Action pulling source repo instead of deployment repo (was working a few weeks ago)

[thomasantony]

I have a repository with my website source (with static site generator), which generates the HTML into the public folder and then deploys it to github pages. It was working just fine until I tried yesterday.

It seems like it is trying to deploy the source repository rather than the deployment one specified in repository_name.

Checking configuration and starting deployment… 🚦
Configuring SSH client… 🔑
Identity added: (stdin) (xxx@xxxxxx.com)
Deploying using SSH Deploy Key… 🔑
Configuring git…
/usr/bin/git config --global --add safe.directory /home/runner/work/thomasantony.github.io-src/thomasantony.github.io-src
/usr/bin/git config user.name thomasantony
/usr/bin/git config user.email xxxx@users.noreply.github.com
/usr/bin/git config core.ignorecase false
/usr/bin/git remote rm origin
/usr/bin/git remote add origin git@github.com:thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io
Git configured… 🔧
Starting to commit changes…
/usr/bin/git ls-remote --heads git@github.com:thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io refs/heads/master
f9[34](https://github.com/thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io-src/actions/runs/12614384746/job/35153219003#step:10:35)0af2c356d0aff3113269329d3c5262456ea8	refs/heads/master
Creating worktree…
/usr/bin/git fetch --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 origin master
From github.com:thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io
 * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
 * [new branch]      master     -> origin/master
/usr/bin/git worktree add --no-checkout --detach github-pages-deploy-action-temp-deployment-folder
Preparing worktree (detached HEAD bf88686)
/usr/bin/git checkout -B master origin/master
fatal: 'master' is already used by worktree at '/home/runner/work/thomasantony.github.io-src/thomasantony.github.io-src'
Error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
    at ExecState._setResult (/home/runner/work/_actions/JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action/v4.7.2/node_modules/@actions/exec/lib/toolrunner.js:592:25)
    at ExecState.CheckComplete (/home/runner/work/_actions/JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action/v4.7.2/node_modules/@actions/exec/lib/toolrunner.js:575:18)
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/home/runner/work/_actions/JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action/v4.7.2/node_modules/@actions/exec/lib/toolrunner.js:469:27)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:[51](https://github.com/thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io-src/actions/runs/12614384746/job/35153219003#step:10:52)9:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1105:16)
    at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:305:5)
Error encountered while checking out branch. Attempting to continue with a new branch name.

Note how it says Preparing worktree (detached HEAD bf88686). That commit hash is from thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io-src and not thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io (the deployment target).

I also tried doing a rm -rf .git in a step before the deployment and that didn't seem to do anything.

What am I doing wrong here?

This is how I am using the action:

      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        uses: JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@v4.7.2
        with:
          branch: master
          folder: ./public
          ssh-key: ${{ secrets.ACTIONS_DEPLOY_KEY }}
          clean: true
          repository-name: thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io

It also throws some Git LFS errors as it tries to push Git LFS artifacts that are defined in the source repo to the deployment repo (which doesn't have any LFS artifacts).

I found a discussion talking about something like this being fixed in v4.6.1, but I am using a newer version and it is still failing.

I also tried rolling back to the old deploy.yml (from August) and it is giving the same error.

See: https://github.com/thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io-src/actions/runs/12614500909/job/35153460536#step:8:88

[JamesIves]

The LFS error is what's ultimately causing this to fail, the commit hash bit you're seeing shouldn't matter, it's just trying to create a detatched version it can push to your destination repo.

remote: error: GH008: Your push referenced at least 8 unknown Git LFS objects:        
remote:     d195ac09b0025a8e3d1a92eb2693bec5bcbc83c7aaca3e6cbba14dfc08970660        
remote:     d396b29a49bf144186593d7c616dc6f3f3967c09b55c5fd4926881fcbe013997        
remote:     222a3ce07e1d277a4cd3beeefa0d6d4d[77](https://github.com/thomasantony/thomasantony.github.io-src/actions/runs/12614500909/job/35153460536#step:8:78)b641dbee786cbb2d200f1398bc56d5        
remote:     ...        
remote: Try to push them with 'git lfs push --all'.

This is the first time I've seen this error however. Are you sure nothing is committing LFS resources in a prior step?

[thomasantony]

I am using nschloe/action-cached-lfs-checkout. That's the only reference to LFS. I have some PDFs in the source repo that are stored using LFS. They get cloned (and cached to avoid bandwidth usage) while the site gets built. There are no LFS references in the actual gh-pages repository. The LFS objects that are referenced are all in the source repo.

It looks like the build config is using git remote set-url to change the origin URL for the source repo to the ghpages repo, and then trying to push. This is resulting in it trying to push the LFS objects as well? Is there some missing step where we are supposed to clone the gh-pages repo first?

[thomasantony]

I was able to fix this by adding the following extra step before the Deploy GH Pages step:

      - name: Cleanup any LFS refs
        run: find . -type f -name "*.lfs" -o -name "*.gitattributes" | xargs rm -f