I'm using Github pages for hosting. Namecheap for DNS.
I want if going to "example.com" to send web browser requests to -> "blog.example.com."
I'm able to create and verify a custom domain on github pages for blog.example.com and it works, but not understanding how to redirect the apex root domain to blog.example.com.
Recap:
Custom github pages domain: blog.example.com && Namecheap: CNAME blog => example.github.io.
I tried removing all the suggested github A, AAAA records and trying the use of a URL redirect/301 and also tried an alias record of
"#" -> blog.example.com
URL redirect seems to result in a timeout, and the Alias record seems to result in going to github with a 404.
Seems these are the relevant github pages docs:
https://docs.github.com/en/pages/configuring-a-custom-domain-for-your-github-pages-site/managing-a-custom-domain-for-your-github-pages-site#configuring-a-subdomain
I've looked through this to no avail.
Am I doing something wrong?
Side Question:
I'm unsure if the CNAME file is required in github directory as I feel it's more or less for documentation? (changing this file doesn't seem to have any effect.)
I suppose I was just not being patient, unmasked redirect started working no problem after a while.
I have a gh-pages branch in one of my http://github.com repos. The GitHub project pages works fine if I go to http://myuser.github.com/myrepo
I want to setup a custom domain (myexample.com) that will serve up this project pages. I want both myexample.com and www.myexample.com to serve up these project pages.
GitHub pages help says to make an A record and a CNAME record in your DNS. The A record makes sense, but I do not know what CNAME record to make in my DNS.
The gh-pages docs say to make a CNAME record for 'charlie.github.com' which is a user page repository. I do not have a user page repository - I only have a project repository and a gh-pages branch that I want to use for myexample.com and www.myexample.com.
Do I need to make a user page repository just so I can use my project page for www.myexample.com and myexample.com?
I would just try it, but I want to make sure this will work as I already have www.myexample.com live and don't want to make a mistake.
I emailed GitHub support and their response was
You can't have both point to the same gh-pages as far as I know.
I find it hard to believe they would only support A records for project pages.
Has anyone successfully done this before?
1/23/19 UPDATE:
Things have changed quite a bit (for the better) since my last answer. This updated answer will show you how to configure:
Root apex (example.com)
Sub-domain (www.example.com)
HTTPS (optional but strongly encouraged)
In the end, all requests to example.com will be re-directed to https://www.example.com (or http:// if you choose NOT to use HTTPS). I always use www as my final landing. Why(1,2), is for another discussion.
This answer is long but it is not complicated. I was verbose for clarity as the GitHub docs on this topic are not clear or linear.
Step 1: Enable GitHub pages in GitHub settings
From your repo, click on the tab
Scroll down to the GitHub Pages section. You have two options:
Choosing master branch will treat /README.md as your web index.html. Choosing master branch /docs folder will treat /docs/README.md as your web index.html.
Choose a theme.
Wait a minute while GitHub publishes your site. Verify it works by clicking on the link next to Your site is ready to be published at
Step 2: Specify custom domain in GitHub settings
Enter your custom domain name here and hit save:
This is a subtle, but important step.
If the custom domain you added to your GitHub Pages site is example.com, then www.example.com will redirect to example.com
If the custom domain you added to your GitHub Pages site is www.example.com, then example.com will redirect to www.example.com.
As mentioned before, I recommend always landing at www so I entered www.example.com as pictured above.
Step 3: Create DNS entries
In your DNS provider's web console, create four A records and one CNAME.
A Records for # (aka root apex):
Some DNS providers will have you specify #, others (like AWS Route 53) you will leave the sub-domain blank to indicate #. In either case, these are the A records to create:
185.199.108.153
185.199.109.153
185.199.110.153
185.199.111.153
Check the Github docs to confirm these are the most up-to-date IPs.
Create a CNAME record to point www.example.com to YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME.github.io.
This is the most confusing part.
Note the YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME NOT the GitHub repo name! The value of YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME is determined by this chart.
For a User pages site (most likely what you are), CNAME entry will be username.github.io, ex:
For a Organization pages site, CNAME entry will be orgname.github.io, ex:
Step 5: Confirm DNS entries
Confirm your A records by running dig +noall +answer example.com. It should return the four 185.x.x.x IP addresses you entered.
Confirm your CNAME record by running dig www.example.com +nostats +nocomments +nocmd. It should return a CNAME YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME.github.io
It may take an hour or so for these DNS entries to resolve/propagate. Once they do, open up your browser to http://example.com and it should re-direct to http://www.example.com
Step 6: SSL (HTTPS) Configuration. Optional, but highly recommended
After you have the custom domain working, go back to the repo settings. If you already have the settings page open, hard refresh the page.
If there is a message under the Enforce HTTPS checkbox, stating that it is still processing you will need to wait. You may also need to hit the save button in the Custom domain section to kick off the Enforce HTTPS processing.
Once processing is completed, it should look like this:
Just click on the Enforce HTTPS checkbox, and point your browser to https://example.com. It should re-direct and open https://www.example.com
THATS IT!
GitHub will automatically keep your HTTPS cert up-to-date AND should handle the apex to www redirect over HTTPS.
Overview
The documentation is a little confusing when it comes to project pages, as opposed to user pages. It feels like you should have to do more, but actually the process is very easy.
It involves:
Setting up 2 static A records for the naked (no www) domain.
Creating one CNAME record for www which will point to a GitHub URL. This will handle www redirection for you.
Creating a file called CNAME (capitalised) in your project root on the gh-pages branch. This will tell Github what URL to respond to.
Wait for everything to propagate.
What you will get
Your content will be served from a URL of the form http://nicholasjohnson.com.
Visiting http://www.nicholasjohnson.com will return a 301 redirect to the naked domain.
The path will be respected by the redirect, so traffic to http://www.nicholasjohnson.com/angular will be redirected to http://nicholasjohnson.com/angular.
You can have one project page per repository, so if your repos are open you can have as many as you like.
Here's the process:
1. Create A records
For the A records, point # to the following ip addresses:
#: 185.199.108.153
#: 185.199.109.153
#: 185.199.110.153
#: 185.199.111.153
These are the static Github IP addresses from which your content will be served.
2. Create a CNAME Record
For the CNAME record, point www to yourusername.github.io. Note the trailing full stop. Note also, this is the username, not the project name. You don't need to specify the project name yet. Github will use the CNAME file to determine which project to serve content from.
e.g.
www: forwardadvance.github.io.
The purpose of the CNAME is to redirect all www subdomain traffic to a GitHub page which will 301 redirect to the naked domain.
Here's a screenshot of the configuration I use for my own site http://nicholasjohnson.com:
3. Create a CNAME file
Add a file called CNAME to your project root in the gh-pages branch. This should contain the domain you want to serve. Make sure you commit and push.
e.g.
nicholasjohnson.com
This file tells GitHub to use this repo to handle traffic to this domain.
4. Wait
Now wait 5 minutes, your project page should now be live.
Short answer
These detailed explanations are great, but the OP's (and my) confusion could be resolved with one sentence: "Direct DNS to your GitHub username or organization, ignoring the specific project, and add the appropriate CNAME files in your project repositories: GitHub will send the right DNS to the right project based on files in the repository."
If you are wondering how to get your domain to appear as www.mydomain.com instead of redirecting the www request to
mydomain.com, try this:
CNAME file on gh-pages branch will have one line:
www.mydomain.com (instead of mydomain.com)
No matter your preference on redirection (in other words, no matter what is in your CNAME file on the gs-pages branch), with your DNS provider, you should set it up like this:
A # 192.30.252.154
A # 192.30.252.153
CNAME www username.github.io
As of Aug 29, 2013, Github's documentation claim that:
Warning: Project pages subpaths like http://username.github.io/projectname will not be redirected to a project's custom domain.
I just discovered, after a bit of frustration, that if you're using PairNIC, all you have to do is enable the "Web Forwarding" setting under "Custom DNS" and supply the username.github.io/project address and it will automatically set up both the apex and subdomain records for you. It appears to do exactly what's suggested in the accepted answer. However, it won't let you do the exact same thing by manually adding records. Very strange. Anyway, it took me a while to figure that out, so I thought I'd share to save everyone else the trouble.
Things are lot easier nowadays!
Update your Apex domain (#) record to point
192.30.252.154
192.30.252.153
Edit your Custome domain field in your github repo settings.
www and other subdomains can be updated as CNAME to apex domain.
The selected answer is the good one, but is long, so you might not read the key point:
I got an error with the SSL when accesign www.example.com but it worked fine if I go to example.com
If it happens the same to you, probably your error is that in the DNS configuration you have set:
CNAME www.example.com --> example.com (WRONG)
But, what you have to do is:
CNAME www.example.com --> username.github.io (GOOD)
or
CNAME www.example.com --> organization.github.io (GOOD)
That was my error
I'd like to share my steps which is a bit different to what offered by rynop and superluminary.
for A Record is exactly the same but
instead of creating CNAME for www I would prefer to redirect it to my blank domain (non-www)
This configuration is referring to guidance of preferred domain. The domain setting of www to non www or vise versa can be different on each of the domain providers. Since my domain is under GoDaddy, so under the Domain Setting I set it using the Subdomain Forwarding (301).
As the result of pointing the domain to Github repository, it will then give all the URLs for both of master and gh-pages.
As addition to the CNAME file above, you may need to completely bypass Jekyll processing on GitHub Pages by creating a file named .nojekyll in the root of your pages repo.
I am confused completely, because I used GoDaddy's website builder. Unfortunately, I am unable to connect my GitHub Pages Repository to my website, since I pre-built it. Is there any way I can connect my website to my GitHub Repo?
If for some reason at all that this isn't clear, here is what I am trying to say.
How can I take my website, and connect it to my repository, so that when I edit files in the repo that it affects the website also?
Github Pages repo (website in description on top of page): (https://github.com/comet-dev/comet-dev.github.io)
This is the process that worked for me using Google Domains, and should be applicable to GoDaddy as well. Keep in mind this means your site will be entirely reflected in the file structure in your GitHub repo, I do not know how to hook GoDaddy's website builder into this process other than to use it to create files and manually copy them into your repo.
Add a file named CNAME at the root of your public folder. This file should contain the root url of your webpage, e.g., www.example.com
Configure your domain at GoDaddy with the following DNS records. Hopefully this is easy to find under setting / DNS somewhere in GoDaddy. Google Domains and 1&1 both make this very easy.
Name: #, Type: A, Data: 192.30.252.153
Name: #, Type: A, Data: 192.30.252.154
Name: www, Type: CNAME, Data: <username>.github.io
The two A records contain IP addresses of GitHub's pages server and set you up to be able to respond to example.com rather than www.example.com.
Hopefully that should be it. It may take some time for the changes to propagate.
I'm trying to configure the dns for my domain to target one of my pages in github
I'm currently using https://internetbs.net for domains but I can't seem to configure it correctly.
I tried searching for a solution but no luck.
I also use internetbs for my domains, and have hosted on github pages.This is how I got it working:
From Github
On your github pages branch (master for github user page, or gh-pages if it a project page) create a CNAME file. In it put just your domain, ie
thedomainyouhavebought.com
And commit this file (you can check its linked in the repo settings on in the github pages section.
From Internetbs.net
login on internetbs. Select your domain, and go to "DNS Management" section.
In here I set both the A Records and CNAME Records.
In A Records leave the name blank, and and in the IP section point it towards:
192.30.252.152
Add another A record that points towards:
192.30.252.153
In CNAME section, add the alias www, and then type the Host location on GitHub, for example if it is a github user pages site you will type:
username.github.io
For me it took about 10 mins to update.
You can check the its linked typing the following in to your terminal:
dig thedomainyouhavebought.com.
In the answer section, you should see a link to github pages.
for more info visit
https://help.github.com/articles/about-custom-domains-for-github-pages-sites/
https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-github-pages/
I have an organization GitHub Pages repository set up, and it's served through a custom domain name (let's say, http://example.com/).
I also have a couple of projects pages which I want to be accessible via a subdomain only (let's say, http://project.example.com/), but it turns out that they will also be accessible at a different URL (that is, http://example.com/projectname/).
Is there any way to avoid this? Both the organization pages and the project pages have CNAME entries set up, and the DNS records seem to be correctly configured.
http://project.example.com/ will also be accessible at http://example.com/projectname/
> Is there any way to avoid this?
I was able to avoid this via a project pages setup for each subdomain as well as the domain. It didn't work with CNAME records so I had to use A records in the server side configuration. Every record would point to the Github IPs 192.30.252.153 and 192.30.252.154, using the subdomain as host or # for the domain.com part.
For future users looking into how to map a Github page to a domain / subdomain:
Create new Github repo and add a gh-pages branch.
Add your index.html and a CNAME file with only one line sub.domain.tld.
See this gist for more details.
The only solution that I am aware of is hiding http://domain.tld/projectname/ content with a robots.txt file on the web server that serves that domain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_exclusion_standard