Automate deploying websites and more with this GitHub action. It's free!

Usage Example

Place the following in Your_Project/.github/workflows/main.yml

on: push
name: Publish Website
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🚀 Deploy Website Every Commit
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get Latest Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: 📂 Sync Files
      uses: SamKirkland/web-deploy@v1
      with:
        target-server: example.com
        remote-user: username
        private-ssh-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
        destination-path: ~/destinationFolder/

Requirements

You must have shell access to your server, please read you webite hosts documentation
You CANNOT use a FTP account - they are not the same!
- If you don't have SSH access but have ftp access use FTP-Deploy-Action instead
You will need to create a SSH user to deploy. Normally this is your cpanel or hosting providers username and password
Most web hosts change the default port (22), check with your host for your port number

Setup Steps

Select the repository you want to add the action to
Select the Actions tab
Select Blank workflow file or Set up a workflow yourself, if you don't see these options manually create a yaml file Your_Project/.github/workflows/main.yml
Paste the example above into your yaml file and save
Now you need to add a key to the secrets section in your project. To add a secret go to the Settings tab in your project then select Secrets. Add a new Secret for private-ssh-key
Update your yaml file settings

Settings

Keys can be added directly to your .yml config file or referenced from your project Secrets storage.

To add a secret go to the Settings tab in your project then select Secrets. I strongly recommend you store your private-ssh-key as a secret.

Key Name	Required?	Example	Default	Description
`target-server`	Yes	`example.com`		Destination server to deploy to
`destination-path`	Yes	`~/folderOnServerThatAlreadyExists/`		Path on the server to deploy to. Must already exist.
`remote-user`	Yes	`username`		SSH user to login as
`private-ssh-key`	Yes	`-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- ......`		SSH Private key. Must be specified as a secret.
`source-path`	No	`./myFolderToPublish/`	`./`	Path to upload to on the server, must end with trailing slash `/`
`ssh-port`	No	`12345`	`22`	SSH port to use. Most hosts change this from the default. This is NOT your websites port.
`rsync-options`	No	See `rsync-options` section below	`--archive --verbose --compress --human-readable --progress --delete-after --exclude=.git* --exclude=.git/ --exclude=README.md --exclude=readme.md --exclude=.gitignore`	Note: If customizing you should re-specify defaults (assuming you want them). Custom rsync arguments, this field is passed through directly into the rsync script.

Advanced options using `rsync-options`

Custom arguments, this field is passed through directly into the rsync script. See rsync's manual for all options. You can use as many arguments as you want, seperate them with a space

Below is an incomplete list of commonly used args:

Option	Description
`--archive`	A quick way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost everything
`--dry-run`	Does not upload or delete anything, but tells you what it would upload/delete if this was a real deploy
`--stats`	Print verbose statistics on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective rsync’s delta-transfer algorithm is for your data
`--links`	When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination
`--compress`	Compresses the file data as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted
`--human-readable`	Output bytes in a more human-readable format (K, M, G)
`--itemize-changes`	itemized list of the changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes
`--delete-after`	When you delete a file on github it will also be deleted on the server. Files are deleted at the end of a deployment to minimize downtime.
`--max-size '200K'`	Ignore syncing files over this limit. Value is a number followed by "K", "M", or "G"
`--exclude 'file.txt'`	Excludes file(s) from the deployment. Supports glob pattterns (ex: `*.jpg`). You can have multiple excludes!
`--include 'file.txt'`	Includes file(s) even if it was excluded. Supports glob pattterns (ex: `*.jpg`). You can have multiple includes!

See rsync's manual for all options

Common Examples

Build and Publish React/Angular/Vue Website

Make sure you have an npm script named 'build'. This config should work for most node built websites.

on: push
name: Publish Website
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🚀 Deploy Website Every Commit
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get Latest Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v3

    - name: 📦 Install Packages
    - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: 18
        cache: "npm"
    - run: npm ci
      
    - name: 🔨 Build
      run: npm run build
    
    - name: 📂 Sync Files
      uses: SamKirkland/web-deploy@v1
      with:
        target-server: example.com
        remote-user: username
        private-ssh-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
        destination-path: ~/destinationFolder/

Log only dry run: Use this mode for testing

Ouputs a list of files that will be created/modified to sync your source without making any actual changes

on: push
name: Publish Website Dry Run
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🚀 Deploy Website Every Commit
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get Latest Code
      uses: actions/checkout@v3

    - name: 📂 Sync Files
      uses: SamKirkland/web-deploy@v1
      with:
        target-server: example.com
        remote-user: username
        private-ssh-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
        ssh-port: 22
        destination-path: ~/destinationFolder/
        rsync-options: --dry-run --archive --verbose --compress --delete-after --human-readable --exclude=.git* --exclude=.git/ --exclude=README.md --exclude=readme.md --exclude=.gitignore

Want another example? Let me know by creating a github issue

Badge

If you appreciate this github action give it a ⭐ or show off with one of the badges below. Feel free to edit the text or color.

[<img alt="Deployed with web deploy" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Deployed With-web deploy-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=0077b6">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy)

[<img alt="Deployed with web deploy" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Deployed With-web deploy-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=2b9348">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy)

[<img alt="Deployed with web deploy" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Deployed With-web deploy-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=d00000">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy)

[<img alt="Website Deployed for Free with web deploy" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Website deployed for free with-web deploy-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=297FA9">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy)

[<img alt="Website Deployed for Free with web deploy" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Website deployed for free with-web deploy-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=2b9348">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy)

[<img alt="Website Deployed for Free with web deploy" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Website deployed for free with-web deploy-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=d00000">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy)

FAQ

How to exclude .git files from the publish

Git files are excluded by default

If have customized rsync-options you will need to re-add the default exclude options using --exclude=.git* --exclude=.git/ --exclude=README.md --exclude=readme.md --exclude=.gitignore

How to exclude a specific file or folder

You can use rsync-options and pass in as many --exclude options as you want. By default this action excludes github files. If you choose to customize rsync-options make sure you copy over the defaults.

Example excluding all .jpg files:

rsync-options: --exclude "*.jpg"

Example excluding a specific folder:

rsync-options: --exclude "wp-content/themes/"

Common Errors

rsync not found. Please see https://github.com/SamKirkland/web-deploy#rsync-not-installed

This library uses rsync to sync files. The script was not able to detect rsync on the machine running the action. If you are using runs-on: ubuntu-latest you will always have rsync.

If you are using windows-latest, windows-XXXX, macos-latest, macos-12 or a self-hosted runner you will need to install rsync before the web-deploy step.

This is pretty easy to do!

On windows runners run your windows specific steps, then use a ubuntu-latest step to deploy.

On self-hosted runners install rsync before the web-deploy step.

  runs-on: [self-hosted, linux, my-self-hosted-runner-label]
  steps:
    - name: Install rsync
      run: |
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install rsync

On macos runners install rsync before the web-deploy step.

  runs-on: macos-latest
  steps:
    - name: Install rsync
      run: |
        brew update
        brew install rsync

SamKirkland/web-deploy