Build and deploy a Hugo website automatically using Github Actions

I recently got access to the Github Actions beta, Github’s new tool for CI/CD. Because I already host the source files of this website on Github, the next logical step would be to create an action workflow that builds it and deploys it to the server everytime I make a new commit on the master branch. The workflow looks like this:

name: build and deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - master

jobs:
  build_deploy:
    name: build and deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master
      with:
        submodules: true
    - name: build
      uses: peaceiris/actions-hugo@v0.57.2
    - name: deploy
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@1.0.0
      env:
        FTP_SERVER: ${{ secrets.FTP_SERVER }}
        FTP_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.FTP_USERNAME }}
        FTP_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.FTP_PASSWORD }}
        REMOTE_DIR: ${{ secrets.FTP_REMOTE_DIR }}
        LOCAL_DIR: ./public
      if: success()

It consists of three steps to checkout the source files, build the site and deploy it on the server. Luckily some other other people already created actions to build a hugo site and to copy files via ftp. The ftp step uses Github Secrets to not reveal my credentials to the public. Secrets can be added in the repository settings.