Basic usage
Test your installation
After installing Hugo, test your installation by running:
hugo version
You should see something like:
hugo v0.105.0-0e3b42b4a9bdeb4d866210819fc6ddcf51582ffa+extended linux/amd64 BuildDate=2022-10-28T12:29:05Z VendorInfo=snap:0.105.0
Display available commands
To see a list of the available commands and flags:
hugo help
To get help with a subcommand, use the --help
flag. For example:
hugo server --help
Build your site
To build your site, cd
into your project directory and run:
hugo
The hugo
command builds your site, publishing the files to the public
directory. To publish your site to a different directory, use the --destination
flag or set publishDir
in your site configuration.
Draft, future, and expired content
Hugo allows you to set draft
, date
, publishDate
, and expiryDate
in the front matter of your content. By default, Hugo will not publish content when:
- The
draft
value istrue
- The
date
is in the future - The
publishDate
is in the future - The
expiryDate
is in the past
You can override the default behavior when running hugo
or hugo server
with command line flags:
hugo --buildDrafts # or -D
hugo --buildExpired # or -E
hugo --buildFuture # or -F
Although you can also set these values in your site configuration, it can lead to unwanted results unless all content authors are aware of, and understand, the settings.
Develop and test your site
To view your site while developing layouts or creating content, cd
into your project directory and run:
hugo server
The hugo server
command builds your site into memory, and serves your pages using a minimal HTTP server. When you run hugo server
it will display the URL of your local site:
Web Server is available at http://localhost:1313/
While the server is running, it watches your project directory for changes to assets, configuration, content, data, layouts, translations, and static files. When it detects a change, the server rebuilds your site and refreshes your browser using LiveReload.
Most Hugo builds are so fast that you may not notice the change unless you are looking directly at your browser.
LiveReload
While the server is running, Hugo injects JavaScript into the generated HTML pages. The LiveReload script creates a connection from the browser to the server via web sockets. You do not need to install any software or browser plugins, nor is any configuration required.
Automatic redirection
When editing content, if you want your browser to automatically redirect to the page you last modified, run:
hugo server --navigateToChanged
Deploy your site
When you are ready to deploy your site, run:
hugo
This builds your site, publishing the files to the public directory. The directory structure will look something like this:
public/
├── categories/
│ ├── index.html
│ └── index.xml <-- RSS feed for this section
├── post/
│ ├── my-first-post/
│ │ └── index.html
│ ├── index.html
│ └── index.xml <-- RSS feed for this section
├── tags/
│ ├── index.html
│ └── index.xml <-- RSS feed for this section
├── index.html
├── index.xml <-- RSS feed for the site
└── sitemap.xml
In a simple hosting environment, where you typically ftp
, rsync
, or scp
your files to the root of a virtual host, the contents of the public
directory are all that you need.
Most of our users deploy their sites using a CI/CD workflow, where a push1 to their GitHub or GitLab repository triggers a build and deployment. Popular providers include AWS Amplify, CloudCannon, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, GitLab Pages, and Netlify.
Learn more in the hosting and deployment section.
-
The Git repository contains the entire project directory, typically excluding the public directory because the site is built after the push. ↩︎