Reputation: 20080
I am aware that on GitHub you can create a repository, <username>.github.io
, which will be a personal website. I also understand you can link custom domains to this, so example.com
would show the website in your GitHub repo.
I have a couple questions though.
At the moment, I have a GitHub project - let's call it FooProject
. I have purchased a custom domain name for a website to showcase the project. How can I create a website for this, hosted on GitHub? (not a personal site in the form <username>.github.io
, but a project site).
Also, can I give the GitHub repository a different name like fooproject.com
, or does it something specific?
I suppose what I am really asking is, when hosting a website on GitHub...
Can you host your website using a GitHub repository of any name (like fooproject.com
)?
If not, I'm aware of using gh-pages
branches for the website of a project. How would this work with a custom domain?
If that isn't a good option either, what's the best option for my use case?
Hope that's clear.
Upvotes: 12
Views: 4901
Reputation: 20080
So I managed to answer my own questions in the end - here's what I did.
My website is going to be something to showcase a different project I am working on. I could have hosted the website from a /doc
directory or gh-pages
branch in my project repository and then set up a custom domain from there.
However, there was also the option of creating a repository with any name and hosting the website from the master
branch - this method appealed to me more.
I created a new repository named the same as my domain name, example.com
(it doesn't really matter what you call the repository). Then, using git, I added some website files - index.html
, stylesheet.css
, etc.
Once my repository was ready, I configured its master
branch as a publishing source for GitHub pages - see this help page for details.
Then with my DNS provider (GoDaddy, in my case), I configured the CNAME
and A
records (for the www
subdomain and apex domain respectively). There are also help pages on GitHub for setting up www
subdomains and setting up apex domains. Note that it takes a little while for the changes made on the DNS to take effect.
Finally, I added my custom domain to my GitHub repository - see the GitHub help page for adding or removing custom domains.
Here's a summary (for using any GitHub repository to host a website):
master
branch as a publishing sourceCNAME
and A
records with DNS providerUpvotes: 8