How To Deploy A Git Repository To A Server Using GitHub Actions15.11.24

How To Deploy A Git Repository To A Server Using GitHub Actions
Modified: 19.08.2023

Do you want to learn how to deploy a git repository to your own server using GitHub Actions? In this post, I will lead you through creating it step-by-step. This includes the steps on your server, the steps on GitHub, and the action itself. Therefore we will go through the different sections:

The idea and the goal
    GitHub Action to deploy a git repository on a server
    Conclusion
    Helpful Links

Don’t want to read? Watch the video instead!
The idea and the goal

The goal of this action is to push changes to your repository and to pull them onto your server automatically. This can be useful for deploying a website or a web app that automatically updates when the user visits/reloads your page.
To accomplish this, the idea of the action is to first connect to the server via ssh as a user with enough rights for the next steps. Then we want to change the directory to the directory containing the repository, change to the main branch, and pull the changes. Afterward, we can exit the shell again.
Server icon
VPS Hosting Course
Learn everything you need to know about servers and hosting your own applications!
GitHub Action to deploy a git repository on a server

Now that we described the action’s goal and idea, we can start to set everything up. Follow the following steps:

On your server:

Create a new user or use your own
    Check that user has access to the directory containing the repository (if the repository does not yet exist on the server, clone it into the directory you want)
    Create an SSH key:
    ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
    Add the public key to the authorized_keys file:
    cat <path/to/public/key> >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
    Copy content of the key file:
    cat <path/to/private/key>
    You need to paste it in the next step.

On the GitHub website:

Go to “Settings > Secrets > Actions”
    Create the following secrets:
        SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: content of the private key file
        SSH_USER: user to access the server
        SSH_HOST: hostname/ip-address of your server
        WORK_DIR: path to the directory containing the repository
        MAIN_BRANCH: name of the main branch (mostly main)
    Go to the “Actions” tab in your GitHub repository
    Click on “set up a workflow yourself”
    Paste the following content:
```
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:
  
jobs:
  run_pull:
    name: run pull
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - name: install ssh keys
      # check this thread to understand why its needed:
      # https://stackoverflow.com/a/70447517
      run: |
        install -m 600 -D /dev/null ~/.ssh/id_rsa
        echo "${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}" > ~/.ssh/id_rsa
        ssh-keyscan -H ${{ secrets.SSH_HOST }} > ~/.ssh/known_hosts
    - name: connect and pull
      run: ssh ${{ secrets.SSH_USER }}@${{ secrets.SSH_HOST }} "cd ${{ secrets.WORK_DIR }} && git checkout ${{ secrets.MAIN_BRANCH }} && git pull && exit"
    - name: cleanup
      run: rm -rf ~/.ssh
```
The different blocks do the following:

Need help or want to share feedback? Join my discord community!

on: execute the action on push to the main branch or start it manually
    install ssh keys: setup ssh keys and known hosts
    connect and pull: connect to the server via ssh, go to the correct directory and branch and then pull changes
    cleanup: remove the ssh keys and known hosts again

https://www.programonaut.com/how-to-deploy-a-git-repository-to-a-server-using-github-actions/

Anonymous

How To Deploy A Git Repository To A Server Using GitHub Actions15.11.24

Information Epoch 1732182660