GitHub Help

Make a fresh clone

To set up a Project Pages site, you need to create a new "orphan" branch (a branch that has no common history with an existing branch) in your repository. The safest way to do this is to start with a fresh clone:

git clone https://hostname/user/repository.git
# Clone our repository
# Cloning into 'repository'...
# remote: Counting objects: 2791, done.
# remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1225/1225), done.
# remote: Total 2791 (delta 1722), reused 2513 (delta 1493)
# Receiving objects: 100% (2791/2791), 3.77 MiB | 969 KiB/s, done.
# Resolving deltas: 100% (1722/1722), done.

Create a gh-pages branch

Once you have a clean repository, you'll need to create the new gh-pages branch and remove all content from the working directory and index:

cd repository

git checkout --orphan gh-pages
# Creates our branch, without any parents (it's an orphan!)
# Switched to a new branch 'gh-pages'

git rm -rf .
# Remove all files from the old working tree
# rm '.gitignore'

Add content and push

Now you have an empty working directory. You can create some content in this branch and push it to your GitHub Enterprise instance. For example:

echo "My Page" > index.html
git add index.html
git commit -a -m "First pages commit"
git push origin gh-pages

Your GitHub Enterprise Pages site should now be available. If outbound email is enabled on your instance, you'll receive an email if your build is unsuccessful. For more information on enabling outbound email, contact your site administrator.

Load your new GitHub Enterprise Pages site

After your push to the gh-pages branch, your Project Pages site will be available at http(s)://[hostname]/pages/<username>/<projectname>/.