Starting a Jekyll-based Blog

These are the steps I took to get this blog up and running. Since this is a Jekyll-based blog, I could have hosted it @ github.io (i.e., aumisb.github.io). However, the workflow associated with hosting it @ github.io is slower than self-hosting. Specifically, changes will require a git push and then take time to propagate to github’s servers. As a result, I will self host for now as I build posts and establish a “steady-state”.

Steps:

Install rbenv. The instructions are well documented here. Make sure to install ruby-build which simplifies the process of installing Ruby versions and verify that rbenv is properly set up using the rbenv-doctor script.
List all available Ruby versions available:
```
 rbenv install -l
```
Install a desired Ruby version (i.e., 2.6.3)
```
 rbenv install 2.6.3
```
To make changes to a specific Ruby version, switch to that version using the following command. Note that this will create a .ruby-version in the current directory. This can be deleted if it was created in a non-project directory.
```
 rbenv local 2.6.3
```
Install Jekyll and bundler gems:
```
 gem install jekyll bundler
```
For my blog, I chose the My Stack Problems theme. To use this theme, fork it, navigate to the corresponding directory, and install any required gems:
```
 bundle install
 bundle update github-pages 
```
Serve the blog:
```
 bundle exec jekyll serve
```
Note that to expose the server to non-localhost addresses add: --host=0.0.0.0 to the jekyll serve command

To auto-start Jekyll upon start-up. I created and enabled the systemd service below.

[Unit]
Description=Jekyll service
After=syslog.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/home/siam/blog
ExecStart=/home/siam/.rbenv/shims/jekyll serve --watch --host=0.0.0.0
ExecStop=/usr/bin/pkill -f jekyll
Restart=always
TimeoutStartSec=60
RestartSec=60
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=jekyll

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target network-online.target

Siam