How to create orphan (unrelated) branch with GitHub Actions

Question

I have branch production in my repo what triggering build Action (to build all my TypeScript code). Build script saves /dist (/build) folders as artifact, but I also want to create/update new branch named production-build where I put all built code to be able to pull it later into production server.

Sure I can just put all my built code directly onto production server with Action script, but then I lost partial pulls and I am forced to "delete and unpack new" on all production files.

Answer 1

https://github.com/marketplace/actions/github-pages-action#%EF%B8%8F-force-orphan

You can use the page above as a reference for github action to make an orphan branch when the build is completed.

Force orphan We can set the force_orphan: true option. This allows you to make your publish branch with only the latest commit.

- name: Deploy   uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3   with:
     github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
     publish_dir: ./public
     force_orphan: true

Answer 2

Here is a simple example of a YAML workflow to set a custom branch as a deployment target.

- name: Deploy
  uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
  with:
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    publish_dir: ./out                # default: public
    publish_branch: production-build  # default: gh-pages
    force_orphan: true

By enabling the force_orphan , it keeps the latest commit only.

For more options and usages, see the latest README: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages: GitHub Actions for GitHub Pages Deploy static files and publish your site easily. Static-Site-Generators-friendly.