Small Simplicity

Let's blog with Pelican

Makefile

1. make html: generates output html files from files in content folder using development config file

   • make regenerate: do make html with "listening" to new changes
   • vs. make publish: similar to make html except it uses settings in pulishconf.py

2. make devserver: (re)starts a http server in the output folder. Default port is 8000

3. Go to localhost:<PORT> to see the output website
4. ghp-import -b <local-gh-branch> <outputdir>: imports content in
   to the local branch local-gh-branch

Workflow

Key: Do every work in dev branch. Do not touch blog-build or master. blog-build will be indirectly modified by ghp-import (or make publish-to-github) and master is the branch that Github will access to show my website. So, manage the source (and outputs) only in dev branch.

• Local dev

conda activate pelican-blog
cd ~/Workspace/Blog

# Make sure you are on `dev` branch
git checkout dev

# Add new files  under `content`
git add my-article.md

# Generate the content with pelican
make html # or, make regenerate 

# Start a local server 
make devserver

# Open a browser and go to localhost:8000

• Global dev

  1. Use make publish instead of make html
  2. Update the blog-build branch with contents in output folder
  3. Push the blog-build branch's content to origin/master

  These three steps can be done in one line:

make publish-to-github

• Version control the source
  Important: Write new contents only on the dev branch

git add <files> # make sure not to push the output folder
git cm "<commit message>"
git push origin dev #origin/dev is the remote branch that keeps track of blog sources