Action passed with silent failure when no gh-pages branch existed

[softprops]

Thanks for publishing this action.

I followed the readme instructions but ran into what may be a common but undocumented case.

I'm publishing for the first time and no gh-pages branch exists.

The action proceeds to stage changes but they never get pushed to my PUBLISH_BRANCH

Cloning into '/github/home/b8c542550a778e3eb0ca70abff3d5482'...
warning: Could not find remote branch gh-pages to clone.
fatal: Remote branch gh-pages not found in upstream origin
Initialized empty Git repository in /github/workspace/target/doc/.git/
Switched to a new branch 'gh-pages'
fatal: No such remote: 'origin'
INFO: Allowing empty commits: 
[gh-pages (root-commit) 975a973] Automated deployment: Sun Sep 22 04:26:54 UTC 2019 3a9dc85d243d35fe33b4992ae2a042c6793e8861
 131 files changed, 15230 insertions(+)
 create mode 100755 .lock
...more files...

My workflow step is configured with

- name: Publish
        uses: docker://peaceiris/gh-pages:v2.3.1
        env:
          PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
          PUBLISH_DIR: ./target/doc
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

[peaceiris]

Thank you. This issue is related to #29. I will fix this at #28

And, please do not use GITHUB_TOKEN #9
Try with ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY or PERSONAL_TOKEN

actions-gh-pages/README.md at 74f032c7e9f7be7e56320d6df9ca8707e104da12 · peaceiris/actions-gh-pages

NOTES: This action supports GITHUB_TOKEN but it has some problems to deploy to GitHub Pages. See #9

Please try the following.

1. Use ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY or PERSONAL_TOKEN
2. Set emptyCommits: true

      - name: Publish
        uses: docker://peaceiris/gh-pages:v2.3.1
        env:
+          ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
          PUBLISH_BRANCH: gh-pages
          PUBLISH_DIR: ./target/doc
+      with:
+        emptyCommits: true

[softprops]

I'll take a look. Thanks for the fast response.

It may be worth documenting for users what permission the default github token is missing. Here's a list GitHub actions documents https://help.github.com/en/articles/virtual-environments-for-github-actions#github_token-secret. I realize these aren't enough to do everything but easy to miss for users of this action.

[peaceiris]

Thank you for your suggestion.

There is a bug to deploy to GitHub Pages from GitHub Actions with GITHUB_TOKEN. Read this: Github action not triggering gh-pages upon push - GitHub Community Forum

GitHub team is investigating this problem. We are waiting for replies from them.

[softprops]

Status update. This worked like a charm after generating a PERSONAL_TOKEN and setting emptyCommits: true

[github-actions]

This issue has been LOCKED because of it being resolved!

The issue has been fixed and is therefore considered resolved.
If you still encounter this or it has changed, open a new issue instead of responding to solved ones.

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