---
title: Getting Started
author: Cotes Chung
date: 2019-08-09 20:55:00 +0800
categories: [Blogging, Tutorial]
tags: [getting started]
pin: true
---

## Prerequisites

Follow the [Jekyll Docs](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/) to complete the installation of `Ruby`, `RubyGems`, `Jekyll` and `Bundler`. Please note that the version of `Ruby` must meet the requirements of the theme on [RubyGems.org](https://rubygems.org/gems/jekyll-theme-chirpy).

## Installation

There are two ways to get the theme:

- **[Install from RubyGems](#install-from-rubygems)** - Easy to update, isolate irrelevant project files so you can focus on writing.
- **[Fork on GitHub](#fork-on-github)** - Convenient for custom development, but difficult to update, only suitable for web developers.

### Install from RubyGems

Add this line to your Jekyll site's `Gemfile`:

```ruby
gem "jekyll-theme-chirpy"
```

And add this line to your Jekyll site's `_config.yml`:

```yaml
theme: jekyll-theme-chirpy
```

And then execute:

```console
$ bundle
```

Next, go to the installed local theme path:

```console
$ cd "$(bundle info --path jekyll-theme-chirpy)"
```

And then copy the critical files (for details, see [starter project][starter]) from the theme's gem to your Jekyll site.

> ⚠️ **Watch out for duplicate files!**
>
If your Jekyll site is created by the `jekyll new` command, there will be `index.markdown` and `about.markdown` in the root directory of your site. Please be sure to remove them, otherwise they will overwrite the `index.html` and `_tabs/about.html` from this project, resulting in blank or messy pages.

As an alternative, which we recommend, you can create a Jekyll site [**using the starter template**][use-starter] to save time copying files from the theme's gem. We've prepared everything you need there!

### Fork on GitHub

[Fork **Chirpy**](https://github.com/cotes2020/jekyll-theme-chirpy/fork) on GitHub and then clone your fork to local. (Please note that the default branch code is in development.  If you want the blog to be stable, please switch to the [latest tag](https://github.com/cotes2020/jekyll-theme-chirpy/tags) and start writing.)

Install gem dependencies by:

```console
$ bundle
```

And then execute:

```console
$ bash tools/init.sh
```

> **Note**: If you don't plan to deploy your site on GitHub Pages, append parameter option `--no-gh` at the end of the above command.

What it does is:

1. Remove some files or directories from your repository:
    - `.travis.yml`
    - files under `_posts`
    - folder `docs`

2. If you use the `--no-gh` option, the directory `.github` will be deleted. Otherwise, setup the GitHub Action workflow by removing the extension `.hook` of `.github/workflows/pages-deploy.yml.hook`, and then remove the other files and directories in the folder `.github`.

3. Automatically create a commit to save the changes.

## Usage

### Configuration

Update the variables of `_config.yml` as needed. Some of them are typical options:

- `url`
- `avatar`
- `timezone`
- `lang`

### Customing Stylesheet

If you need to customize stylesheet, copy the theme's `assets/css/style.scss` to the same path on your Jekyll site, and then add the custom style at the end of the style file.

Starting from `v4.1.0`, if you want to overwrite the SASS variables defined in `_sass/addon/variables.scss`, create a new file `_sass/variables-hook.scss` and assign new values to the target variable in it.

### Running Local Server

You may want to preview the site contents before publishing, so just run it by:

```console
$ bundle exec jekyll s
```

Or run the site on Docker with the following command:

```terminal
$ docker run -it --rm \
    --volume="$PWD:/srv/jekyll" \
    -p 4000:4000 jekyll/jekyll \
    jekyll serve
```

Open a browser and visit to _<http://localhost:4000>_.

### Deployment

Before the deployment begins, checkout the file `_config.yml` and make sure the `url` is configured correctly. Furthermore, if you prefer the [**project site**](https://help.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/about-github-pages#types-of-github-pages-sites) and don't use a custom domain, or you want to visit your website with a base URL on a web server other than **GitHub Pages**, remember to change the `baseurl` to your project name that starting with a slash, e.g, `/project-name`.

Now you can choose ONE of the following methods to deploy your Jekyll site.

#### Deploy on GitHub Pages

For security reasons, GitHub Pages build runs on `safe` mode, which restricts us from using plugins to generate additional page files. Therefore, we can use **GitHub Actions** to build the site, store the built site files on a new branch, and use that branch as the source of the GH Pages service.

Quickly check the files needed for GitHub Actions build:

- Ensure your Jekyll site has the file `.github/workflows/pages-deploy.yml`. Otherwise, create a new one and fill in the contents of the [workflow file][workflow], and the value of the `on.push.branches` should be the same as your repo's default branch name.
- Ensure your Jekyll site has file `tools/test.sh` and `tools/deploy.sh`. Otherwise, copy them from this repo to your Jekyll site.

And then rename your repository to `<GH-USERNAME>.github.io` on GitHub.

Now publish your Jekyll site by:

1. Push any commit to remote to trigger the GitHub Actions workflow. Once the build is complete and successful, a new remote branch named `gh-pages` will appear to store the built site files.

2. Browse to your repo's landing page on GitHub and select the branch `gh-pages` as the [publishing source](https://docs.github.com/en/github/working-with-github-pages/configuring-a-publishing-source-for-your-github-pages-site) through _Settings_ → _Options_ → _GitHub Pages_:

    ![gh-pages-sources](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/cotes2020/chirpy-images/posts/20190809/gh-pages-sources.png){: width="850" height="153" }

3. Visit your website at the address indicated by GitHub.

#### Deploy on Other Platforms

On platforms other than GitHub, we cannot enjoy the convenience of **GitHub Actions**. Therefore, we should build the site locally (or on some other 3rd-party CI platform) and then put the site files on the server.

Go to the root of the source project, build your site by:

```console
$ JEKYLL_ENV=production bundle exec jekyll b
```

Or build the site with Docker by:

```terminal
$ docker run -it --rm \
    --env JEKYLL_ENV=production \
    --volume="$PWD:/srv/jekyll" \
    jekyll/jekyll \
    jekyll build
```

Unless you specified the output path, the generated site files will be placed in folder `_site` of the project's root directory. Now you should upload those files to your web server.

[starter]: https://github.com/cotes2020/chirpy-starter
[use-starter]: https://github.com/cotes2020/chirpy-starter/generate
[workflow]: https://github.com/cotes2020/jekyll-theme-chirpy/blob/master/.github/workflows/pages-deploy.yml.hook