Contents

---
layout: docs
title: Basic Usage
prev_section: installation
next_section: structure
---

The Jekyll gem makes a `jekyll` executable available to you in your Terminal window. You can use this command in a number of ways:

{% highlight bash %}
jekyll build
#=> The current folder will get generated into ./_site
jekyll build --destination <destination>
#=> The current folder will get generated into <destination>
jekyll build --source <source> --destination <destination>
#=> The <source> folder will get generated into <destination>
jekyll build --watch
#=> The current folder will get generated into ./_site,
#       and watch for changes and regenerate automatically.
{% endhighlight %}

Jekyll also comes with a built-in development server that will allow you to preview what the generated site will look like in your browser locally.

{% highlight bash %}
jekyll serve
#=> A development server will run at http://localhost:4000/
jekyll serve --watch
#=> As above, but watch for changes and regenerate automatically too.
{% endhighlight %}

These are just some of the many [configuration options](../configuration) available. All configuration options can either be specified as flags on the command line, or alternatively (and more commonly) they can be specified in a `_config.yml` file at the root of the source directory. Jekyll will automatically configuration options from this file when run, so placing the following one line in the configuration file will mean that running `jekyll build` or `jekyll serve` would be equivalent to running `jekyll [build|serve] --source _source --destination _deploy`:

{% highlight yaml %}
source:      _source
destination: _deploy
{% endhighlight %}

For more about the possible configuration options, see the [configuration](../configuration) page.

Version data entries

3 entries across 3 versions & 1 rubygems

Version	Path
jekyll-1.0.0.beta3	site/_posts/2012-07-01-usage.md
jekyll-1.0.0.beta2	site/_posts/2012-07-01-usage.md
jekyll-1.0.0.beta1	site/_posts/2012-07-01-usage.md