After I deleted template files in _posts, build fails for `gh-pages` branch

I have been getting a gh-pages branch page build error message ever since I deleted the original post files from a Jekyll template I forked (Milennial).

I am new to GitHub and Jekyll and I’ve been able to problem solve all the little things I’ve run into so far but still as a noob it may be something easy and obvious I am missing. I was able to change the css and made a couple of posts, all has been going well, until I deleted the original posts included in the template.

I haven’t been able to find the answer to this on any forums yet, and I apologize if it’s been asked already. I appreciate any help or if you can point me in the right direction.

Thank you!

Here’s a more detailed description:

I ran into a problem when I deleted the original template markdown files in the _posts folder. Ever since I have been unable to make any updates to any site files, incl css.

When I try to make edits, I receive this email with the subject: Page build failure.

And the following info:

"The page build failed for the gh-pages branch with the following error:

Page build failed. For more information, see https://help.github.com/articles/troubleshooting-github-pages-builds/.”

Also… even though the files I deleted are not in the _posts folder, they still appear on my blog:
https://github.com/Clarkinia/Queer-Auntie/tree/gh-pages/_posts
https://clarkinia.github.io/Queer-Auntie/

you a have post called new post but posts have to start with the date and probably should have an extension at the end like .md or .html - like the other two posts you have. Try changing that to 2018-02-17-new-post.md and see if it works.

Thanks for your response. Actually I should clarify that the “new post” in there is something I quickly and randomly did yesterday while troubleshooting. I should have deleted that before posting this I guess - and I will delete it now.

The other two posts are the two posts I made a couple weeks back and I used the correct format. It wasn’t until about a week ago, after I deleted the how-to posts included in the template that I ran into this page build error.

Another weird thing is that even though I deleted the how-to posts included in the template, they still show up on the blog homepage. But they are not in the _pages folder since I deleted them. I’m guessing this has to do with forking?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time - I’m really looking forward to learning more and getting my site up. I appreciate any help here.

I’m not sure what the problem is.

I think the reason why the site shows old content is because you are getting a build error it is falling back to the last successful build.

That is not a very helpful error.

I don’t use GH pages very much so I don’t have much experience with it.

1 Like

Have you tried installing the GitHub Pages gem and building your site locally? It’ll give you more descriptive error messaging to help you pinpoint what the issue is.

https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-your-github-pages-site-locally-with-jekyll/

I’m going to build the site locally thanks to your advice. Also Github support got back to me and they found that a line of code in the about file links to one of the original template posts, so that was breaking the site.

Initially my plan was to build it locally and I installed the gem. But then I wandered into the github fork territory to see if it might suit my needs and sort of wanting to know more about github. When I ran into the error message I decided to see it through in case I might learn something new. idk I think I’ve been a little too obsessed with this one quote: “No quitting half-way through because it’s not working. You get nothing from an unfinished project. You learn nothing.” Stephen J. Cannell

Thanks for the link and help.

1 Like