Introduction

  • Jekyll is a popular static site generator for creating blogs, documentation, and personal websites.
  • Bundler is a package manager for Ruby, which helps manage dependencies in Jekyll projects.
  • This guide goes through the process of installing Jekyll and Bundler in Vanilla OS using apx.

Installing Jekyll and Bundler

  • Open your preferred Terminal emulator/application, and follow the steps to install it in a specific container.

Ubuntu container

  • Enter the container using the following command:-
apx enter
  • Install the required prerequisite packages using the following command:-
sudo apt-get install ruby-full build-essential zlib1g-dev
  • After installation, execute the following commands:-
echo '# Install Ruby Gems to ~/gems' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export GEM_HOME="$HOME/gems"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
  • Now, install Jekyll and Bundler using the following command:-
gem install jekyll bundler

  • You have now successfully installed the packages. You can execute them using apx run <command>, or directly by entering the container using apx enter.

  • Optionally, you can export the binary to use it from the host directly without requiring the apx run command. You can do this by using the following commands:-

apx export --bin jekyll
apx export --bin bundler

Fedora container

  • Enter the container using the following command:-
apx enter --dnf
  • Install the required prerequisite packages using the following command:-
sudo dnf install ruby ruby-devel make gcc g++
  • Now, install Jekyll using the following command:-
gem install jekyll

  • You have now successfully installed the packages. You can execute them using apx run --dnf <command>, or directly by entering the container using apx enter --dnf.

  • Optionally, you can export the binary to use it from the host directly without requiring the apx run --dnf command. You can do this by using the following commands:-

apx export --dnf --bin jekyll
apx export --dnf --bin bundler

Arch Linux container

  • Enter the container using the following command:-
apx enter --aur
  • Install the required prerequisite packages using the following command:-
sudo pacman -S ruby base-devel
  • Now, install Jekyll using the following command:-
gem install jekyll

  • You have now successfully installed the packages. You can execute them using apx run --aur <command>, or directly by entering the container using apx enter --aur.

  • Optionally, you can export the binary to use it with the host directly without requiring the apx run --aur command. You can do this by using the following commands:-

apx export --aur --bin jekyll
apx export --aur --bin bundler

Testing sites from a repository locally

  • Clone a repository using git or gh.
  • Move to the destination of the cloned directory using cd <path/to/directory>.
  • Run bundler install to install necessary packages (This step is required only once and doesn’t require re-running it in future. You must have a Gemfile in the repository for this to work).
  • Run bundler exec jekyll build to build the page to ./_site once. Then you can either test the pages manually or use the bundler exec jekyll serve command.
  • Run bundler exec jekyll serve to build your site any time a source file changes and serve it locally.
    • Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:4000/ or http://localhost:4000/ in your browser to preview and test the page.
  • Now, commit the changes using git and create a PR in GitHub.

Tip:-

  • You can test your pages on your phone using bundler exec jekyll serve --host=<ip>.
  • Using 0.0.0.0 instead of a specific IP binds port 4000 to any interface, which is prone to be blocked by your routers firewalls. That’s why we recommended using a particular IP address with the --host flag. After executing the command in any browser on your phone, go to this address <ip>:4000.
  • For example, if the IP you used is 192.168.0.123, you will need to visit 192.168.0.123:4000 on your mobile.

Conclusion

  • You have now successfully installed Jekyll & Bundler via the command line and successfully served and tested your site locally.