Tutorial: Create a GitLab Pages website from scratch
DETAILS: Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated
This tutorial shows you how to create a Pages site from scratch using the Jekyll Static Site Generator (SSG). You start with a blank project and create your own CI/CD configuration file, which gives instructions to a runner. When your CI/CD pipeline runs, the Pages site is created.
This example uses Jekyll, but other SSGs follow similar steps. You do not need to be familiar with Jekyll or SSGs to complete this tutorial.
To create a GitLab Pages website:
- Step 1: Create the project files
- Step 2: Choose a Docker image
- Step 3: Install Jekyll
- Step 4: Specify the
public
directory for output - Step 5: Specify the
public
directory for artifacts - Step 6: Deploy and view your website
Prerequisites
You must have a blank project in GitLab.
Create the project files
Create three files in the root (top-level) directory:
-
.gitlab-ci.yml
: A YAML file that contains the commands you want to run. For now, leave the file's contents blank. -
index.html
: An HTML file you can populate with whatever HTML content you'd like, for example:<html> <head> <title>Home</title> </head> <body> <h1>Hello World!</h1> </body> </html>
-
Gemfile
: A file that describes dependencies for Ruby programs.Populate it with this content:
source "https://rubygems.org" gem "jekyll"
Choose a Docker image
In this example, the runner uses a Docker image to run scripts and deploy the site.
This specific Ruby image is maintained on DockerHub.
Add a default image to your pipeline by adding this CI/CD configuration to the beginning of your .gitlab-ci.yml
file:
default:
image: ruby:3.2
If your SSG needs NodeJS to build, you must specify an
image that contains NodeJS as part of its file system. For example, for a
Hexo site, you can use image: node:12.17.0
.
Install Jekyll
To run Jekyll locally, you must install it:
- Open your terminal.
- Install Bundler by running
gem install bundler
. - Create
Gemfile.lock
by runningbundle install
. - Install Jekyll by running
bundle exec jekyll build
.
To run Jekyll in your project, edit the .gitlab-ci.yml
file
and add the installation commands:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
In addition, in the .gitlab-ci.yml
file, each script
is organized by a job
.
A job
includes the scripts and settings you want to apply to that specific
task.
job:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
For GitLab Pages, this job
has to include a property, called pages
.
This setting tells the runner you want the job to deploy your website
with GitLab Pages:
deploy-pages:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
The example in this page uses user-defined job names.
public
directory for output
Specify the Jekyll needs to know where to generate its output.
GitLab Pages only considers files in a directory called public
.
Jekyll uses a destination flag (-d
) to specify an output directory for the built website.
Add the destination to your .gitlab-ci.yml
file:
deploy-pages:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build -d public
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
public
directory for artifacts
Specify the Now that Jekyll has output the files to the public
directory,
the runner needs to know where to get them. The artifacts are stored
in the public
directory:
deploy-pages:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build -d public
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
artifacts:
paths:
- public
Your .gitlab-ci.yml
file should now look like this:
default:
image: ruby:3.2
deploy-pages:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build -d public
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
artifacts:
paths:
- public
Deploy and view your website
After you have completed the preceding steps, deploy your website:
- Save and commit the
.gitlab-ci.yml
file. - Go to Build > Pipelines to watch the pipeline.
- When the pipeline is finished, go to Deploy > Pages to find the link to your Pages website.
When this pages
job completes successfully, a special pages:deploy
job
appears in the pipeline view. It prepares the content of the website for the
GitLab Pages daemon. GitLab runs it in the background and doesn't use a runner.
Other options for your CI/CD file
If you want to do more advanced tasks, you can update your .gitlab-ci.yml
file
with other CI/CD YAML keywords. You can validate
your .gitlab-ci.yml
file with the CI Lint tool that's included with GitLab.
The following topics show other examples of other options you can add to your CI/CD file.
Deploy specific branches to a Pages site
You may want to deploy to a Pages site only from specific branches.
First, add a workflow
section to force the pipeline to run only when changes are
pushed to branches:
default:
image: ruby:3.2
workflow:
rules:
- if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
deploy-pages:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build -d public
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
artifacts:
paths:
- public
Then configure the pipeline to run the job for the
default branch (here, main
) only.
default:
image: ruby:3.2
workflow:
rules:
- if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
deploy-pages:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build -d public
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
artifacts:
paths:
- public
rules:
- if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"
Specify a stage to deploy
There are three default stages for GitLab CI/CD: build, test, and deploy.
If you want to test your script and check the built site before deploying
to production, you can run the test exactly as it runs when you
push to your default branch (here, main
).
To specify a stage for your job to run in,
add a stage
line to your CI file:
default:
image: ruby:3.2
workflow:
rules:
- if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
deploy-pages:
stage: deploy
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build -d public
pages: true # specifies that this is a Pages job
artifacts:
paths:
- public
rules:
- if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main"
environment: production
Now add another job to the CI file, telling it to
test every push to every branch except the main
branch:
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
```0
When the `test` job runs in the `test` stage, Jekyll
builds the site in a directory called `test`. The job affects
all branches except `main`.
When you apply stages to different jobs, every job in the same
stage builds in parallel. If your web application needs more than
one test before being deployed, you can run all your tests at the
same time.
### Remove duplicate commands
To avoid duplicating the same `before_script` commands in every job, you can add them
to the default section.
In the example, `gem install bundler` and `bundle install` were running
for both jobs, `pages` and `test`.
Move these commands to the `default` section:
```yaml
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
```1
### Build faster with cached dependencies
To build faster, you can cache the installation files for your
project's dependencies by using the `cache` parameter.
This example caches Jekyll dependencies in a `vendor` directory
when you run `bundle install`:
```yaml
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
```2
In this case, you need to exclude the `/vendor`
directory from the list of folders Jekyll builds. Otherwise, Jekyll
tries to build the directory contents along with the site.
In the root directory, create a file called `_config.yml`
and add this content:
```yaml
script:
- gem install bundler
- bundle install
- bundle exec jekyll build
```3
Now GitLab CI/CD not only builds the website, but also:
- Pushes with **continuous tests** to feature branches.
- **Caches** dependencies installed with Bundler.
- **Continuously deploys** every push to the `main` branch.
To view the HTML and other assets that were created for the site,
[download the job artifacts](../../../../ci/jobs/job_artifacts.md#download-job-artifacts).
The example in this page uses [user-defined job names](../index.md#user-defined-job-names).
## Related topics
- [Deploy your web app to staging and production](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/02/05/ci-deployment-and-environments/)
- [Run jobs sequentially, in parallel, or build a custom pipeline](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/12/10/basics-of-gitlab-ci-updated/)
- [Pull specific directories from different projects](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/12/07/building-a-new-gitlab-docs-site-with-nanoc-gitlab-ci-and-gitlab-pages/)
- [Use GitLab Pages to produce a code coverage report](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2016/11/03/publish-code-coverage-report-with-gitlab-pages/)