v3: 'Removing files' step doesn't properly clean existing gh-pages content when repo contains submodules

[JohannesHoppe]

Description

When deploying to a gh-pages branch from a repository that uses git submodules, angular-cli-ghpages v3 fails to properly remove existing files from the gh-pages branch. This results in the deployed content containing files from the main branch (like .github/, .gitignore, .gitmodules, and the submodule gitlink) mixed with the intended dist content.

v2 works correctly - it properly removes all existing files before copying the new content.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a repo with a git submodule (e.g., build/ pointing to another repo)
2. Have an existing gh-pages branch with some content (or let the first deploy create it)
3. Run angular-cli-ghpages v3 with --dir=dist where dist/ only contains your build output (e.g., blog/)

Expected Behavior

The gh-pages branch should only contain:

• .nojekyll
• Contents of dist/ (e.g., blog/)

Actual Behavior

The gh-pages branch contains:

• .nojekyll ✓
• blog/ ✓
• .github/ ✗ (from main branch)
• .gitignore ✗ (from main branch)
• .gitmodules ✗ (from main branch)
• build ✗ (submodule gitlink, type "commit" in git tree)

Analysis

Looking at the deploy logs, the sequence is:

Cloning repo into cache...
Cleaning
Fetching origin
Checking out origin/gh-pages 
Removing files          <-- This step doesn't fully clean
Creating .nojekyll
Copying files
Adding all
Committing
Pushing

The "Removing files" step in v3 appears to not properly handle:

1. Hidden files (.gitignore, .gitmodules)
2. Hidden directories (.github/)
3. Submodule gitlinks - In git, a submodule is stored as a "commit" type entry in the tree (not a regular file/directory). This might require special handling like git rm --cached or git submodule deinit.

Workaround

Use v2:

npm install angular-cli-ghpages@2
npx angular-cli-ghpages --dir=dist ...

Environment

• angular-cli-ghpages: v3.x (latest)
• GitHub Actions runner: ubuntu-latest
• Node.js: 22.x
• Repository: https://github.com/angular-schule/website-articles

Related

This might be related to changes in the bundling/packaging for v3, or changes in the underlying gh-pages npm package dependency.