Deployment

This site is deployed automatically to GitHub Pages. This guide covers the deployment process and configuration.

How Deployment Works

The site uses GitHub Pages’ built-in Jekyll support:

  1. Push changes to the main (or master) branch
  2. GitHub Pages automatically runs jekyll build
  3. The generated _site/ is published to the custom domain

No manual build step or CI/CD configuration is required.

Deployment Workflow

# Make your changes
# ...edit files...

# Check status
git status

# Stage changes
git add .

# Commit with descriptive message
git commit -m "Add new blog post about AI research"

# Push to GitHub
git push origin main

The site typically updates within 1-2 minutes after pushing.

Custom Domain Configuration

The site uses a custom domain: hwschuur.nl

DNS Configuration

The domain is configured via the CNAME file in the repository root:

hwschuur.nl

DNS records point to GitHub Pages servers. Typical configuration:

Type Name Value
A @ 185.199.108.153
A @ 185.199.109.153
A @ 185.199.110.153
A @ 185.199.111.153
CNAME www hwschuur.github.io

Verifying Domain Setup

Check domain status in the GitHub repository:

  1. Go to Settings > Pages
  2. Verify the custom domain is listed
  3. Check that HTTPS is enforced

Build Configuration

GitHub Pages builds are controlled by _config.yml:

# Theme configuration
remote_theme: mmistakes/minimal-mistakes@4.27.0

# Build settings
markdown: kramdown
timezone: nl

# Plugins recognized by GitHub Pages
plugins:
  - jekyll-paginate
  - jekyll-sitemap
  - jekyll-gist
  - jekyll-feed
  - jemoji
  - jekyll-include-cache
  - jekyll-redirect-from

Excluded Files

Files excluded from the build (via _config.yml):

exclude:
  - _posts/archive/

The archive folder contains example posts from the theme that are not published.

Verifying Deployment

Check Build Status

  1. Go to the GitHub repository
  2. Click Actions tab (if available) or check Settings > Pages
  3. View the latest build status

Check the Live Site

After deployment, verify:

Force a Rebuild

If the site doesn’t update:

  1. Make a trivial change (add a space to a file)
  2. Commit and push
  3. This triggers a fresh build

Or use GitHub’s interface:

  1. Settings > Pages
  2. Look for “Unpublish site” / “Republish” options

Pre-Deployment Checklist

Before pushing changes:

Troubleshooting Deployment

Build Failures

If the build fails:

  1. Check email for GitHub build failure notification
  2. Review the error message
  3. Common issues:
    • YAML syntax errors in front matter
    • Missing closing tags in Liquid
    • Invalid date format in post filename

Site Not Updating

If changes don’t appear:

  1. Clear browser cache (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R)
  2. Wait 5 minutes - builds can take time
  3. Check build status in GitHub Actions/Settings
  4. Verify the branch - ensure you pushed to the correct branch

CSS Not Updating

SCSS changes require a full rebuild:

  1. Make a change to _config.yml (add a comment)
  2. Push to trigger rebuild
  3. Clear browser cache

404 Errors

If pages return 404:

  1. Check the permalink in front matter
  2. Verify the file is in the correct directory
  3. Ensure the file is not in the exclude list

GitHub Pages Limitations

Be aware of these constraints:

Limit Value
Repository size 1 GB (soft limit)
Site size 1 GB
Build time 10 minutes
Bandwidth 100 GB/month
Builds 10 per hour

Supported Plugins

Only these plugins are supported by GitHub Pages’ build process:

Alternative Deployment Methods

If you need unsupported plugins, consider:

GitHub Actions Custom Build

Create .github/workflows/jekyll.yml to build with Jekyll 4.x or custom plugins.

Netlify

  1. Connect repository to Netlify
  2. Set build command: jekyll build
  3. Set publish directory: _site

Vercel

  1. Import repository
  2. Configure Jekyll build
  3. Set output directory: _site
See also: Installation Troubleshooting