deploy file(s), not folder

[nschloe]

I have multiple cases where I'd like to deploy a file or files, not a folder; for example, a README.md. The following fails:

      - name: Deploy 🚀
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@4.2.1
        with:
          repository-name: foobar/doc
          branch: main
          folder: README.md

with

rsync: change_dir "/home/runner/work/foobar/foobar/README.md" failed: Not a directory (20)

It seems that the restriction to folders could be lifted to allow for all paths, be it folders or files.

[JamesIves]

As it stands pushing a single file in this regard isn't supported. Supporting such a thing would be considered a major version bump so there's a few things to consider.

• If this option did exist, would both folder and files be merged into a single parameter? Perhaps paths?
• Would paths accept a single path, or multiple?
• If multiple, what happens when there's a file name conflict in the deployment directory that is created?
• What if one of the items in the path list is found, but another is not. Does the action fully fail or partially deploy what it could find?

I'm curious to learn more about your use case for this, and if there's a general consensus or not if this is something that multiple people want.

In the interim you can push README.md into a build folder by running a script before the deployment job runs, and then simply deploy from the folder that you create within the workflow.

name: Build and Deploy
on: [push]
jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout 🛎️
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Generate deployment folder
        run: |
          mkdir build 
          mv README.md build/README.md

      - name: Deploy 🚀
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@v4
        with:
          branch: main
          repository-name: foobar/doc
          folder: build # Deploy the newly created "build" folder.

[nschloe]

In the interim you can push README.md into a build folder by running a script before the deployment job runs, and then simply deploy from the folder that you create within the workflow.

That's what I'm doing right now. Thanks for the concise reply!

[curiousdannii]

You can control what gets deployed just with .gitignore. If you want to have some files in your repo but not your deployment, then you could copy an alternative .gitignore over the top of the normal .gitignore as a step before the deploy action. That's what I do - my normal .gitignore ignores dist/, and my deployment .gitignore ignores src/.

[kapilkashyap]

@curiousdannii Can you please provide an example script of how you are doing this.

Thanks

[curiousdannii]

You literally just cp the second .gitignore file into the root folder.