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 # blog
 
 # blog
 

-Blog at unlimited.pizza -> Only 
+Blog is a tool to create a semi-ephemeral™ blog with a "permanent" archive
+on gemini.

 
 

-## How to install
+## The Ephemeral Blog.

 
 

-`npm install -g .` will expose the `blog` binary to your CLI.
+Whenever you generate your blog, it will keep only the first 3 files and
+render an html page, an rss feed and a plaintext file.

 
 

-## How to add a new entry
+Posts will disappear as you add new ones.

 
 

-Create a directory with a `.md` markdown file, and an `/assets`
-directory with anything you want in there. This can be in any directory.
+## The archive

 
 

-```
-.
-└── this-is-an-example-post
-    ├── assets
-    │   └── example.png
-    └── this-is-an-example-post.md
-```
+Not everything is ephemeral, as we also generate an archive of the whole
+blog in gemini format.
+
+## Installation
+
+At the moment only installation from source is available. Clone this repository
+and run `pnpm install -g .`. This will add the `blog` command to your shell.
+
+## Usage
+
+### How to add a new entry
+
+Create a `.gmi` gemini file.

 
 You can add this to the blog using the following command, it will shift
 all entries and remove the oldest one if limit of posts is reached
 (defualts to 3):
 
 
 You can add this to the blog using the following command, it will shift
 all entries and remove the oldest one if limit of posts is reached
 (defualts to 3):
 

-`blog --add path/to/blog_post`
+```
+blog --add path/to/blog_post.gmi
+```

 
 These commands will regenerate the static files. At that point you can
 
 These commands will regenerate the static files. At that point you can

-preview your blog by serving the files on the `static` directory. 
+preview your blog by serving the files on the `static` directory.
+
+### How to update the latest entry

 
 

-If you need to make corrections use:
+If you need to make corrections to the latest entry, use:

 
 

-`blog --update path/to/blog_post`
+```
+blog --update path/to/blog_post.gmi
+```

 
 This will replace the latest with the contents of the `path` without
 shifting the existing entries.
 
 
 This will replace the latest with the contents of the `path` without
 shifting the existing entries.
 

-`blog --publish`
+### Regenerate Static files.
+
+Adding and updating regenerates the files, but you can always regenerate
+the static files (eg. if you updated your static assets or templates) by using:
+
+```
+blog --generate
+```
+
+### Publishing
+
+To publish the blog, you need to have `rsync` installed and pass the address
+(eg. youruser@yourserver.com:/path/to/blog)
+
+```
+blog --publish <remote_server>
+```
+
+You can also publish the archive of posts as a gemlog by passing a valid
+rsync target
+
+```
+blog --publish-archive <remote_server>
+```
+
+### Source Control
+
+Blog supports saving snapshots of the blog in git, and you can add and remove
+remotes with the following commands:
+
+```
+blog --add-remote <git_url>
+blog --remove-remote
+```
+
+If a remote is present, it will be pulled before adding or updating, and pushed
+after it finishes. You can manually trigger this by calling
+
+```
+blog --sync-up
+blog --sync-down
+```
+
+The blog will always sync down before adding to avoid going out of sync.
+
+**IF YOU CHANGE ANY FILES MANUALLY, REMEMBER TO SYNC UP, OTHERWISE YOUR
+CHANGES WILL BE LOST**
+
+### Using Custom Templates
+
+Blog comes with built-in templates that are quite generic and likely won't
+fit your use case. You can override these templates by creating a `templates`
+directory inside your blog data root (`$XDG_DATA_HOME/blog`).
+
+For the ephemeral blog you can create `feed.xml`, `index.html`, and
+`index.txt` inside of `templates`. These files are then parsed with [dot][dot]
+and passed the following variables:
+
+```
+it.posts <Array<Post>>
+
+Post
+ +id <String>        // The numerical timestamp when the blog post was added.
+ +createdOn <String> // The UTC String of post creation date. (only feed.xml)
+ +title <String>     // The title of the post. (only feed.xml)
+ +raw <String>       // The raw gemini text of the template.
+ +html <String>      // The parsed html generated from the gemini.
+```
+
+To customize your gemini archive you can provide an `index.gmi` file that will
+be used as a template for the archive. However the data structure is different,
+as it's just the gemini URL strings:
+
+```
+it.posts <Array<String>>
+```
+
+### Using Static Files
+
+Any files inside the `static` directory of your blog data root
+(`$XDG_DATA_HOME/blog`) will be copied as is. This is useful for any images,
+javascript files or stylesheets that you use in your posts or templates.
+
+## Configuration
+
+You can control the number of posts in the ephemeral blog, and the location of
+configuration files using environment variables.
+
+### Overriding Number of Posts
+
+Updating the `BLOG_MAX_POSTS` environment variable sets the number of posts
+that will be kept.
+
+### Overriding Configuration Directory
+
+You can set the `BLOG_CONFIG_DIRECTORY` to any directory you want. This
+defaults to `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/blog/` and is used to store the blog remote
+config.
+
+### Overriding Data Directory
+
+Setting `BLOG_DATA_DIRECTORY` will update where the posts, archive, static
+files, and templates are saved. The default is the `$XDG_DATA_HOME/blog`.
+
+### Overriding the location of generated files.
+
+Setting `BLOG_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY` will update where generated files are placed.
+
+The default is `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/blog`.
+
+## Debugging
+
+If you want to know more about what's going on when blog generates
+data, set the environment variable `NODE_DEBUG=blog`. This will
+enable the debug messages

 
 

-Will publish the blog.
+[dot]: https://olado.github.io/doT/