Building a Hexo Blog with GitHub Pages

Install Hexo

1 2	npm install -g hexo-cli export PATH=~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/hexo/bin:$PATH

Create root Hexo folder

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mkdir hexo_dir
cd hexo_dir
hexo init

Configure Git Repo

Create a github repo <username>.github.io and edit _config.yml:

1	url: <username>.github.io

Download a theme

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# 2 alternative themes that I find useful
git clone https://github.com/cofess/hexo-theme-pure.git themes/pure
git clone https://github.com/yscoder/hexo-theme-indigo themes/indigo

Then edit the theme property in _config.yml and setup theme-specific properties in themes/<theme>/_config.yml

Preview Locally

1	hexo serve

Publish

For GitHub Pages, we need to install hexo-deployer-git plugin and config the deploy property in _config.yml. Note that personal pages must be pushed to the master branch (not gh-pages!)

deploy:
  type: git
  repo: git@github.com:<username>/<username>.github.io.git
  branch: master

Then publish to GitHub:

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hexo clean
hexo generate
hexo deploy

Comment

Most themes have built-in support for comment systems. I personally find gitalk to be the most easy-to-use one. You just need to apply for a new Git OAuth application and fill in necessary info in themes/<theme>/_config.yml:

gitalk: 
    owner: <username>  
    admin: <username> 
    repo: <username>.github.io  
    ClientID: <ClientID>
    ClientSecret: <ClientSecret>

Note that the comment system should be working even in a local review.

Tags, Categories, About

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hexo new page tags
hexo new page categories
hexo new page about

In the created .md files, edit the type attribute:

---
title: Tags
date: 2020-06-24 23:10:07
layout: tags
type: tags
---