Run

Help

For help see:

jekyll --version
jekyll help serve
jekyll serve --help
# Find config issues.
jekyll doctor

Serve subdirectory

If Jekyll is installed with Bundler at the top-level of the project, you can run Jekyll from anywhere.

cd sample_site
bundle exec jekyll serve

Specify source content in a subdirectory using --source flag and value (which defaults to ./).

bundle exec jekyll serve -s sample_site -d sample_site/_site

Still builds to top-level _site, so destination is set here too. Note that when running a local server, it doesn’t actually matter where _site is as long it is not versioned.

Testing

If you want to test a snippet or part of another site in your own, create a subdirectory. You can use the gems from the top-level directory.

_site
test_site/ # Sub directory project
  _site
  index.md
  _config.yml
Gemfile
index.md
_config.yml

cd test_site
bundle exec jekyll serve

Flags

For jekyll serve [options]

Debug flags

Flag	Description
--verbose	Increase message logged in the console.
--debug	Show details about an error if there is one. Errors are very quiet so it is useful to always run this especially for remote builds.
--trace	Show the full backtrace when an error occurs.

Loading flags

Flag	Description
--show-dir-listing	Show contents of the directory. Ignores an existing index.html. This flag is not needed if there is no index.html file.
-l, --livereload	Use LiveReload to automatically refresh browsers
–no-watch	Disabling the default option to watch for changes and rebuild.

Show and hide content

Flag	Description
-D, --drafts	Render posts in the _drafts folder
--unpublished	Render posts that were marked as unpublished
--future	Publishes posts with a future date
--limit_posts MAX_POSTS	Limits the number of posts to parse and publish

Configuration

| Flag | Description | | —————————————- | ————- | | --config CONFIG_FILE,[CONFIG_FILE,...] | Read configs. | -d, --destination DESTINATION The current folder will be generated into DESTINATION -s, --source SOURCE | Custom source directory -b, --baseurl URL | Serve the website from the given base URL --layouts DIR | Layouts directory (defaults to ./_layouts)

Full

Copied from the command-line for Jekyll 4:

            --config CONFIG_FILE[,CONFIG_FILE2,...]  Custom configuration file
        -d, --destination DESTINATION  The current folder will be generated into DESTINATION
        -s, --source SOURCE  Custom source directory
            --future       Publishes posts with a future date
            --limit_posts MAX_POSTS  Limits the number of posts to parse and publish
        -w, --[no-]watch   Watch for changes and rebuild
        -b, --baseurl URL  Serve the website from the given base URL
            --force_polling  Force watch to use polling
            --lsi          Use LSI for improved related posts
        -D, --drafts       Render posts in the _drafts folder
            --unpublished  Render posts that were marked as unpublished
        -q, --quiet        Silence output.
        -V, --verbose      Print verbose output.
        -I, --incremental  Enable incremental rebuild.
            --strict_front_matter  Fail if errors are present in front matter
            --ssl-cert [CERT]  X.509 (SSL) certificate.
        -H, --host [HOST]  Host to bind to
        -o, --open-url     Launch your site in a browser
        -B, --detach       Run the server in the background
            --ssl-key [KEY]  X.509 (SSL) Private Key.
        -P, --port [PORT]  Port to listen on
            --show-dir-listing  Show a directory listing instead of loading your index file.
            --skip-initial-build  Skips the initial site build which occurs before the server is started.
        -l, --livereload   Use LiveReload to automatically refresh browsers
            --livereload-ignore ignore GLOB1[,GLOB2[,...]]  Files for LiveReload to ignore. Remember to quote the values so your shell won't expand them
            --livereload-min-delay [SECONDS]  Minimum reload delay
            --livereload-max-delay [SECONDS]  Maximum reload delay
            --livereload-port [PORT]  Port for LiveReload to listen on
        -h, --help         Show this message
        -v, --version      Print the name and version
        -t, --trace        Show the full backtrace when an error occurs

These also appear in the output and are repeated for every command - they can be seen alone with jekyll help.

        -s, --source [DIR]  Source directory (defaults to ./)
        -d, --destination [DIR]  Destination directory (defaults to ./_site)
            --safe         Safe mode (defaults to false)
        -p, --plugins PLUGINS_DIR1[,PLUGINS_DIR2[,...]]  Plugins directory (defaults to ./_plugins)
            --layouts DIR  Layouts directory (defaults to ./_layouts)
            --profile      Generate a Liquid rendering profile
        -h, --help         Show this message
        -v, --version      Print the name and version
        -t, --trace        Show the full backtrace when an error occurs