This article describes how to setup Hexo, a static site generator.

A Static Site generator is a program that takes a set of files and templates and generates HTML code. Commonly they are used for building blogs.

Compared to WordPress or Drupal

• Both use nginx, php, and database.
• Has to generate files on every request
• Each plugin needs more processing.
• Setting up cache is complex
• More points of failure
• Less secure, hacked sites common.
• Must apply updates frequently
• Manage Database

How Static Site Generators Work

1. Templates or markdown files are changed and then generated into static files.
2. Uses nginx only. Only needs a web server that serves static files.
3. Can be hosted in S3. Or virtually anywhere.
4. Nothing dynamic to be exploited in static generated site

Why Use A Static Site Generator.

• Easy to Setup
• Simple / simplicity
• Make site updates faster
• more iterations
• Fast / fast to load / performant
• Scalable / handle a lot of http requests / no need to setup lots of servers
• Cheaper and simpler to host. Easy to change hosts
• Deployments are faster, safer and easier
• Reliable / fewer points of failure
• More Secure and fewer vulnerabilities
• longevity – static sites just work / less code rot
• fits blogging pattern, few writes, many reads
• Indexable by search engines

Why Hexo?

• Uses Markdown
• Uses Javascript & Node.js
• No new framework to learn
• Regenerates after save / Live Reloading

Prerequisites

Installing Git

Windows:
https://git-scm.com/download/win

Mac OS X:
Homebrew
MacPorts
Git OSX Installer

Linux (Ubuntu, Debian)

Linux (Fedora, Red Hat, CentOS)

Installing Node.js

or with wget

restart terminal and then run

Create a new post

Hexo Setup

Open _ config.yml

change url, site title, author, description, etc

Run Server

then open http://localhost:4000/

Making A new Post

Generate Static Files

Deploy to S3

The AWS sync command below will set a cache-control header for expiration of content in 5 minutes (300 seconds). Use a longer interval for less frequently changing content. By default CloudFront will cache content for 24 hours.

Learn More About Hexo

Writing
Server
Generating
Deployment