About Jekyll build errors for GitHub Pages sites

In this article

• About Jekyll build errors
• Viewing Jekyll build error messages

About Jekyll build errors

Sometimes, GitHub Pages will not attempt to build your site after you push changes to your site's publishing source.

• You're pushing with a deploy key. If you want to automate pushes to your site's repository, you can set up a machine user instead. For more information, see "Managing deploy keys" in the GitHub Developer documentation.
• You're using a CI service that isn't configured to build your publishing source. For example, Travis CI won't build the gh-pages branch unless you add the branch to a safelist. For more information, see "Customizing the build" on Travis CI, or your CI service's documentation.

If Jekyll does attempt to build your site and encounters an error, you will receive a build error message. There are two main types of Jekyll build error messages.

• A "Page build warning" message means your build completed successfully, but you may need to make changes to prevent future problems.
• A "Page build failed" message means your build failed to complete. If Jekyll is able to detect a reason for the failure, you'll see a descriptive error message.

For more information about troubleshooting build errors, see "Troubleshooting Jekyll build errors for GitHub Pages sites."

Viewing Jekyll build error messages

We recommend testing your site locally, which allows you to see build error messages on the command line, and addressing any build failures before pushing changes to GitHub Enterprise. For more information, see "Testing your GitHub Pages site locally with Jekyll."

When you push changes to your publishing source on GitHub Enterprise, GitHub Pages will attempt to build your site. If the build fails, you'll receive an email at your primary email address. You'll also receive emails for build warnings.

You can see build failures (but not build warnings) for your site on GitHub Enterprise in the Settings tab of your site's repository.

You can configure a third-party service, such as Travis CI, to display error messages after each commit.

1. If you haven't already, add a file called Gemfile in the root of your publishing source, with the following content:

   source `https:/rubygems.org`
   gem `github-pages`

2. Configure your site's repository for the testing service of your choice. For example, to use Travis CI, add a file named .travis.yml in the root of your publishing source, with the following content:

   language: ruby
   rvm:
     - 2.3
   script: "bundle exec jekyll build"

3. You may need to activate your repository with the third-party testing service. For more information, see your testing service's documentation.