blog/source/_posts/how-to-create-a-hexo-blog.md

title	date	tags
How to create a Hexo blog	2018-09-21 00:00:00

Create a website/blog (hosted by GitLab for free) using the following guide:

Create a new GitLab project

1. Register a free GitLab account or use your current one.
2. Fork this project.
3. Ensure Shared Runners is enabled. Go to your (forked) project Settings -> CI / CD -> Shared Runners.
4. Change project website to a user website. This is so that the website's home page is <your-username>.gitlab.io/, instead of <your-username>.gitlab.io/hexo. Go to Settings -> General -> Advanced -> Rename repository. Change the Path to <your-username>.gitlab.io.
5. If you just want to use a similar layout as this blog, or you're not planning to customize it, you don't have to install Hexo. You still need to change the blog's name and favicon though (how-to.
   1. To create a new post (without using Hexo), create a new <post-title>.md in the source/_posts folder.
   2. Start with the following header/front-matter:

   ---
   title: Test page
   date: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
   tags:
   categories:
   ---
   

   3. Write your post after the second --- using Markdown style.
6. After you create a new post, the website would be available on <your-username>.gitlab.io/ or the link shown on your project Settings -> Pages.

Installation

1. Having Hexo means you can debug locally, rather than waiting for gitlab runner. You can even run a local server to preview your blog (see step 6 below).
2. Clone this project to your workstation. Change <folder> to a preferred name.

$ git clone https://gitlab.com/curben/curben.gitlab.io <folder>

3. Install Node.js.

# Installing npm will also install nodejs as dependency.
# Ubuntu/Debian
$ sudo apt-get install npm
# Fedora/Red Hat
$ sudo yum install npm
# Arch Linux
$ sudo pacman -S npm

4. Install Hexo and its dependencies (defined in package.json).

$ sudo npm install -g hexo-cli
$ cd <folder>
$ npm install

5. Generate static files to check for any error. You should always do this before pushing/merging commits to the master branch.

$ hexo generate

6. (Optional) Start Hexo server on localhost:4000 to preview the blog. (more info)

$ npm install hexo-server --save
$ hexo server

7. Commit the changes and push them. The generated public and node_modules are ignored, as GitLab runner will generate them by itself.
8. Check the build status by going to your project CI /CD -> Pipelines. Due to the limitation of hexo, the build will always pass even when error occurred. Check the Jobs log, look for any error in $ hexo deploy.
9. If there is no error, the generated website would be available on <your-username>.gitlab.io/ or the link shown on your project Settings -> Pages.

Writing

1. Create a new post (using Hexo)

$ hexo new "My New Post"

2. My-New-Post.md is saved to the source/_posts folder, with the following header/front-matter:

---
title: My New Post
date: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
tags:
categories:
---

4. Write your post after the second --- using Markdown style.

To create a new page or more info: Writing

Configuration

Naming

Change the website's author and name _config.yml:

title:
subtitle:
description:
author:

themes/typing/_config.yml:

menu:
  GitLab: <your-gitlab-project-link>
# Customize /about page
nickname: 
description: 

Favicon

RealFaviconGenerator provides a web-based tool to generate favicons with wide compatibility.

1. Upload your favicon (at least 260x260) and configure however you want.
2. Install the generated package to favicons folder.
3. Edit head.ejs. Change the color values of mask-icon and msapplication-TileColor to the values you configured on the generator.
4. Check for any error using hexo generate (you should do this before you push any commit).
5. Commit and push.
6. Check your favicon with the favicon checker.

Project page

If you prefer to have a project page on GitLab:

1. go to Settings -> General -> Advanced -> Rename repository. Change the Path to <directory>, so the website is available at <your-username>.gitlab.io/<directory>, <directory> can be any name, like blog or hexo.
2. Edit _config.yml, change the root: value from "" to "/<directory/".
3. Commit and push.

Remove fork relationship

If you don't have any plan to send merge requests to the upstream, you can remove fork relationship permanently by going to Settings -> General -> Advanced -> Remove fork relationship.

Useful links:

Hexo Docs GitLab Pages