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Ibrahim Ragab
Ibrahim Ragab

Posted on • Updated on

How to deploy React App to GitHub Pages

Did you build React app and want to deploy it, following these simple steps you able to deploy and showing the world your amazing app.

I will show how to create and deploy React App using create-react-app and GitHub Pages

Prerequisites :

Make sure you have Node.js and Npm installed in your machine.

Notice You’ll need to have Node 8.10.0 or later on your local machine.

Procedure :

1- First create a repository named my-app using create-react-app.

npm init react-app my-app

2- We need to install GitHub Pages package as a dev-dependency.

cd my-app
npm install gh-pages --save-dev

3- Add properties to package.json file.

The first property we need to add at the top level homepage second we will define this as a string and the value will be "http://{username}.github.io/{repo-name}" {username} is your GitHub username, and {repo-name} is the name of the GitHub repository you created it will look like this :

"homepage": "http://yuribenjamin.github.io/my-app"

Second in the existing scripts property we to need to add predeploy and deploy.

"scripts": {
//...
"predeploy": "npm run build",
"deploy": "gh-pages -d build"
}

package.json example

4- Create a Github repository and initialize it and add it as a remote in your local git repository.

Now, create a remote GitHub repository with your app name and go back initialize this
git init
add it as remote
git remote add origin git@github.com:Yuribenjamin/my-app.git

5- Now deploy it to GitHub Pages.

just run the following command :

npm run deploy

successful build

this command will create a branch named gh-pages this branch host your app, and homepage property you created in package.json file hold your link for a live preview, or you can open the branch setting scroll down to GitHub Pages section you will find this:
Your site is puplished

Visit deployed app

6- commit and push your commit to GitHub. Optionally

git add .
git commit -m "Your awesome message"
git push origin master

Recap

We created React App using create-react-app
then we installed gh-pages as a dev-dependency
and in package.json file we added some properties homepage also in existing scripts property we added predeploy and deploy
and created a remote repository and initialize it
and run npm run deploy to generate a production build and deploy it to GitHub Pages.

if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Always happy to hear from you.

Top comments (252)

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trishabernice profile image
trishabernice

Hi! Thanks for the tutorial!

I accidentally copy pasted this on my terminal : git remote add origin git@github.com:Yuribenjamin/my-app.git

and now i keep getting this:
Cloning into 'node_modules/gh-pages/.cache/git@github.com!Yuribenjamin!my-app.git'...
git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! my-app@0.1.0 deploy: gh-pages -d build
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the my-app@0.1.0 deploy script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/TrishaBernice/.npm/_logs/2020-06-15T16_41_28_880Z-debug.log

I tried git remote rm origin and it still won't work. can you please advice me on what i should do here? I will really appreciate it!

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

No problem
git remote - v
Will display origin and the wrong remote url
To delete it
git remote rm origin
Then check again
git remote - v
Will display nothing time to add the right one
Happy Hacking

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trishabernice profile image
trishabernice

Hi Ibrahim, Thanks for the fast reply!

I did this:
Trishas-MBP-2:src TrishaBernice$ git remote rm origin
Trishas-MBP-2:src TrishaBernice$ git remote -v
Trishas-MBP-2:src TrishaBernice$ git remote add origin git@github.com:trishabernice/portfolio.git
Trishas-MBP-2:src TrishaBernice$ npm run deploy

and I still got this...
Cloning into 'node_modules/gh-pages/.cache/git@github.com!Yuribenjamin!my-app.git'...
git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! my-app@0.1.0 deploy: gh-pages -d build
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the my-app@0.1.0 deploy script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/TrishaBernice/.npm/_logs/2020-06-15T17_01_16_913Z-debug.log

Is there anything else I can try to fix the issue?

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

Use http or ssh

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trishabernice profile image
trishabernice

Earlier I did this:
Trishas-MBP-2:src TrishaBernice$ git remote add origin github.com/trishabernice/portfolio...
and i did git remote rm origin and then added the one for ssh and I still got the same error.

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trishabernice profile image
trishabernice

Do you have any suggestions for what I can do? I'll really appreciate it!

Thread Thread
 
mejimaru profile image
mejimaru • Edited
  1. go to github.com and create Repositories => your-app
  2. create your personal access token github.com/settings/tokens
  3. git remote set-url origin username:yourtoken@github.com/user...
  4. npm run deploy

or

  1. yarn add gh-pages
  2. yarn deploy
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sherazzie profile image
Sherazzie

mejimaru's solution worked if anyone ran into the error that @trishabernicer faced.

Thanks @mejimaru

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lathryx profile image
Lathryx

In response to @trishabernice 's problem with node_modules/.cache/gh-pages, a fix with this for me was to simply remove/delete node_modules/.cache/gh-pages, then execute npm run deploy once more.

This issue I'm referring to (and its answer) can be found on StackOverflow here: stackoverflow.com/questions/639645...

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chuchhin profile image
Jesús Sánchez • Edited

I'd the same problem and then read a lot of blogs/articles I find the solution. I'd changed the git in my PATH in this question you can find the solution then open the a new terminal and run the command npm run deploy I hope this help you.

Regards.

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averyfreeman profile image
Avery Freeman

If you don't have any commits you're worried about losing, you can just delete the .git folder.

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vicentgn profile image
Vicent García • Edited

Very interesting tutorial Ibrahim!
I have a question: how do you update the production build?
I mean: after deploying the app on GitHub, I realized that I need to change some stuffs. So I have generated new commits. If my app points to the master branch, how can I reflect that new changes on the production build then?

Thanks

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

Make changes commit then deploy again, that's it

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vicentgn profile image
Vicent García

Ok! Thanks!

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

If you want to updating the release check
create-react-app.dev/docs/updating...

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vicentgn profile image
Vicent García

Perfect!
Thanks!

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firzatullahd profile image
Firzatullah Dwiko Ramadhan

so i commit and push to my origin/github master, then i run "npm run deploy" again?

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mdgolammostafa profile image
Curious React Web Developer

yes

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mdgolammostafa profile image
Curious React Web Developer

just write a command like below -
npm run deploy

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idongcodes profile image
Idong Essien

Hello ! This was a big help ! However, at step 5, I received this error:

"Cloning into 'node_modules/gh-pages/.cache/git@github.com!idongessien!idngessnio.git'...
Warning: Permanently added the RSA host key for IP address '140.82.114.4' to the list of known hosts.
git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! idngessnio@0.1.0 deploy: gh-pages -d build
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the idngessnio@0.1.0 deploy script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /Users/idongessien/.npm/_logs/2020-05-17T18_23_28_805Z-debug.log"

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kokilgupta profile image
Kokil Gupta

Hey I'm getting the same error. Did you resolve it?

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

Setup ssh key bro

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idongcodes profile image
Idong Essien

Forgive me but how do I do that ? I am a newbie here

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab
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seamanb2k profile image
DigitalEmma

found this post useful, thank you...I have a question, after i have pushed my react app to github page, when i visit the url it displays blank with no error message shown, any pointers why i'm seeing this happen/
plus this is my first project in react.
Thank you

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piruthuvi22 profile image
Piruthuvi

I got this same problem in the beginning. If you follow this tutorial correctly,then try this one.

Your home page route should be like this





<Route exact path="/your github repo name">



instead for

and in your rendered component change the




<Link to="/your github repo name">



instead for




<Link to="/">



And another important point you should consider. your github repo name must be valid name for example dots or space should not be in your repo name because that things conflict with URL.
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learndeepak profile image
Learn-Deepak

Thanks a lot @Piruthuvi.

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ultrax007 profile image
Rajat Sawarkar

this should be mentioned in the create-react-app docs, was so frustrated because of this simple code change, thanks alot mate @Piruthuvi

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

Thanks, double check your process, if the same error occurred please share with me your github repo and I will help immediately

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nidhipal09 profile image
Nidhi pal

Hey, thanks for this very helpful tutorial. I am also getting a blank page. I did what was suggested (changing the router and link path as the github repo name) but still its not resolved.

repo link - github.com/Nidhipal09/covid-19-pro...
websited - nidhipal09.github.io/covid-19-proj...

can you pls help

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anabeatrizzz profile image
Ana Beatriz

I did the changes but a blank page is displayed yet.

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pitysek16 profile image
Katerina Pidan

Hello, Ibrahim.
I have such problem:
fatal: A branch named 'gh-pages' already exists.

npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! movie@0.1.0 deploy: gh-pages -d build
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the movie@0.1.0 deploy script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

Can you help me? Here is my repo github.com/pitysek16/Movies-React-app

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

hii katerina check last commit in this repo
github.com/Yuribenjamin/Movies-Rea...
and already your app running
yuribenjamin.github.io/Movies-Reac...

if you fix this tell me to delete repo above.

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pitysek16 profile image
Katerina Pidan

Thank you! It is work

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solicks profile image
solicks

Please what did you do to resolve it. I'm having the same issue.

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siminmaleki profile image
Simin Maleki

when you receive error " A branch named 'gh-pages' already exists.", you have to delete the .config sub-folder in gh-pages folder in node_module.

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sirbukti profile image
Bukti Siregar

hi sir, i am experiencing the same error. can you please show me how to fix it?
thank you in advance

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esobeisaac profile image
EsobeIsaac

Please how where you able to fix that, I'm having same issue here

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zacastaylor profile image
Zac Taylor

Hey Ibrahim, my app won't deploy. I went over your instruction twice but am still having issues. Would you mind taking a look at my repo, it's github.com/ZacASTaylor/zacastaylor.... Thanks!

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

Hello Zac

you did well but you need to make some changes to make your project run online kindly follow this process carefully:

1 - you need to change repo name because of dots in repo name conflict with URL, zacastaylor it's good enough and works with me.

2- in package.json change homepage with new value should be "zacastaylor.github.io/zacastaylor"

2.1- change predeploy to the new value "npm run build", yarn is fine but it's not tested.

3- in App.js change line 25 to be <Route exact path='/zacastaylor'

4- in component => layout => Header.js line 37 to be <Link to="/zacastaylor"

download the project and change the repo name, after that remove the old connection you can check git remote -v you will see this connected with old repo remove connection by git remote rm this command will take one parameter the full command will be git remote rm origin.

if you check again git remote -v will display nothing to your terminal after that do the change above and make a commit with new changes then push and run npm run deploy.

happy to hear from you Zac, kindly update me if this process success or fail

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zacastaylor profile image
Zac Taylor

Thanks so much for you help Ibrahim, but the issue was that I needed slightly different instructions because I am trying to have my React app hosted on my GitHub user page and not a project page. I followed the instructions here: dev.to/javascripterika/deploy-a-re...

Thanks again!

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Comment deleted
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pak11273 profile image
Isaac Pak

video is private...

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kimberlybone profile image
Kimberly Bone

How would I add changes (such as changing the header, font, color, etc) to the page after deploying? I committed and pushed and it successfully shows on my github repo but when I go to my live link none of my changes show.

My repo: github.com/kimberlybone/my-portfol...
My live site: kimberlybone.github.io/my-portfoli...

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

did you try to delete GH-page branch && build directory, and deploying the app again? if not try this

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legyta profile image
Ligita Montvilaite

Hey - does this mean, everytime you update something on the page, we need to Delete Gh-page branch && delete build directory folder, and basically deploy again?

Is there no automatic update happening? (i.e. like, when deployed on netlify or smhtg.) ? Thanks!

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

to update run npm run deploy after each update

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omerhamid profile image
Omer

as you said committing and deploying works fine but you have to wait for the change to take an effect on the live link ( and sometimes the repo itself)

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lkian profile image
Leah

Hi. I am having issues deploying my React app to github pages. Could you take a look?
github.com/LKian/ToDoList

I added homepage to package.json, along with
"predeploy": "npm run build",
"deploy": "gh-pages -d build"

I added the gh-pages as a dev dependency

The error seems to occur when I run "npm run deploy"

todolist@0.1.0 build /mnt/c/Users/Admin/Desktop/Code/todolist
react-scripts build

internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:638
throw err;
^

Error: Cannot find module 'react-dev-utils/crossSpawn'
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:15)
at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:562:25)
.
.
.
.

Thank you!

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab • Edited

hello Leah
give it try again I cloned your repo and walked through my tutorial,
and everything working fine with me check ...
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/...
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/...
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/...

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lkian profile image
Leah • Edited

Oh thanks for the screenshots. The only difference I noticed was that for some reason even though I installed "gh-pages" yesterday, it wasn't there. I re-installed and gh-pages now appears in package.json.

I then tried to npm run deploy and am still getting an error. Any other thoughts as to what is wrong?

Creating an optimized production build...
Failed to compile.

./src/index.js
Error: [BABEL] /mnt/c/Users/Admin/Desktop/Code/todolist/src/index.js: Cannot find module '@babel/core' (While processing: "/mnt/c/Users/Admin/Desktop/Code/todolist/node_modules/babel-preset-react-app/index.js")

I read that the gh-pages is supposed to create a new branch but that is not happening. I'm going to try to delete the repo and start from scratch. After I make a new repo, should I still be running the following setup commands?
git init
git add README.md
git commit -m "first commit"
git remote add origin git@github.com:LKian/ToDoList.git
git push -u origin master

and THEN running npm run deploy? Still getting an error

Update: I deleted node_modules and package-lock.json and npm installed again. And it says published!!!!!!!!!! Still not showing up on the live page but I know sometimes it takes a while. Will keep you updated :-)

lkian.github.io/ToDoList/index.html

Got it. Apparently you have to add "/index.html" to the path

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yuribenjamin profile image
Ibrahim Ragab

no, just the URL that equal to the home page key in the package.json
lkian.github.io/ToDoList
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/...

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milanzmitrovic profile image
Milan Mitrovic • Edited

I have same issue. How did you solve at the end?

Actually, issue is with path of files that should be included i.e. imported from index.html file.

milanzmitrovic.github.io/milanzmit... should be milanzmitrovic.github.io/my-app/fa... . I do not know why it is written two times milanzmitrovic/ ???

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dboatengx profile image
Boateng Dickson

Very helpful article, thanks very much!

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itsgiovanni profile image
ItsGiovanni • Edited

Lovely. Thank you for this.

If you're having the following error:
Host key verification failed.
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Remove your remote:
git remote remove origin

Then create a new remote. no marks:
git remote add ht tps://github.com/username/repo-name.git

Using the git@github.com:... syntax ends up using SSH to clone, and inside the container, your private key is not available.

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raihanadf profile image
Raihan

Created this account just for thanking you, mine says invalid url all the time. Tried changing the homepage, reinstalling the package, removing the ssh remote, and even switching the node version lol. Thanks, your solution works.

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