Can't deploy docpad to github using ghpages plugin - github

Question

When using docpad deploy-ghpages --env static I get the following error:
info: Contribute: http://docpad.org/docs/contribute
info: Plugins: eco, ghpages, livereload, marked, partials
info: Environment: static
info: Deployment to GitHub Pages starting...
info: Generating...
info: Generated 16/18 files in 1.229 seconds
error: Something went wrong with the action
error: An error occured:
Error: exited with a non-zero status code
at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/~NAME~/Documents/websites/test-site-2/node_modules/docpad-plugin-ghpages/node_modules/safeps/out/lib/safeps.js:165:23)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:98:17)
at maybeClose (child_process.js:755:16)
at Socket.<anonymous> (child_process.js:968:11)
at Socket.emit (events.js:95:17)
at Pipe.close (net.js:465:12)
I've tried making new sites from templates (Bootstrap and Boilerplate) and just deploying those, but I still get the same error.
I have feeling it has something to do with not finding my github repo? Is there a place to check this or input it manually? I have git installed and I set it up to my github.
Tried reinstalling node.js and npm along with docpad with no success.

Answer 1

This may be obvious, but when I had problems like in your description, the issue was that I didn't have the origin set correctly. Try:
git remote -v
and if you aren't seeing your github repo, then
git remote add origin git://github.com/USER/PROJECT.git
Also, another one that can be problematic is getting your ssh keys set-up correctly, so if you have problems beyond this, then check that. Lastly, make sure to set the repository fields correctly in your package.json file (type and url), e.g. (depending on ssh vs https access)
"repository": {
"type": "https",
"url": "git#github.com/NAME.git"

Answer 2

The ghpages plugin uses the git remote config for the source and publishing. It's a clever trick that is not immediately visible to the users. There is no proper error messages either.
check remote repo for publishing
I have blog.git repo for the source, and knoguchi.github.io.git repo for the published pages.
The github.io repo is added to the blog.git repo as a remote repo. I named it pages but it could be anything you like.
Run git remote -v to check the setup. Here is mine. Notice the origin and pages. origin is the usual stuff for the blog.git repo. pages point the github.io repo.
$ git remote -v
origin https://github.com/knoguchi/blog.git (fetch)
origin https://github.com/knoguchi/blog.git (push)
pages https://github.com/knoguchi/knoguchi.github.io.git (fetch)
pages https://github.com/knoguchi/knoguchi.github.io.git (push)
If you don't see your github.io repo there add it. Notice the pages. If you pick other name you will have to set it here.
git remote add pages https://github.com/knoguchi/knoguchi.github.io.git
configure ghpages plugin
Now check docpad.coffee configuration file at the root directory of blog.git. The ghpages plugin requires two lines of configuration. Here is my docpad.coffee. Notice the deployRemote value is pages which matches with the git remote config.
docpadConfig = {
plugins:
ghpages:
deployBranch: 'master'
deployRemote: 'pages'
}
module.exports = docpadConfig