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1 | # blog | |
2 | ||
3 | Blog is a tool to create a semi-ephemeralâ„¢ blog with a "permanent" archive | |
4 | on gemini. | |
5 | ||
6 | ## The Ephemeral Blog. | |
7 | ||
8 | Whenever you generate your blog, it will keep only the first 3 files and | |
9 | render an html page, an rss feed and a plaintext file. | |
10 | ||
11 | Posts will disappear as you add new ones. | |
12 | ||
13 | ## The archive | |
14 | ||
15 | Not everything is ephemeral, as we also generate an archive of the whole | |
16 | blog in gemini format. | |
17 | ||
18 | ## Installation | |
19 | ||
20 | At the moment only installation from source is available. Clone this repository | |
21 | and run `pnpm install -g .`. This will add the `blog` command to your shell. | |
22 | ||
23 | ## Usage | |
24 | ||
25 | ### How to add a new entry | |
26 | ||
27 | Create a `.gmi` gemini file. | |
28 | ||
29 | You can add this to the blog using the following command, it will shift | |
30 | all entries and remove the oldest one if limit of posts is reached | |
31 | (defualts to 3): | |
32 | ||
33 | ``` | |
34 | blog --add path/to/blog_post.gmi | |
35 | ``` | |
36 | ||
37 | These commands will regenerate the static files. At that point you can | |
38 | preview your blog by serving the files on the `static` directory. | |
39 | ||
40 | ### How to update the latest entry | |
41 | ||
42 | If you need to make corrections to the latest entry, use: | |
43 | ||
44 | ``` | |
45 | blog --update path/to/blog_post.gmi | |
46 | ``` | |
47 | ||
48 | This will replace the latest with the contents of the `path` without | |
49 | shifting the existing entries. | |
50 | ||
51 | ### Regenerate Static files. | |
52 | ||
53 | Adding and updating regenerates the files, but you can always regenerate | |
54 | the static files (eg. if you updated your static assets or templates) by using: | |
55 | ||
56 | ``` | |
57 | blog --generate | |
58 | ``` | |
59 | ||
60 | ### Publishing | |
61 | ||
62 | To publish the blog, you need to have `rsync` installed and pass the address | |
63 | (eg. youruser@yourserver.com:/path/to/blog) | |
64 | ||
65 | ``` | |
66 | blog --publish <remote_server> | |
67 | ``` | |
68 | ||
69 | You can also publish the archive of posts as a gemlog by passing a valid | |
70 | rsync target | |
71 | ||
72 | ``` | |
73 | blog --publish-archive <remote_server> | |
74 | ``` | |
75 | ||
76 | ### Source Control | |
77 | ||
78 | Blog supports saving snapshots of the blog in git, and you can add and remove | |
79 | remotes with the following commands: | |
80 | ||
81 | ``` | |
82 | blog --add-remote <git_url> | |
83 | blog --remove-remote | |
84 | ``` | |
85 | ||
86 | If a remote is present, it will be pulled before adding or updating, and pushed | |
87 | after it finishes. You can manually trigger this by calling | |
88 | ||
89 | ``` | |
90 | blog --sync-up | |
91 | blog --sync-down | |
92 | ``` | |
93 | ||
94 | The blog will always sync down before adding to avoid going out of sync. | |
95 | ||
96 | **IF YOU CHANGE ANY FILES MANUALLY, REMEMBER TO SYNC UP, OTHERWISE YOUR | |
97 | CHANGES WILL BE LOST** | |
98 | ||
99 | ### Using Custom Templates | |
100 | ||
101 | Blog comes with built-in templates that are quite generic and likely won't | |
102 | fit your use case. You can override these templates by creating a `templates` | |
103 | directory inside your blog data root (`$XDG_DATA_HOME/blog`). | |
104 | ||
105 | For the ephemeral blog you can create `feed.xml`, `index.html`, and | |
106 | `index.txt` inside of `templates`. These files are then parsed with [dot][dot] | |
107 | and passed the following variables: | |
108 | ||
109 | ``` | |
110 | it.posts <Array<Post>> | |
111 | ||
112 | Post | |
113 | +id <String> // The numerical timestamp when the blog post was added. | |
114 | +createdOn <String> // The UTC String of post creation date. (only feed.xml) | |
115 | +title <String> // The title of the post. (only feed.xml) | |
116 | +raw <String> // The raw gemini text of the template. | |
117 | +html <String> // The parsed html generated from the gemini. | |
118 | ``` | |
119 | ||
120 | To customize your gemini archive you can provide an `index.gmi` file that will | |
121 | be used as a template for the archive. However the data structure is different, | |
122 | as it's just the gemini URL strings: | |
123 | ||
124 | ``` | |
125 | it.posts <Array<String>> | |
126 | ``` | |
127 | ||
128 | ### Using Static Files | |
129 | ||
130 | Any files inside the `static` directory of your blog data root | |
131 | (`$XDG_DATA_HOME/blog`) will be copied as is. This is useful for any images, | |
132 | javascript files or stylesheets that you use in your posts or templates. | |
133 | ||
134 | ## Configuration | |
135 | ||
136 | You can control the number of posts in the ephemeral blog, and the location of | |
137 | configuration files using environment variables. | |
138 | ||
139 | ### Overriding Number of Posts | |
140 | ||
141 | Updating the `BLOG_MAX_POSTS` environment variable sets the number of posts | |
142 | that will be kept. | |
143 | ||
144 | ### Overriding Configuration Directory | |
145 | ||
146 | You can set the `BLOG_CONFIG_DIRECTORY` to any directory you want. This | |
147 | defaults to `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/blog/` and is used to store the blog remote | |
148 | config. | |
149 | ||
150 | ### Overriding Data Directory | |
151 | ||
152 | Setting `BLOG_DATA_DIRECTORY` will update where the posts, archive, static | |
153 | files, and templates are saved. The default is the `$XDG_DATA_HOME/blog`. | |
154 | ||
155 | ### Overriding the location of generated files. | |
156 | ||
157 | Setting `BLOG_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY` will update where generated files are placed. | |
158 | ||
159 | The default is `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/blog`. | |
160 | ||
161 | ## Debugging | |
162 | ||
163 | If you want to know more about what's going on when blog generates | |
164 | data, set the environment variable `NODE_DEBUG=blog`. This will | |
165 | enable the debug messages | |
166 | ||
167 | [dot]: https://olado.github.io/doT/ |