If you're familiar with command-line Git, it's straightforward to manually create a Project Pages site.

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 master branch

Once you have a clean repository, you'll need to create a new master branch unless your cloned repository already has a master branch.

Tip: You can also create a gh-pages branch for your Project Pages site instead. To learn more about your options, including the option to publish your Project Page from a /docs folder on your master branch, see "User, Organization, and Project Pages."

  1. Switch directories into your new cloned repository:

    cd repository

  2. Check if your repository already has a master branch:

    git branch
# shows a list of branches for your repository
* branch-name
* branch-name

  3. If you don't already have a master branch in your repository, create a new master branch:

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

    Tip: If you just created the master branch, it won't appear in your list of branches when you use the git branch command until you make your first commit.

Remove all files to create an empty working directory

Once you have a master branch, you'll need to remove all content from the working directory and index:

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 master

Your GitHub 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 Pages site

After your push to the master branch, your Project Pages site will be available at 'http(s)://[hostname]/pages/<username>/<projectname>/, or http(s)://pages.[hostname]/<username>/<projectname>/ if subdomains are enabled (for more information, contact your site administrator)' .