#+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.

* Version Control

  I wanted to try to keep things as simple as possible for this, while
  remaining private.