Do I need the pages-build-deployment Github Action, when I have another action for my Github Pages? - github

Question

In the settings I've enabled Github Pages:
I have a Github Action which builds and deploy the page to the branch gh-pages.
name: Continuous Deployment
on:
push:
branches:
- master
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 * * *'
jobs:
build-and-deploy:
name: Build and deploy to Github Pages
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout repo
uses: actions/checkout#v3
- name: Use nodejs
uses: actions/setup-node#v3
with:
node-version: '16.x'
- name: Get yarn cache directory path
id: yarn-cache-dir-path
run: echo "::set-output name=dir::$(yarn cache dir)"
- name: Activate dependency cache
uses: actions/cache#v3
id: yarn-cache # use this to check for `cache-hit` (`steps.yarn-cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'`)
with:
path: ${{ steps.yarn-cache-dir-path.outputs.dir }}
key: ${{ runner.os }}-yarn-${{ hashFiles('**/yarn.lock') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-yarn-
- name: Install dependencies
run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
- name: Caching Gatsby
id: gatsby-cache-build
uses: actions/cache#v3
with:
path: |
public
.cache
key: ${{ runner.os }}-gatsby-build-cache-${{ github.run_id }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-gatsby-build-cache-
- name: Build website
run: yarn build:with-prefix
env:
PATH_PREFIX: '/xyz'
SITE_URL: 'https://xyz.github.io/xyz'
CI: true
- name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action#v4.3.3
with:
branch: gh-pages
folder: public
clean: true
Now there is another Github Action which seem to deploy my page to Github Actions (using Jakyll):
Now I have two questions, which I couldn't answer by searching the internet:
Do I need this other action pages-build-deployment?
If not, how can I disable it?
If yes, for what it's needed? Am I doing the same work twice?

Answer 1

Do I need this other action pages-build-deployment?
This is provided by GitHub automatically.
As discussed in JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action #1073:
I think there's a lot of scope for confusion for users of this action, when pages build and deployment will also be running on every push and pushing pages assets.
I think it's impossible to really say right now what that looks like until GitHub announces what these actions intend to do in the long run.
As the post suggests, this is a necessary step that occurs after the push gets made, this was already occurring behind the scenes it just wasn't made visible.
So you can ignore it (and there is no obvious way to disable it).
As for doing the same work twice, the same post adds:
What used to happen is, behind the scenes, we used the github-pages[bot] to pull that branch down and deploy the content to the github-pages environment we create for you automatically.
Now this step happens transparently with this new Actions workflow.
The end goal we’re working on is, if you’d prefer to deploy to the pages environment directly (without committing the content to a gh-pages branch), you’ll be able to do that in your own workflow. This will remove the need for the second workflow that we trigger when you commit to the pages branch.
Context: Dec. 2021 "GitHub Pages: using GitHub Actions for builds and deployments for public repositories".
The initial benefit of this change is enabling you to see your build logs and any errors that may occur which has been a long standing issue for Pages users.
However, in the future this will enable us to give you the ability to fully customize your pages build and deployment workflow to use any static site generator you want without having to push the build output to a special branch of the repository.