Objective: To use GitHub Pages in conjunction with Jupyter Book to publish the course's wiki and notebooks, leveraging an existing GitHub Actions workflow in the private repository for AST5110.

Steps:

1. Clone the gh-pages Branch Locally:
   Create a local gh-pages branch that tracks the gh-pages branch from the upstream public repository.

   git checkout -b gh-pages upstream/gh-pages

2. Push the gh-pages Branch to Your Private Repository:
   Push the gh-pages branch to your private repository on GitHub.

   git push -u origin gh-pages

3. Configure GitHub Pages in Your Private Repository:

   • Go to your repository settings on GitHub.
   • Navigate to the 'GitHub Pages' section.
   • Select the gh-pages branch as the source and choose the root folder for the website.
   • Confirm the changes to activate GitHub Pages.

4. Utilizing Jupyter Book with GitHub Actions:

   • The private repository includes a GitHub Actions workflow that automates the building and publishing of the course content using Jupyter Book.
   • Before the workflow can run, ensure that Jupyter Book is installed. You can install Jupyter Book by running:

     pip install -U jupyter-book

   • This workflow takes the course's Jupyter notebooks and wiki, compiles them into a well-structured, navigable format, and then publishes them on GitHub Pages.
   • The workflow is set up to run automatically upon updates to the gh-pages branch, so no additional steps are needed to initiate this process once Jupyter Book is installed.

5. Regularly Update the gh-pages Branch (Optional):
   To keep the content current with the public repository:

   • Fetch updates from the upstream:

     git fetch upstream

   • Switch to the gh-pages branch:

     git checkout gh-pages

   • Merge the latest changes and resolve conflicts if any:

     git merge upstream/gh-pages

   • Push the updates to your private repository:

     git push origin gh-pages

Note: Regularly updating the gh-pages branch ensures that your GitHub Pages site, including the Jupyter Book content, remains synchronized with the latest updates from the public repository.