Lewis R. Blake, PhD

Lewis R. Blake, PhD

Senior Software Developer

Local Development Setup

Local Development Setup

This site uses Docker/Podman for completely isolated local development. No need to install Ruby or Jekyll on your system!

Prerequisites

  • Podman must be installed (already available on Fedora/RHEL systems)
  • No Ruby, Jekyll, or other dependencies needed!

First Time Setup

If this is your first time or the Docker image doesn’t exist:

# Build the Docker image (one-time step, ~2-3 minutes)
podman build -t jekyll-site .

# Start the server
./jekyll.sh start

The site will be available at: http://localhost:4000

Quick Start (After Initial Setup)

If you’ve already built the image:

./jekyll.sh start

Your site will be at: http://localhost:4000

Management Commands

Use the included script to manage your development server:

./jekyll.sh start    # Start the server
./jekyll.sh stop     # Stop the server
./jekyll.sh restart  # Restart the server
./jekyll.sh status   # Check if it's running
./jekyll.sh logs     # Watch live logs
./jekyll.sh rebuild  # Rebuild after Gemfile changes
./jekyll.sh shell    # Open a shell in the container

Features

  • Live Reload: Changes to your files automatically refresh the browser
  • Isolated: Everything runs in a container, no system pollution
  • Port 4000: Main site access
  • Port 35729: LiveReload websocket

Making Changes

  1. Edit your files normally (markdown, HTML, CSS, etc.)
  2. Changes are automatically detected and rebuilt
  3. Your browser will auto-refresh (LiveReload)

Updating Dependencies

If you modify Gemfile:

./jekyll.sh stop
./jekyll.sh rebuild
./jekyll.sh start

Container Details

  • Image: jekyll-site (based on Ruby 3.3)
  • Container: jekyll-server
  • Source mapping: Your local directory is mounted into the container
  • Generated site: ./_site directory

Troubleshooting

Image doesn’t exist?

podman build -t jekyll-site .  # Build/rebuild the image

Container not starting?

./jekyll.sh status  # Check for errors

Port already in use?

podman ps           # See what's running
./jekyll.sh stop    # Stop the server

Starting fresh after reboot/logout?

# Check if container exists but is stopped
podman ps -a

# If you see jekyll-server (stopped), remove it first
podman rm jekyll-server

# Then start fresh
./jekyll.sh start

Need to rebuild everything?

./jekyll.sh stop
rm -rf _site .jekyll-cache
./jekyll.sh start

Check if Podman is working?

podman --version
podman images       # See built images
podman ps -a        # See all containers