Jekyll Deployment with Docker Compose

In a fast-paced development environment, simplifying and automating tasks is crucial. For those working with Jekyll, a popular static site generator, deploying your application can be streamlined using Docker Compose. Here’s a quick guide on how to serve your Jekyll application using a Docker Compose setup. This guide assumes you have Docker installed on your machine.

Understanding Jekyll

Jekyll is a widely-used static site generator that powers GitHub Pages. It allows developers to create simple websites and blogs by processing raw text files through a converter and renderer, generating a directory of files that form the static website. Jekyll is particularly favored for its ease of setup and the benefits of static site generation, including faster load times and better security.

Local Development with Jekyll

Typically, to view your Jekyll site locally, you would run the command jekyll serve. This command not only builds your site but also serves it on a local web server at http://localhost:4000, making it easy to see your changes in real-time.

Transition to Docker

Docker Compose elevates the ease of Jekyll deployment by encapsulating all the necessary settings in a docker-compose.yml file. The provided Docker Compose code creates a service named jekyll using the latest Jekyll image from Docker Hub. The command directive in the code instructs Docker to serve the Jekyll application, watch for changes, force polling, and enable live reloading.

version: "3.7"
services:
  jekyll:
    image: jekyll/jekyll:latest
    command: jekyll serve --watch --force_polling --verbose --livereload
    ports:
      - 4000:4000
    volumes:
      - /path/to/host/folder:/srv/jekyll

Serving Your Jekyll Application

With the docker-compose.yml file in place, navigate to your project directory in the terminal and execute the following command:

docker-compose up

Your Jekyll application will now be served on http://localhost:4000, and any changes you make to the files will be automatically reflected, thanks to the --watch and --livereload flags in the command directive.

Conclusion

Deploying your Jekyll application using Docker Compose not only simplifies the process but also ensures a consistent environment for both development and testing. This setup is a step towards a more streamlined, manageable, and enjoyable development experience with Jekyll.