#+TITLE: How This Blog Is Set Up
#+DATE: 2020-06-17T21:03:26-04:00
#+DRAFT: true
#+DESCRIPTION:
#+TAGS[]: hugo openbsd emacs
#+KEYWORDS[]:
#+SLUG:
#+SUMMARY:

When I was thinking about making this blog, there were a couple of
factors I kept in mind when I was trying to figure out how I was going
to set it up. Here's a simplified list of that:

- Simple
- Version controlled
- Runs on OpenBSD
- Minimal maintenance
- Good integration with Emacs

That's how I came up with what I currently use. Let me walk you
through how I run by blog.

* Framework

  The blog engine is [[https://gohugo.io/][hugo]], a static site generator. I chose this over
  something dynamic like wordpress for several reasons.

  First of all, it's very easy to manage, blog posts are just simple
  files written in one of the markup languages hugo supports. Being
  statically generated is also a massive advantage in terms of
  maintenance. With something like wordpress, you have to be careful to
  keep your site and plugins up to date.

  Since there's no dynamic content generation or database involved with
  hugo, the attack surface is dramatically decreased. No possibility for
  SQL injection, PHP RATs, accidental shell access, or hacked
  credentials. The entire site is generated using a single command after
  a new post is created, and then moved to the web server's root
  directory.

  Being all flat files also means the entire thing can very easily be
  tracked using =git= (or maybe [[https://gameoftrees.org/][got]], eventually), in fact that's the
  recommended way to use hugo. There's no fear I'll accidentally delete
  something, as I can always go back to a previous commit and restore
  it.

  Since hugo is written in go, it's trivial to compile on OpenBSD, and
  is actually available directly from the OpenBSD package manager right
  out of the gate.

  Maybe the most important thing to be however, is that hugo natively
  supports org-mode markup. I write all my notes, both personal and work
  related, in org-mode. It makes converting my notes into blog posts
  really easy. It also lets me leverage my existing Emacs setup, which
  comes in handy often. While it's not very well documented, since
  org-mode markup is a bit of a second class citizen in the hugo world,
  it's pretty easy to figure out.

* Prerequisites
  The only thing that's required on the host server is =git=, although
  you could even get away without that if you chose to host your git
  repository elsewhere, like on github.

  #+BEGIN_SRC shell
  pkg_add git
  #+END_SRC

  On the client you'll need both =git= and =rsync=. Both might already
  be installed depending on the system you're on. If not, check your
  package manager for details on how to install them.

* Version Control

  I wanted to try to keep things as simple as possible for this. The
  "origin" for the blog is simply a bare git repository in the =blog=
  user's home directory.

** Setting up the blog user

   First I set up the blog user
   #+BEGIN_SRC shell
   useradd -m blog
   #+END_SRC

   I then placed my public SSH key in its =authorized_keys= file

   #+BEGIN_SRC shell
   mkdir -m 700 /home/blog/.ssh
   cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/blog/.ssh/
   chown -R blog:blog /home/blog
   #+END_SRC

   I then logged in as the blog user and initialize the bare git
   repository.

   #+BEGIN_SRC shell
   su blog
   cd        # cd with no arguments goes to home directory
   git init --bare blog.git
   #+END_SRC

** Cloning the repository

   Cloning the repository onto my local machine is very easy at this
   point. As long as my private keys are in the =blog= user's
   =authorized_keys=, git will take care of the rest.

   #+BEGIN_SRC shell
   # on my local machine
   git clone blog@lambda.cx:blog.git
   #+END_SRC

   I can now work on the blog as I would any other git repository,
   pulling with =git pull= and pushing with =git push=.

* Web server

  Since this blog is going to be hosted on OpenBSD, we don't need to
  install a web server, as it already comes with one built in.

* Deployment

  The system used to deploy this blog is incredibly simple, involving
  only =rsync=, =hugo=, and a small shell script.