GitHub Shortcuts

A quick reminder for hosting a blog on GitHub Pages such as this one. I am using the Chirpy theme with Jekyll.

Guides

1. Head over to GitHub, a web-based version control service, and create an account.
2. Install Git, a version control system that works on your computer.
3. Install Jekyll, a static site generator, following their installation guides.
4. Head over to Chirpy’s Getting Started guide and follow it.
   • Choose the fork option. Otherwise, you will have to create several files for your build to deploy correctly
   • Running on Windows, I have met roadblocks due to missing configurations. I had to run an extra command line found on Stackoverflow here
   • If you follow the steps but your image does not show in the side bar, this command seems to fix it: bash tools/init.sh

Useful commands

It’s possible to edit your files directly on GitHub and commit every change, but it’s more efficient to do so locally and commit once you’re done with all the changes. To achieve this, you can use these useful commands that should be run from your site’s directory.

Git commands

Clone the repository to your local machine

git clone https://github.com/REPONAME.github.io

See changes about to be staged

git status

Stage changes

git add FILENAME or git add . to stage all changes.

Commit

git commit -m "MESSAGE" to commit changes to the branch.

Update the GitHub repository with your local repository

git push origin master when master is the name of you site’s branch. Replace with whatever it is called.

Ruby commands

Before deploying your repository, preview changes on your site by running a local development server. This will launch your Jekyll site in a web browser.

Run the Jekyll server

bundle exec jekyll serve

The command will generate a URL, such as http://localhost:4000. Copy and paste it in a browser to access your site offline.