--- layout: docs title: Deployment methods permalink: /docs/deployment-methods/ --- Sites built using Jekyll can be deployed in a large number of ways due to the static nature of the generated output. A few of the most common deployment techniques are described below. ## Web hosting providers (FTP) Just about any traditional web hosting provider will let you upload files to their servers over FTP. To upload a Jekyll site to a web host using FTP, simply run the `jekyll` command and copy the generated `_site` folder to the root folder of your hosting account. This is most likely to be the `httpdocs` or `public_html` folder on most hosting providers. ### FTP using Glynn There is a project called [Glynn](https://github.com/dmathieu/glynn), which lets you easily generate your Jekyll powered website’s static files and send them to your host through FTP. ## Self-managed web server If you have direct access yourself to the deployment web server yourself, the process is essentially the same, except you might have other methods available to you (such as `scp`, or even direct filesystem access) for transferring the files. Just remember to make sure the contents of the generated `_site` folder get placed in the appropriate web root directory for your web server. ## Automated methods There are also a number of ways to easily automate the deployment of a Jekyll site. If you’ve got another method that isn’t listed below, we’d love it if you [contributed](../contributing/) so that everyone else can benefit too. ### Git post-update hook If you store your Jekyll site in [Git](http://git-scm.com/) (you are using version control, right?), it’s pretty easy to automate the deployment process by setting up a post-update hook in your Git repository, [like this](http://web.archive.org/web/20091223025644/http://www.taknado.com/en/2009/03/26/deploying-a-jekyll-generated-site/). ### Git post-receive hook To have a remote server handle the deploy for you every time you push changes using Git, you can create a user account which has all the public keys that are authorized to deploy in its `authorized_keys` file. With that in place, setting up the post-receive hook is done as follows: {% highlight bash %} laptop$ ssh deployer@example.com server$ mkdir myrepo.git server$ cd myrepo.git server$ git --bare init server$ cp hooks/post-receive.sample hooks/post-receive server$ mkdir /var/www/myrepo {% endhighlight %} Next, add the following lines to hooks/post-receive and be sure Jekyll is installed on the server: {% highlight bash %} GIT_REPO=$HOME/myrepo.git TMP_GIT_CLONE=$HOME/tmp/myrepo PUBLIC_WWW=/var/www/myrepo git clone $GIT_REPO $TMP_GIT_CLONE jekyll build -s $TMP_GIT_CLONE -d $PUBLIC_WWW rm -Rf $TMP_GIT_CLONE exit {% endhighlight %} Finally, run the following command on any users laptop that needs to be able to deploy using this hook: {% highlight bash %} laptops$ git remote add deploy deployer@example.com:~/myrepo.git {% endhighlight %} Deploying is now as easy as telling nginx or Apache to look at `/var/www/myrepo` and running the following: {% highlight bash %} laptops$ git push deploy master {% endhighlight %} ### Jekyll-hook You can also use jekyll-hook, a server that listens for webhook posts from GitHub, generates a website with Jekyll, and moves it somewhere to be published. Use this to run your own GitHub Pages-style web server. This method is useful if you need to serve your websites behind a firewall, need extra server-level features like HTTP basic authentication or want to host your site directly on a CDN or file host like S3. Setup steps are fully documented [in the `jekyll-hook` repo](https://github.com/developmentseed/jekyll-hook). ### Static Publisher [Static Publisher](https://github.com/static-publisher/static-publisher) is another automated deployment option with a server listening for webhook posts, though it's not tied to GitHub specifically. It has a one-click deploy to Heroku, it can watch multiple projects from one server, it has an easy to user admin interface and can publish to either S3 or to a git repository (e.g. gh-pages). ### Rake Another way to deploy your Jekyll site is to use [Rake](https://github.com/ruby/rake), [HighLine](https://github.com/JEG2/highline), and [Net::SSH](https://github.com/net-ssh/net-ssh). A more complex example of deploying Jekyll with Rake that deals with multiple branches can be found in [Git Ready](https://github.com/gitready/gitready/blob/cdfbc4ec5321ff8d18c3ce936e9c749dbbc4f190/Rakefile). ### scp Once you’ve generated the `_site` directory, you can easily scp it using a `tasks/deploy` shell script similar to [this deploy script here](https://github.com/henrik/henrik.nyh.se/blob/master/script/deploy). You’d obviously need to change the values to reflect your site’s details. There is even [a matching TextMate command](http://gist.github.com/214959) that will help you run this script from within Textmate. ### rsync Once you’ve generated the `_site` directory, you can easily rsync it using a `tasks/deploy` shell script similar to [this deploy script here](https://github.com/vitalyrepin/vrepinblog/blob/master/transfer.sh). You’d obviously need to change the values to reflect your site’s details. Certificate-based authorization is another way to simplify the publishing process. It makes sense to restrict rsync access only to the directory which it is supposed to sync. This can be done using rrsync. #### Step 1: Install rrsync to your home folder (server-side) If it is not already installed by your host, you can do it yourself: - [Download rrsync](http://ftp.samba.org/pub/unpacked/rsync/support/rrsync) - Place it in the `bin` subdirectory of your home folder (`~/bin`) - Make it executable (`chmod +x`) #### Step 2: Set up certificate-based SSH access (server side) This [process](https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SSH#Passwordless_Authentication) is described in several places online. What is different from the typical approach is to put the restriction to certificate-based authorization in `~/.ssh/authorized_keys`. Then, launch `rrsync` and supply it with the folder it shall have read-write access to: {% highlight bash %} command="$HOME/bin/rrsync ",no-agent-forwarding,no-port-forwarding,no-pty,no-user-rc,no-X11-forwarding ssh-rsa {% endhighlight %} `` is the path to your site. E.g., `~/public_html/you.org/blog-html/`. #### Step 3: Rsync (client-side) Add the `deploy` script to the site source folder: {% highlight bash %} #!/bin/sh rsync -crvz --rsh=ssh -p2222' --delete-after --delete-excluded @: {% endhighlight %} Command line parameters are: - `--rsh=ssh -p2222` — The port for SSH access. It is required if your host uses a different port than the default (e.g, HostGator) - `` — The name of the local output folder (defaults to `_site`) - `` — The username for your hosting account - `` — Your hosting server Using this setup, you might run the following command: {% highlight bash %} rsync -crvz --rsh='ssh -p2222' --delete-after --delete-excluded _site/ hostuser@example.org: {% endhighlight %} Don't forget the column `:` after server name! #### Step 4 (Optional): Exclude the transfer script from being copied to the output folder. This step is recommended if you use these instructions to deploy your site. If you put the `deploy` script in the root folder of your project, Jekyll will copy it to the output folder. This behavior can be changed in `_config.yml`. Just add the following line: {% highlight yaml %} # Do not copy these files to the output directory exclude: ["deploy"] {% endhighlight %} Alternatively, you can use an `rsync-exclude.txt` file to control which files will be transferred to your server. #### Done! Now it's possible to publish your website simply by running the `deploy` script. If your SSH certificate is [passphrase-protected](https://martin.kleppmann.com/2013/05/24/improving-security-of-ssh-private-keys.html), you will be asked to enter it when the script executes. ## Rack-Jekyll [Rack-Jekyll](https://github.com/adaoraul/rack-jekyll/) is an easy way to deploy your site on any Rack server such as Amazon EC2, Slicehost, Heroku, and so forth. It also can run with [shotgun](https://github.com/rtomayko/shotgun/), [rackup](https://github.com/rack/rack), [mongrel](https://github.com/mongrel/mongrel), [unicorn](https://github.com/defunkt/unicorn/), and [others](https://github.com/adaoraul/rack-jekyll#readme). Read [this post](http://blog.crowdint.com/2010/08/02/instant-blog-using-jekyll-and-heroku.html) on how to deploy to Heroku using Rack-Jekyll. ## Jekyll-Admin for Rails If you want to maintain Jekyll inside your existing Rails app, [Jekyll-Admin](https://github.com/zkarpinski/Jekyll-Admin) contains drop in code to make this possible. See Jekyll-Admin’s [README](https://github.com/zkarpinski/Jekyll-Admin/blob/master/README) for more details. ## Amazon S3 If you want to host your site in Amazon S3, you can do so by using the [s3_website](https://github.com/laurilehmijoki/s3_website) application. It will push your site to Amazon S3 where it can be served like any web server, dynamically scaling to almost unlimited traffic. This approach has the benefit of being about the cheapest hosting option available for low-volume blogs as you only pay for what you use. ## OpenShift If you'd like to deploy your site to an OpenShift gear, there's [a cartridge for that](https://github.com/openshift-cartridges/openshift-jekyll-cartridge).
ProTip™: Use GitHub Pages for zero-hassle Jekyll hosting

GitHub Pages are powered by Jekyll behind the scenes, so if you’re looking for a zero-hassle, zero-cost solution, GitHub Pages are a great way to host your Jekyll-powered website for free.

## Kickster Use [Kickster](http://kickster.nielsenramon.com/) for easy (automated) deploys to GitHub Pages when using unsupported plugins on GitHub Pages. Kickster provides a basic Jekyll project setup packed with web best practises and useful optimization tools increasing your overall project quality. Kickster ships with automated and worry-free deployment scripts for GitHub Pages. Setting up Kickster is very easy, just install the gem and you are good to go. More documentation can here found [here](https://github.com/nielsenramon/kickster#kickster). If you do not want to use the gem or start a new project you can just copy paste the deployment scripts for [Travis CI](https://github.com/nielsenramon/kickster/tree/master/snippets/travis) or [Circle CI](https://github.com/nielsenramon/kickster#automated-deployment-with-circle-ci).