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+---
+title: "Using custom software with Github Actions to deploy a site"
+url: using-custom-software-with-github-actions-to-deploy-a-site.html
+date: 2024-03-10T15:30:11+01:00
+type: post
+draft: false
+---
+
+By default, GitHub uses Jekyll for their site generator which is fine,
+but it has some issues and the complexity is not really worth it for me.
+
+You could argue that Jekyll is simple, which it is to some degree,
+but it can become complicated quite quickly if you start adding your
+own spin on things.
+
+A while ago I wrote a simple static site generator called "[jbmafp -
+Just Build Me A Fucking Page](https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/jbmafp)"
+which was a protest against [Hugo](https://gohugo.io). Hugo is fine but
+again, if you try doing something that conflicts with the dogma they
+prescribe you are in trouble.
+
+I also moved this blog from self-hosted virtual machine to just GitHub
+Pages. I didn't want to bother myself managing that server anymore. And
+this presented a slight problem because I didn't want to use the default
+`_docs` folder GitHub wants you to use, and I also didn't want to upload
+`public` folder that gets generated to GitHub.
+
+Thankfully, there is a way to use custom software to generate your site
+like `jbmafp`.
+
+To achieve this you need to create a file `.github/workflows/deploy.yaml`
+in the root of your repository.
+
+```yaml
+name: Build and Deploy to Pages
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: ["master"]
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+  pages: write
+  id-token: write
+
+concurrency:
+  group: "pages"
+  cancel-in-progress: false
+
+jobs:
+  deploy:
+    environment:
+      name: github-pages
+      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - name: Setup Pages
+        uses: actions/configure-pages@v3
+      - name: Run a multi-line script
+        run: |
+          wget https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/jbmafp/releases/download/v0.1/jbmafp.zip
+          unzip jbmafp.zip
+          chmod +x jbmafp
+          ./jbmafp -b
+      - name: Upload artifact
+        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v2
+        with:
+          path: './public'
+      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
+        id: deployment
+        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v2
+```
+
+This is an example for `jbmafp`. When I execute `./jbmafp -b` the program
+creates `public` folder and puts all content there. And the directive
+`with: path: './public'` tells `actions/deploy-pages@v2` to look for
+`public` folder instead of `docs` folder.
+
+This can be used with anything, actually. Hugo, Gatsby, Astro, you
+name it.