this setup

Here are my notes from making this site. I will add to it as I learn more jekyll and how the github.io stuff works.

docs I followed

install jekyll on my computer

My home computer is currently (March 2021) running Ubuntu 20.04. I followed the Jekyll on Ubuntu page, except I use zsh, so I edited my .zshrc file instead of the .bashrc file.

Prerequisites:

sudo apt-get install ruby-full build-essential zlib1g-dev

Zsh stuff:

$ grep gem ~/.zshrc
export GEM_HOME="$HOME/gems"
export PATH="$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH"

(and source ~/.zshrc).

Install jekyll and bundler:

gem install jekyll bundler

Note: I think this installs new “gems” into my ~/gems directory, so I can install them without root.

set up github.io repository

I already had an account on github, so I just had to add a new repo with the name username.github.io. See https://pages.github.com/ for more info on this step.

add stuff/deploy

Lastly, I want to work on this site/page locally, then deploy it all back to github. I’m still figuring this part out a bit.

  • clone the above username.github.io repo (which is still empty) to my local computer
  • run the jekyll new command in the directory above that cloned repo (I had to use the --force??)
git clone git@github.com:username/username.github.io.git
jekyll new username.github.io --force
cd username.github.io
jekyll serve

At this point you should have a basic jekyll site running on http://127.0.0.1:4000.

  • change the about.markdown file a bit
  • change the _config.yml file a bit
  • run jekyll build and jekyll serve if you want to see it locally again
  • add new files to git and push it back
git status
git add .
git commit -a -m 'first try at jekyll and github pages'
git push

Now your site should be up at https://username.github.io (actually, it might take a minute or two to finish the full deploy).

new post

$ cd _posts
$ vim year-month-day-new-title-page.markdown
(add your post here)
$ bundle exec jekyll build
$ bundle exec jekyll serve

Now go to http://127.0.0.1:4000 to see local site. If everything looks good, git commit and push…

things to fix

  • I get a running version of Bundler (2.1.2) is older than… warning when I run jekyll serve
  • find a better jekyll theme
  • fix up the front page and all of the little things…