Backing Up Hexo Blog Source To Github Repo

Notice

I have ran into a few issues with having hexo on my desktop and laptop. One thing to note is that Hexo’s environment (aka the hexo blog folder) containes a few dependencies and files that could conflict between the two environments. First thing to note is _config.yml. When creating a new hexo blog on your second machine, hexo init will generate a default _config.yml. It’s important to copy your github source _config.yml to your desktop and then overwrite it in your hexo folder. Secondly, add package.json to .gitignore before your first push to github repo. The two environments will clash with merging conflicts if this file is placed there. -from laptop

update

This post is now outdated, it was merely a place I could write notes while exploring how to have hexo in two places at once. Finalized notes on how to redeploy hexo onto another workstation can be found here.

Overview

Since documentation doesn’t really cover this, I thought I’d just make note of this. If you want to prevent your Hexo blog for disappearing off the face of the planet, don’t keep it in one place. In my case, I’ve had Octopress blogs die because my Octopress source went MIA when my SSD died. Since I also spend most my time on my desktop, having Hexo only on my laptop would be inconveniant. Time to break things.

Before we start, it’s assumed that you already have git, node.js, and hexo setup on your main computer. You will notice me refer to my laptop and desktop throughout this article. My laptop is the first hexo environment I setup. I want to be able to make edits to my blog on my desktop while I’m working or while I’m out at the coffee shop.

git init

$ cd ~/github/kaichi.github.io
$ git init

Open .gitignore in your favorite editor. We need to make sure to add package.json to this list so that we can easily work on our hexo source on other computers. Failing to do this will cause merging conflicts and both hexo environments/dependencies to be confused.

.gitignore + package.json

.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
db.json
*.log
node_modules/
public/
.deploy*/
package.json

commit and push

Finally, we can add/commit and add the remote origin. You’ll want to create an empty Github repository for before proceeding.

$ git add .
$ git commit -m "putting hexo blog source on github"
$ git remote add origin git@github.com:kaichi/kaichi.github.io-source.git
$ git push -u origin source

Basically what you’ll want to do is have a repository for your hexo deployment and one for your source. Atleast this way, if I need to clone the source repository to my desktop I can grab it on the fly. Always commit!

I’ve ran into issues when cloning my source to my desktop. I wasn’t sure how this would go about since npm places dependencies inside the hexo blog folder. I ran into a few road blocks, but I believe this is how to go about it.

Cloning Hexo To Your Second Workstation

First cd to your directory and clone the source.

$ cd C:\github
$ git clone git@github.com:kaichi/kaichi.github.io-source.git

Copy _config.yml To Desktop

After cloning your hexo blog source, cut _config.yml and paste it to your desktop. We will need this later. Backup package.json if you want, it will get overwritten. You will need to install your dependencies in the next few steps to setup the hexo environment.

Hexo Init & Install Hexo Deployer Git

Assuming you already have node.js and hexo installed on your second machine (in my case, my desktop) proceed to initiate hexo over your cloned source.

$ cd c:\github\
$ hexo init kaichi.github.io-source

After that’s said and done, go to your desktop and copy _config.yml and paste it over the default one init placed in your environment.

Next let’s get the deployer installed.

$ hexo install hexo-deployer-git --save

Don’t forget about the –save flag, I completely derped out and couldn’t deploy my blog and noticed it wasn’t even installed.

final deployment testing

Now you should be able to generate and deploy your hexo blog. Keep in mind, I am using Git Shell specifically because I don’t want to juggle and mess with ssh keys.

$ hexo generate
$ hexo deploy

Everything should deploy fine, check your github page to see if it’s broken. It might take a second to update. Worse comes to worse, it’s broken and you can just redeploy from your first workstation, or in my case my laptop. Now it’s time to see if I can push my local source and get this writeup to update on my laptop without exploding…

Side Notes

Things are exploding… putting package.json in .gitignore… -update from laptop

I keep running into issues with package.json… First I noticed that package.json has a few conflicts between the two environments with versions / dependancies. I removed it from the repo and added it to .gitignore. Now when I pulled from laptop and desktop it would delete the local package.json. Perhaps from the very beginning I should have added package.json to the .gitignore folder.