diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index df96f92bb95..a79221897f5 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -215,6 +215,18 @@ task :copydot do
   end
 end
 
+desc "copy dot files for Github Pages deployment"
+task :copydot_deploy do
+  exclusions = [".", "..", ".DS_Store"]
+  Dir["#{public_dir}/**/.*"].each do |file|
+    if !File.directory?(file) && !exclusions.include?(File.basename(file))
+      cp(file, file.gsub(/#{public_dir}/, "#{deploy_dir}"));
+    end
+  end
+  puts "\n## copying #{public_dir} to #{deploy_dir}"
+end
+
+
 desc "Deploy website via rsync"
 task :rsync do
   puts "## Deploying website via Rsync"
@@ -225,8 +237,7 @@ desc "deploy public directory to github pages"
 multitask :push do
   puts "## Deploying branch to Github Pages "
   (Dir["#{deploy_dir}/*"]).each { |f| rm_rf(f) }
-  system "cp -R #{public_dir}/* #{deploy_dir}"
-  puts "\n## copying #{public_dir} to #{deploy_dir}"
+  Rake::Task[:copydot_deploy].execute
   cd "#{deploy_dir}" do
     system "git add ."
     system "git add -u"