Hugo installation: binaries, package managers, and first site

Hugo has a website and documentation. So the smartest way to install it is to follow instructions in the “open_in_new Install Hugo ” article.

But I like using Docker.

Commands

Build a website:

hugo

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$(pwd):/src" \
  -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  klakegg/hugo

Run a server:

hugo server

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$(pwd):/src" \
  -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  -p 1313:1313 \
  klakegg/hugo \
  server

Check version:

hugo version

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$(pwd):/src" \
  -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  klakegg/hugo \
  version

Writing the site to disk

hugo server builds in memory. To write files for hosting, run:

hugo

Output goes to the public directory — that folder is the entire static site.

Cleaning

Hugo does not remove stale files from public. After renames or deletions, either wipe the folder:

rm -r public && hugo

or use:

hugo --cleanDestinationDir

Minifying

Strip whitespace from generated HTML/CSS/JS:

hugo --cleanDestinationDir --minify