Welcome to the world of Hugo, where you can swiftly create your personal website! This guide will walk you through the process of creating a private website on GitHub and deploying it to GitHub Pages.

What’s included in this guide

  • .gitignore: Excludes files from version control.
  • .github/workflows/hugo.yml: Uses GitHub Actions to deploy your private Hugo repository to a public GitHub Pages repository.

Steps

  1. Create a private repository hugo-site on GitHub to manage your website source code, ensuring to include the README.md file.

  2. Create a public repository {YOUR_USER_NAME}.github.io on GitHub to upload your static web pages to GitHub Pages.

  3. Clone hugo-site to your local machine:

    git clone https://github.com/{YOUR_USER_NAME}/hugo-site.git

    Alternatively, if you are using Git Submodules:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/{YOUR_USER_NAME}/hugo-site.git

  4. Create a Hugo project in the same directory as hugo-site (not inside hugo-site):

    hugo new site hugo-site --force

  5. Add an example theme. Here, we’ll use PaperMod as an example:

Add theme 
cd hugo-site

git submodule add --depth=1 https://github.com/adityatelange/hugo-PaperMod.git themes/PaperMod

echo "theme : 'PaperMod'" >> hugo.yaml

  1. Copy the .gitignore file into hugo-site.

  2. [Optional] Set up GitHub Action for automatic deployment:

     mkdir -p .github/workflows/
 touch .github/workflows/hugo.yml

    Copy the contents of hugo.yml into the newly created hugo.yml file. Remember to modify these two parts:

    • token: ${{ secrets.ACCESS_TOKEN }}: Use a personal access token for this private repository.
    • repository-name: YOUR_USER_NAME}}/YOUR_USER_NAME.github.io: Replace YOUR_USER_NAME with your GitHub username.

  3. Test your Hugo website:

    hugo server -D

  4. Start writing your own posts:

    hugo new posts/20231006/index.md

    Begin writing in index.md inside content/posts/20231006, and place images in the same folder.

  5. Congratulations, you’ve configured your private repository! Don’t forget to commit your changes to the private repository. Best of luck creating your beautiful website!

References