Build for GH Pages

Author: Michael Tanenbaum
GitHub: https://github.com/tbaums
GitHub Project Repository: https://github.com/tbaums/build-for-gh-pages
License: Apache License 2.0

Purpose

The purpose of this script is to promote the contents of a source directory (SOURCE_DIRECTORY) to a target directory (TARGET_DIRECTORY) on a user-specified Git branch (TARGET_BRANCH).

After the script executes, the contents of the TARGET_DIRECTORY will be only the git files that were in the TARGET_DIRECTORY before execution along with the contents of the SOURCE_DIRECTORY. No other files will be present in the TARGET_DIRECTORY.

Serving a static site on GitHub Pages requires that the static files be in the /root or /docs directory in a specific branch of a repo. The strategy presented here allows for continued development as normal, with a specific release branch for GitHub Pages.

Script Arguments

The script accepts and requires three arguments:

1. SOURCE_DIRECTORY - The directory that contains the files to be promoted.
2. TARGET_DIRECTORY - The directory to which the files will be promoted. Must be a git repository.
3. TARGET_BRANCH - The branch to which the files will be promoted, committed, and pushed.

Note: SOURCE_DIRECTORY and TARGET_DIRECTORY must be absolute paths.

Example

Run the script from the command line with the following command:

$ python3 build.py SOURCE_DIRECTORY TARGET_DIRECTORY TARGET_BRANCH

Source Directory before execution:

• Path: /usr/home/project/subdir/
• Contents: [file1.txt, file2.html, file3.css]

Target Directory before execution:

• Path: /usr/home/project/
• Contents: [file4.js, file5.jpg, file6.png, ./.git/]

Execution:

$ python3 build.py /usr/home/project/subdir/ /usr/home/project/ gh-pages

Target Directory after execution:

• Path: /usr/home/project/
• Contents: [file1.txt, file2.html, file3.css, ./.git/]

How it Works

1. The script checks to see if there is a directory at the TARGET_DIRECTORY path.
2. The script checks to see if the TARGET_DIRECTORY is a git repository.
3. The script checks to see if the SOURCE_DIRECTORY is a directory.
4. The script checks to see if /tmp/tmp_content exists. If it does, it is removed.
5. The script copies the contents of the SOURCE_DIRECTORY to /tmp/tmp_content.
6. The script checks out the TARGET_BRANCH in the TARGET_DIRECTORY. The script creates the TARGET_BRANCH if it does not exist.
7. The script deletes all files in the TARGET_DIRECTORY except for the .git directory.
8. The script copies the contents of /tmp/tmp_content to the TARGET_DIRECTORY.
9. The script adds all files in the TARGET_DIRECTORY to the git index.
10. The script commits the changes to the git repository.
11. The script pushes the changes to the TARGET_BRANCH.