, which is specific to GitHub Pages, Netlify CLI provides a broader range of functionalities for deploying and managing static sites on Netlify.
Surge is a simple command-line tool for publishing static sites. It offers a straightforward way to deploy sites to Surge's hosting service. While gh-pages is specific to GitHub Pages, Surge provides an alternative hosting solution with its own set of features and simplicity.
Vercel CLI is a command-line tool for deploying projects to Vercel's platform. It supports a wide range of frameworks and static site generators. Compared to gh-pages, Vercel CLI offers more advanced features such as serverless functions and automatic scaling.
Publish files to a gh-pages branch on GitHub (or any other branch anywhere else).
npm install gh-pages --save-dev
This module requires Git >=1.9.
var ghpages = require('gh-pages');
ghpages.publish('dist', function(err) {});
publishghpages.publish(dir, callback);
// or...
ghpages.publish(dir, options, callback);
Calling this function will create a temporary clone of the current repository, create a gh-pages branch if one doesn't already exist, copy over all files from the base path, or only those that match patterns from the optional src configuration, commit all changes, and push to the origin remote.
If a gh-pages branch already exists, it will be updated with all commits from the remote before adding any commits from the provided src files.
Note that any files in the gh-pages branch that are not in the src files will be removed. See the add option if you don't want any of the existing files removed.
dirstringThe base directory for all source files (those listed in the src config property).
Example use:
/**
* Given the following directory structure:
*
* dist/
* index.html
* js/
* site.js
*
* The usage below will create a `gh-pages` branch that looks like this:
*
* index.html
* js/
* site.js
*
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', callback);
The default options work for simple cases. The options described below let you push to alternate branches, customize your commit messages, and more.
string|Array<string>'**/*'The minimatch pattern or array of patterns used to select which files should be published.
string'gh-pages'The name of the branch you'll be pushing to. The default uses GitHub's gh-pages branch, but this can be configured to push to any branch on any remote.
Example use of the branch option:
/**
* This task pushes to the `master` branch of the configured `repo`.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
branch: 'master',
repo: 'https://example.com/other/repo.git'
}, callback);
string'.'The destination folder within the destination branch. By default, all files are published to the root of the repository.
Example use of the dest option:
/**
* Place content in the static/project subdirectory of the target
* branch.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
dest: 'static/project'
}, callback);
booleanfalseInclude dotfiles. By default, files starting with . are ignored unless they are explicitly provided in the src array. If you want to also include dotfiles that otherwise match your src patterns, set dotfiles: true in your options.
Example use of the dotfiles option:
/**
* The usage below will push dotfiles (directories and files)
* that otherwise match the `src` pattern.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {dotfiles: true}, callback);
booleanfalseOnly add, and never remove existing files. By default, existing files in the target branch are removed before adding the ones from your src config. If you want the task to add new src files but leave existing ones untouched, set add: true in your options.
Example use of the add option:
/**
* The usage below will only add files to the `gh-pages` branch, never removing
* any existing files (even if they don't exist in the `src` config).
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {add: true}, callback);
stringBy default, gh-pages assumes that the current working directory is a git repository, and that you want to push changes to the origin remote.
If instead your script is not in a git repository, or if you want to push to another repository, you can provide the repository URL in the repo option.
Example use of the repo option:
/**
* If the current directory is not a clone of the repository you want to work
* with, set the URL for the repository in the `repo` option. This usage will
* push all files in the `src` config to the `gh-pages` branch of the `repo`.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
repo: 'https://example.com/other/repo.git'
}, callback);
string'origin'The name of the remote you'll be pushing to. The default is your 'origin' remote, but this can be configured to push to any remote.
Example use of the remote option:
/**
* This task pushes to the `gh-pages` branch of of your `upstream` remote.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
remote: 'upstream'
}, callback);
string''Create a tag after committing changes on the target branch. By default, no tag is created. To create a tag, provide the tag name as the option value.
string'Updates'The commit message for all commits.
Example use of the message option:
/**
* This adds commits with a custom message.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
message: 'Auto-generated commit'
}, callback);
ObjectnullIf you are running the gh-pages task in a repository without a user.name or user.email git config properties (or on a machine without these global config properties), you must provide user info before git allows you to commit. The options.user object accepts name and email string values to identify the committer.
Example use of the user option:
ghpages.publish('dist', {
user: {
name: 'Joe Code',
email: 'coder@example.com'
}
}, callback);
booleantruePush branch to remote. To commit only (with no push) set to false.
Example use of the push option:
ghpages.publish('dist', {push: false}, callback);
booleanfalseAvoid showing repository URLs or other information in errors.
Example use of the silent option:
/**
* This configuration will avoid logging the GH_TOKEN if there is an error.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
repo: 'https://' + process.env.GH_TOKEN + '@github.com/user/private-repo.git',
silent: true
}, callback);
string'git'Your git executable.
Example use of the git option:
/**
* If `git` is not on your path, provide the path as shown below.
*/
ghpages.publish('dist', {
git: '/path/to/git'
}, callback);
Installing the package creates a gh-pages command line utility. Run gh-pages --help to see a list of supported options.
With a local install of gh-pages, you can set up a package script with something like the following:
"scripts": {
"deploy": "gh-pages -d dist"
}
And then to publish everything from your dist folder to your gh-pages branch, you'd run this:
npm run deploy
To get additional output from the gh-pages script, set NODE_DEBUG=gh-pages. For example:
NODE_DEBUG=gh-pages npm run deploy
Note that this plugin requires Git 1.9 or higher (because it uses the --exit-code option for git ls-remote). If you'd like to see this working with earlier versions of Git, please open an issue.
branch already exists{ ProcessError: fatal: A branch named 'gh-pages' already exists.
at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (~/node_modules/gh-pages/lib/git.js:42:16)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:180:13)
at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:936:16)
at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:220:5)
code: 128,
message: 'fatal: A branch named \'gh-pages\' already exists.\n',
name: 'ProcessError' }
When processing gh-pages module generate file in.cache/ and if stuck some reason like wrong password
it will not automatically cleanup
Run ~node_modules/gh-pages/bin/gh-pages-clean
or remove ~node_modules/gh-pages/.cache
v2.0.0
Breaking changes:
Requires Node 6 and above. If you require support for Node 4, stick with v1.2.0.
The git user for commits is determined by running git config user.name and git config user.email in the current working directory when gh-pages is run. Ideally, this is what you want. In v1, the git user was determined based on the gh-pages install directory. If the package was installed globally, the git user might not have been what you expected when running in a directory with a locally configured git user.
#264 - Better user handling (thanks @holloway for getting this going and @nuklearfiziks and @paulirish for pushing it over the edge)
#263 - Infra: newer syntax and upgrade deps to latest stable versions (@AviVahl)
FAQs
Publish to a gh-pages branch on GitHub (or any other branch on any other remote)
The npm package gh-pages receives a total of 263,758 weekly downloads. As such, gh-pages popularity was classified as popular.
We found that gh-pages demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 2 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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