Creating a Github Blog Using Octopress

Updated July 22, 2012:

  • Made it simpler
  • Corrected code typos

Environment

Rails 3.2.3. Ruby 1.9.2p320. RVM 1.13.6. MAC OSX Lion. Textmate. iTerm2

References

Octopress documentation

Warning This article assumes you already installed RVM and Ruby.

Quick Summary for creating and deploying a post

$ rake new_post["New Post"]
$ rake generate
$ git add .
$ git commit -am "Some comment here." 
$ git push origin source
$ rake deploy

Installation Process

Go to the terminal and clone the Octopress repo:

git clone git://github.com/imathis/octopress.git octopress

cd octopress

Check the version of Ruby is 1.9.2. This version is required.

ruby --version

bundle install

This command installs Octopress

rake install

Deploying to Github

Create a new Github repository. If you are creating a personal blog create a repo called:

username.github.com

After creating the repo, run the following command.

$rake setup_github_pages

Which is supposed to:

  • init a git repo
  • rename the branch from master to source
  • add your repo to origin.

Running the previous command shows this:

Enter the read/write url for your repository

You have to enter it like this:

git@github.com:username/username.github.com.git

For me it didn’t rename the branch from master to source or add my remote repo. I did it manually (see below)

Add your remote repo

Check what remote repositories you have:

git remote -v

My output was:

octopress   git://github.com/imathis/octopress.git (fetch)
octopress   git://github.com/imathis/octopress.git (push)

To add your repo do:

git remote add origin git@github.com:username/username.github.com.git

Rename the branch from master to source

$git branch
* master
$git branch -m master source
$git branch
* source

Preview on development stage

$ rake preview

Then browse to:

localhost:4000

If you get this error:

Sorry, I cannot find /

Read this link: Deploying to a Subdirectory

First push to Github

$rake generate
$git add .
$git commit -am "First deploy to github." 
$git push origin source
$rake deploy

Create a new posting

$rake new_post["Creating a Github Blog Using Octopress"]

Go to the app folder source/_posts to find the new posting

Edit the posting and then follow these steps

$rake generate
$git add .
$git commit -m "Initial blog post." 
$git push origin source
$rake deploy

Add a custom domain

Go to source folder and create 2 files :

(mate if you are using Textmate)

cd source
mate CNAME
mate .nojekyll

Open the CNAMe file and this line:

www.yourdomain.com

The NoJekyll file will make Octopress works in Github Pages.

Push again to github

rake generate
git add .
git add -am 'domain configuration'
git push origin source
rake deploy

Github need time to read your CNAME and updating the sites.

cname, github, octopress