My Jekyll Blog

A personal blog built with Jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages. Write your thoughts, share your experiences, and connect with others through markdown blog posts.

Features

• Clean, responsive design using the Minima theme
• Markdown support for easy blog post creation
• Automatic RSS feed generation
• SEO optimized with meta tags and structured data
• GitHub Pages ready for easy deployment
• Custom styling with SCSS

Quick Start Commands

🚀 Click to expand quick commands

Setup & Installation

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/my-jekyll-github.git
cd my-jekyll-github

# Install dependencies
bundle install

# Run locally
bundle exec jekyll serve

# Build site
bundle exec jekyll build

# Clean and rebuild
bundle exec jekyll clean && bundle exec jekyll build

Development Commands

# Serve with live reload
bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload

# Serve on different port
bundle exec jekyll serve --port 4001

# Build with verbose output
bundle exec jekyll build --verbose

# Update dependencies
bundle update

Git Operations

# Add all changes
git add .

# Commit changes
git commit -m "Update blog content"

# Push to GitHub
git push origin main

# Check status
git status

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Ruby (2.4.0 or higher)
• Jekyll (4.0 or higher)
• Bundler

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/my-jekyll-github.git
   cd my-jekyll-github

2. Install dependencies

   bundle install

3. Run the site locally

   bundle exec jekyll serve

4. Open your browser Navigate to http://localhost:4000 to view your blog

Creating Blog Posts

New Post Structure

To create a new blog post:

1. Create a new file in the _posts directory
2. Name it with the format: YYYY-MM-DD-title.md
3. Add front matter at the top:

---
layout: post
title: "Your Post Title"
date: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS +0000
categories: category1 category2
---

4. Write your content in Markdown below the front matter

Example Post

---
layout: post
title: "My First Blog Post"
date: 2024-01-17 10:00:00 +0000
categories: personal thoughts
---

# Welcome to my blog!

This is my first blog post written in **Markdown**.

## Features

- Easy to write
- Great formatting
- Code support

```python
def hello_world():
    print("Hello, World!")

That's it! Your post will automatically appear on the blog.

## Customization

### Site Configuration

Edit `_config.yml` to customize:
- Site title and description
- Author information
- Social media links
- Base URL for GitHub Pages
- Theme settings

### Styling

Customize the appearance by editing:
- `assets/main.scss` - Main stylesheet
- `_layouts/` - Page layouts
- `_includes/` - Reusable components

### Adding Pages

Create new pages by adding markdown files with front matter:

```yaml
---
layout: page
title: "Page Title"
permalink: /page-url/
---

Deployment

GitHub Pages

1. Push to GitHub

   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial blog setup"
   git push origin main

2. Enable GitHub Pages

   • Go to your repository settings
   • Navigate to Pages section
   • Select source branch (usually main)
   • Your site will be available at https://yourusername.github.io/jekyll-github

Custom Domain

To use a custom domain:

1. Add your domain to _config.yml
2. Create a CNAME file in the root directory
3. Configure DNS settings with your domain provider

File Structure

jekyll-github/
├── _config.yml          # Site configuration
├── _layouts/            # Page layouts
│   ├── default.html     # Default layout
│   └── post.html        # Blog post layout
├── _includes/           # Reusable components
│   ├── head.html        # Head section
│   ├── header.html      # Navigation header
│   └── footer.html      # Site footer
├── _posts/              # Blog posts (markdown files)
├── assets/              # CSS, JS, images
│   └── main.scss        # Main stylesheet
├── index.html           # Homepage
├── about.md             # About page
├── Gemfile              # Ruby dependencies
└── README.md            # This file

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Port already in use

   bundle exec jekyll serve --port 4001

2. Dependencies not found

   bundle update

3. Build errors

   bundle exec jekyll build --verbose

Getting Help

• Jekyll Documentation
• GitHub Pages Help
• Minima Theme

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

Support

If you have questions or need help:

• Open an issue on GitHub
• Check the documentation
• Join the Jekyll community

---

Happy blogging! 🚀

2. Gitignore and File Management

Here's the .gitignore file you should create:

# Jekyll build output
_site/
.sass-cache/
.jekyll-cache/
.jekyll-metadata

# Ruby dependencies
.bundle/
vendor/

# OS generated files
.DS_Store
.DS_Store?
._*
.Spotlight-V100
.Trashes
ehthumbs.db
Thumbs.db

# IDE files
.vscode/
.idea/
*.swp
*.swo
*~

# Logs
*.log

# Temporary files
*.tmp
*.temp

# Environment files
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local

# Node modules (if using any Node.js tools)
node_modules/
npm-debug.log*
yarn-debug.log*
yarn-error.log*

# Backup files
*.bak
*.backup

Files You SHOULD Commit to GitHub:

✅ Source files (always commit):

• _config.yml - Site configuration
• _layouts/ - Page layouts
• _includes/ - Reusable components
• _posts/ - Blog posts
• assets/ - Source stylesheets and images
• index.html - Homepage
• about.md - About page
• Gemfile - Ruby dependencies
• README.md - Documentation
• .gitignore - Git ignore rules

Files You SHOULD NOT Commit:

❌ Never commit these:

• _site/ - Generated HTML (Jekyll builds this)
• .sass-cache/ - Sass compilation cache
• .jekyll-cache/ - Jekyll build cache
• .bundle/ - Bundler cache
• vendor/ - Ruby gems
• Gemfile.lock - Lock file (controversial, but generally not needed for Jekyll sites)
• .DS_Store - macOS system files
• IDE configuration files
• Log files
• Environment files

Why This Matters:

1. _site/ - This is generated by Jekyll and should be rebuilt on each deployment
2. Cache files - These are temporary and machine-specific
3. Dependencies - Should be installed fresh on each deployment
4. System files - Not relevant to your project

Deployment Workflow:

1. Local development:

   bundle exec jekyll serve

2. Commit source files:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Update blog content"
   git push origin main

3. GitHub Pages automatically:

   • Builds your site from source
   • Ignores _site/ and other generated files
   • Deploys the built version

This setup ensures your repository stays clean with only source code, while GitHub Pages handles the build process automatically!