help using actions for deploy

[YaronPeres]

Hi all!
I have been trying to use actions to push the files from my main branch to deploy branch. the branch is used in Hostinger to deploy the website and i need only the files of the dist folder.
if somone has any idea if it possible or has other idea how to do it. this is what i have until now but i always get errors in the copy or push of the files.
name: Update deploy branch with dist folder contents

on:
push:
branches:
- main

jobs:
update-deploy-branch:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
name: Update deploy branch with dist folder contents
steps:
- name: Checkout main branch
uses: actions/checkout@v3
with:
ref: main

  - name: Install all dependencies
    run: npm install

  - name: Generate a build
    run: npm run build

  - name: Checkout deploy branch
    run: git checkout deploy

  - name: Copy dist folder from main to deploy branch
    run: |
      git checkout main -- dist/*
      git add .
      git commit -m "Update deploy branch with dist folder contents"
      git push origin deploy
    env:
      GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

thanks.

[sule26]

Try this:

https://github.com/peaceiris/actions-gh-pages

name: Update deploy branch with dist folder contents

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    paths-ignore:
    - '.github/**' # Ignore changes towards the .github directory
    branches:
    - main # Only trigger on the main branch

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Perform Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
    - name: Deploy
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
      with:
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        publish_dir: ./dist
        publish_branch: deploy

[YaronPeres]

Wow, first of all... thanks for the time and help you dedicated for me. It is working!! Just a question if you can: Does it remove the prior files that existed there before pushing? Or it just update the existing file. I mean, there is a possibility that the old files will stay there after the push?
Again, I really appreciate your time. Thank you!

[YaronPeres]

And one more question: I have seen .nojekyll file in my github and in my website files of the deployment since it pushed all the files in the deploy branch. I have read that it belong to github pages deployment process or something. do i need it? since i deploy to Hostinger servers.

[sule26]

@YaronPeres Glad that I could help! Well, I don't know the answer to those questions because I've never used this action. I've just searched for a solution to your problem. I searched their repository to see if anyone else had the same questions or problems as you, and I found this. I really recommend you to read their issues, files, and documentation in order to understand better how it works. I'm sorry I couldn't help you more.

[YaronPeres]

You did more than enough! Big thanks! I will use your recommendation.