gulp + browser-sync Cannot GET / error

Question

I am learning the front-end build system currently gulp, i want to use brower-sync and the problem is it is not throwing an error in the commad line but instead when it brings up the browser it will not display my html file and it will say "Cannot GET /" error in the browser window. This is my gulpfile.js code

var gulp = require('gulp'),
   uglify = require('gulp-uglify'),
   compass= require('gulp-compass'),
   plumber = require('gulp-plumber'),
   autoprefixer = require('gulp-autoprefixer'),
   browserSync = require('browser-sync'),
   reload = browserSync.reload,
   rename = require('gulp-rename');


gulp.task('scripts', function() {
   gulp.src(['public/src/js/**/*.js', '!public/src/js/**/*.min.js'])
      .pipe(plumber())
      .pipe(rename({suffix: '.min'}))
      .pipe(uglify())
      .pipe(gulp.dest('public/src/js/'));
});

gulp.task('styles', function() {
   gulp.src('public/src/scss/main.scss')
      .pipe(plumber())
      .pipe(compass({
          config_file: './config.rb',
          css: './public/src/css/',
          sass: './public/src/scss/'
      }))
     .pipe(autoprefixer('last 2 versions'))
     .pipe(gulp.dest('public/src/css/'))
     .pipe(reload({stream:true}));
});


gulp.task('html', function() {
  gulp.src('public/**/*.html');
});  

gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
    browserSync({
      server: {
         baseDir: "./public/"
      }
   });
});

gulp.task('watch', function() {
   gulp.watch('public/src/js/**/*.js', ['scripts']);
   gulp.watch('public/src/scss/**/*.scss', ['styles']);
   gulp.watch('public/**/*.html', ['html']);
});

gulp.task('default', ['scripts', 'styles', 'html', 'browser-sync', 'watch']);

i am using windows and git bash and version is "browser-sync": "^2.12.5" so what is the problem and try to explain for me in order to get something out of it.

Answer 1

Is there an index.html file in your ./public/ folder? If not, you need to tell browserSync what is your start page. You can also get browserSync to show the listing of the base directory, see update below.

You could also try to use public without the leading dot.

Edit: The startPath config directive does not seem to work, use index instead

...
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
   browserSync({
     server: {
        baseDir: "public/",
        index: "my-start-page.html"
     }
   });
});
...

Update: Actually you can get directory listing with browserSync. That way it would show a list of files in public, not the Cannot Get error

...
gulp.task('browser-sync', function() {
   browserSync({
     server: {
        baseDir: "public/",
        directory: true
     }
   });
});
...

Answer 2

I got this to work when the index.html file was inside the same folder:

    browserSync.init({
        server: {
            baseDir: "./"
        }
    });