Some days ago I realized it’s possible to have mostly any web site that is running behind GitHub pages. Finally I decided to update my current blog and to have a site on domain root.

First of I started with Jekyll instructions. There were a number of tricks and recommendation on GitHub on how to get it running in GitHub compatible way. I decided to have setup-as-a-code, to avoid complicated and no-repeatable configuration steps. I found jekyll docker and started using it on Mac OS. To run docker is used Docker Machine The only trick were to open extra port in Virtual Box, and to docker-machine’s IP address to open site preview. This is the script I use to run the container.

Sample site was created. CNAME was added. DNS was updated.

Initially I created a repository called jonnyzzz.github.io and master branch. Next I changed it to jonnyzzz.com and put the site into gh-pages branch. The second option looks better to me as I have several domains.

I used jekyll-import to import my older blog posts from Blogger.com. It was quite easy to run in my jekyll docker container. But I lost code formatting in imported posts. Re-formatted snippets manually.

Next I was looking for a suitable theme for jekyll pages. It was so-simple-theme that I used and tuned. I event forked theme repository to have a change to apply there updates to my pages.

Next I added cookie policy warning via Silktide. Really simple to use and it works well

Created favicons via http://www.favicon-generator.org/. Had to install Gimp via Homebrew to crop avatar image.

I uploaded sources to gh-pages and it failed inside GitHub pages jekyll run. With only a notification that it failed. No logs or hints were there from GitHub error. I gave it up.

I moved sources to master branch and made _site folder (a default generator output folder) to be another checkout repo checkout of gh-pages branch. Now I commit sources and generated site together. I also added .nojekyll file to site, to make sure GitHub’s jekyll is disabled.

Hadi wrote a guide on how to write Jekyll posts. I followed it and start using WebStorm. So now I have two VCS Roots in the project to commit to. The _site is updated automatically via running jekyll server in Docker.

HTTPS is implemented via cloudflare.com. It was easy to install and nice to use. But you’ll need to change domain name servers to CloudFlare’s.

Finally, I created yet another stub site to implement redirect from jonnyzzz.name. In some weeks I’ll create similar redirect from blog.jonnyzzz.name too.

Now I can author posts in Markdown. I like it! Welcome to the new site and blog.

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