HUGO is a static site generator based in go.

• About how to install hugo static site engine.
• About how to deploy the static site in a remote server.
• About how to update, publish stuff from any place at any time.

requirements

local

These are the basic reguirements on clients to enable remote posting and updates to hugo static site on a server.

• go
• git
• hugo

remote

These are the requirements to enable live updates to the hugo blog from a remote client.

• nginx
• git

starting the Hugo web project

Check hugo web page for more detailed information on how to start a static site, add themes, publish posts.

Below a quick overview about basic stuff

• Create a new blog and initialize a git repository:

• Add a theme, i.e. Zzo Docs. Check more themes here and follow the specific theme documentation for installation and configuration

• Add new post

• Generate static files (files are generated under public folder): hugo
• Running test server: hugo serve [-D] (-D to enable drafts)

More information about configuration and content management here and in your theme documentation.

keeping the blog safe in a git repository

Create a new repository in your favourite platform: github, bitbucket…

Follow the instruction to add your blog to the git repository. I.e for bitbucket:

setting up the server

This will automate the publication of the hugo web site in the server. In general the following steps will also work with any other static site generator such as hexo.
The steps are basically the following:

• Create a git repository on the server which will contain just the generated site
• Add a hook, so every time a push is received it will force a pull on the folder published on HTTP Server (nginx)

creating an empty git repository

SSH access to the server should be configured.

To setup an empty repository without a working directory run the following commands as non-root user on the server:

The hugo-deploy-project.git repository will be used to deploy the hugo blog.

Whenever the hugo-deploy-project.git repository receives a push from a git remote copy we need to update a folder which will be published on the http server (nginx). For that we create a hook called post_receive

Add the following content to hugo-deploy-project.git/hooks/post_receive

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#!/bin/bash

git --work-tree=/var/www/hugo --git-dir=<fullpathto>/hugo-deploy-project.git checkout -f

Now make sure the work-tree folder exists and has the right permissions. This is the folder that will be published on the HTTP server

Finally edit nginx configuration to publish the folder.

Edit or add a new server section in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

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    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  your_server_name_here;

        location / {
            root   /var/www/hugo;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }

        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        }
    }

After restarting the nginx service you should be able to access the server with http://<servername>

… finally add deployment scripts in your hugo project

In your local project add your server git repository to the public folder as a submodule. Before executing
the following command make sure you have removed the public folder if it already exists.

This will create an empty public folder. This folder will be populated whenever the hugo project is
compiled.

Now we will create a new script deploy.sh, to perform the following tasks:

• Build the project with comand hugo. This will populate the public folder
• go to public folder, and add, commit, push changes with git command

Add the following script to your project: deploy.sh

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#!/bin/bash
# filename: deploy.sh

# if command fails then the deploy stops

set -e

printf "\033[0;32mUploding changes to server...\033[0m\n"

# Build the project.
hugo # if using a theme, replace with `hugo -t <YOURTHEME>`

# Go To Public folder
cd public

# Add changes to git.
git add .

# Commit changes.
msg="updating site $(date)"
if [ -n "$*" ]; then
	msg="$*"
fi
git commit -m "$msg"

# Push source and build repos.
git push origin master

Optinally you can add at the end of the previous script the following script update.sh so your code is also updated in your remote repository

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#!/bin/bash
# filename: update.sh

# if command fails then the deploy stops

set -e

printf "\033[0;32mUpdate project on repository...\033[0m\n"

# Add changes to git.
git add .

# Commit changes.
msg="updating site $(date)"
if [ -n "$*" ]; then
	msg="$*"
fi
git commit -m "$msg"

# Push source and build repos.
git push origin master

Now when executing ./deploy.sh, the public folder of the hugo project will be pushed to the hugo-deploy-project. As soon as it receives the push is received, the hook is fired. the /var/www/hugo is updated, thus is publicly available.

how to use it to publish the blog from anywhere

1. From a remote machine (see local requirement), checkout your hugo project in git
2. Write posts, do changes in configuration, test locally (hugo serve)
3. Finally, deploy everything in your server to make it publicly available by running:

Your new entries should be available at: http://<servername>

See ‘moving from http to https’ post to learn how to enable HTTPS on nginx