---
title: It's For The Orphans!
teaser:
tags: git
author: Caleb Hearth
published_on: 2013-04-27
---

Too often, I come across GitHub Pages branches (`gh-pages`) branches that are
simply forks from the `master` branch of the repository. This is not ideal.

![Commit History showing Merge master into gh-pages on GitHub][history]

[history]: http://f.cl.ly/items/2Y2F0o1R1x0s122y4139/Commit%20History%20%C2%B7%20thoughtbot_bourbon-2.jpg

There are several problems with this strategy:

* Unless you manually update the `gh-pages` branch every time you add a commit
  to master, you will be out of date.
* It makes for a much more difficult to understand source folder for the Jekyll
  or <abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr> site, since people have
  to mentally categorize every file and folder into either part of the site or
  an artifact from the master branch.
* It introduces the need to have lines like this in `_config.yml` to prevent
  unrelated files from being included in the `gh-pages` site:

  `exclude: ./app, ./lib, ./project.gemspec, ./Gemfile, ./LICENSE, ./Rakefile, ./readme.md, ./features, ./spec`

![Little Orphan Annie][annie]

[annie]: http://windupmyskirt.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/little-orphan-annie.jpg

## `git checkout --orphan gh-pages`

When it comes time to create a GitHub Page for your project, use the above
command. This creates a branch that is completely separate from the history of
the rest of the repository. You will need to delete the files by running `git rm
-rf .`:

    If you want to start a disconnected history that records a set of paths that
    is totally different from the one of <start_point>, then you should clear
    the index and the working tree right after creating the orphan branch by
    running "git rm -rf ." from the top level of the working tree. Afterwards
    you will be ready to prepare your new files, repopulating the working tree,
    by copying them from elsewhere, extracting a tarball, etc.

— _`git checkout --help`_

After you have an empty branch, you're ready to get started on your Jekyll or
HTML site with a clean history and a clear conscience.