Host Jekyll on GitHub
I recently moved my technical blog to Jekyll, hosted on GitHub. (That’s this site.) It’s a great way to host a site for FREE, and it’s mostly easy to set up. One of my favorite things about it is that I can write my posts in Markdown, and then push them to GitHub. GitHub takes care of the rest. No database required. No subscription fees. No server to maintain. It’s a great!
Here’s how I did it.
Requirements: A GitHub account
GitHub Pages is included for free on Public repositories. If you want to host a private site, you’ll need a paid account. Since you want your site to be public anyway, a public repo makes perfect sense.
Step 1: Create a new repository
In my case, I’m actually using the one associated with my user account. (paulcushing.github.io) If you’d rather, you can also create a new repository specifically for your site. See GitHub Pages for more information.
Step 2: Copy files from theme’s repo
I looked around at a few themes and found one I liked.
For me, Chirpy was simple and included everything I wanted. I copied the files from the theme’s repo into my new repo. Then I made a few changes to the _config.yml file to customize it for my site.
Step 3: Write a post
I liked the idea of being able to have posts in DRAFT as well as PUBLISHED. I considered just having a drafts git branch, but I came across the Jekyll Compose plugin instead. It’s a great way to manage drafts and posts.
To create my first draft, I ran:
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bundle exec jekyll draft "My First Post"
Then I edited the file in the _drafts directory. When I was ready to publish it, I ran:
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bundle exec jekyll publish _drafts/my-first-post.md
There are also options for backdating the post, or unpublishing it. Check out the Jekyll Compose plugin for more information.
Since the Chirpy theme came with some helpful starter posts, I wanted to keep them around for reference. I moved them to the _drafts directory so they’d still be around but not be published.
While you’re working on your posts, or even tweaking the theme, you can run a local server to see your changes. To see what the public will see just run:
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bundle exec jekyll serve
If you want to see drafts as well, run:
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bundle exec jekyll serve --drafts
Then visit http://localhost:4000 in your browser.
Step 4: Push to GitHub
The Chirpy theme comes with some great GitHub workflows. I didn’t have a use for most of those though, so I simplified things by removing them and consolidating the parts I wanted in my own workflow I called shipit. Check it out at shipit.yml if that’s helpful to you.
I pushed my changes to GitHub. Then I went to the settings for my repo and scrolled down to the GitHub Pages section. I selected the main branch and the root directory. Then I clicked Save.
Step 5: Wait
It took a few minutes for GitHub to build my site. Once it was done, I was able to visit my site at https://paulcushing.github.io.
For me, I also wanted my site to be available at https://paulcushing.dev. I used the repo Settings. Clicking on the Pages menu option reveals a field for a Custom Domain. I filled it in, then I went to my domain registrar and added a CNAME record to point to paulcushing.github.io. It took a few minutes for the DNS to update, but then I was able to visit my site at https://paulcushing.dev.
That’s it! I was up and running with a new site in no time. I hope this helps you get started with your own site. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on thePaulCushing.com. I’m happy to help.