+++
title = "Migrating to Hugo from Jekyll"
date = 2014-03-10
linkTitle = "Migrating from Jekyll"
draft = false
[menu.main]
  weight = 2004
  identifier = "migrating-to-hugo-from-jekyll"
+++

## Move static content to `static` {#move-static-content-to-static}

Jekyll has a rule that any directory not starting with `_` will be
copied as-is to the `_site` output. Hugo keeps all static content
under `static`. You should therefore move it all there. With Jekyll,
something that looked like

```text
▾ <root>/
    ▾ images/
        logo.png
```

should become

```text
▾ <root>/
    ▾ static/
        ▾ images/
            logo.png
```

Additionally, you'll want any files that should reside at the root
(such as `CNAME`) to be moved to `static`.


## Create your Hugo configuration file {#create-your-hugo-configuration-file}

Hugo can read your configuration as JSON, YAML or TOML. Hugo supports
parameters custom configuration too. Refer to the [Hugo configuration
documentation](/overview/configuration/) for details.


## Set your configuration publish folder to `_site` {#set-your-configuration-publish-folder-to-site}

The default is for Jekyll to publish to `_site` and for Hugo to
publish to `public`. If, like me, you have [`_site` mapped to a git
submodule on the `gh-pages` branch](http://blog.blindgaenger.net/generate%5Fgithub%5Fpages%5Fin%5Fa%5Fsubmodule.html), you'll want to do one of two
alternatives:

1.  Change your submodule to point to map `gh-pages` to public instead
    of `_site` (recommended).

    ```text
    git submodule deinit _site
    git rm _site
    git submodule add -b gh-pages git@github.com:your-username/your-repo.git public
    ```
2.  Or, change the Hugo configuration to use `_site` instead of `public`.

    ```text
    {
        ..
        "publishdir": "_site",
        ..
    }
    ```


## Convert Jekyll templates to Hugo templates {#convert-jekyll-templates-to-hugo-templates}

That's the bulk of the work right here. The documentation is your
friend. You should refer to [Jekyll's template documentation](http://jekyllrb.com/docs/templates/) if you
need to refresh your memory on how you built your blog and [Hugo's
template](/layout/templates/) to learn Hugo's way.

As a single reference data point, converting my templates for
[heyitsalex.net](http://heyitsalex.net/) took me no more than a few hours.


## Convert Jekyll plugins to Hugo shortcodes {#convert-jekyll-plugins-to-hugo-shortcodes}

Jekyll has [plugins](http://jekyllrb.com/docs/plugins/); Hugo has [shortcodes](/doc/shortcodes/). It's fairly trivial to do a
port.


### Implementation {#implementation}

As an example, I was using a custom [`image_tag`](https://github.com/alexandre-normand/alexandre-normand/blob/74bb12036a71334fdb7dba84e073382fc06908ec/%5Fplugins/image%5Ftag.rb) plugin to generate
figures with caption when running Jekyll. As I read about shortcodes,
I found Hugo had a nice built-in shortcode that does exactly the same
thing.

Jekyll's plugin:

```text
module Jekyll
  class ImageTag < Liquid::Tag
    @url = nil
    @caption = nil
    @class = nil
    @link = nil
    // Patterns
    IMAGE_URL_WITH_CLASS_AND_CAPTION =
    IMAGE_URL_WITH_CLASS_AND_CAPTION_AND_LINK = /(\w+)(\s+)((https?:\/\/|\/)(\S+))(\s+)"(.*?)"(\s+)->((https?:\/\/|\/)(\S+))(\s*)/i
    IMAGE_URL_WITH_CAPTION = /((https?:\/\/|\/)(\S+))(\s+)"(.*?)"/i
    IMAGE_URL_WITH_CLASS = /(\w+)(\s+)((https?:\/\/|\/)(\S+))/i
    IMAGE_URL = /((https?:\/\/|\/)(\S+))/i
    def initialize(tag_name, markup, tokens)
      super
      if markup =~ IMAGE_URL_WITH_CLASS_AND_CAPTION_AND_LINK
        @class   = $1
        @url     = $3
        @caption = $7
        @link = $9
      elsif markup =~ IMAGE_URL_WITH_CLASS_AND_CAPTION
        @class   = $1
        @url     = $3
        @caption = $7
      elsif markup =~ IMAGE_URL_WITH_CAPTION
        @url     = $1
        @caption = $5
      elsif markup =~ IMAGE_URL_WITH_CLASS
        @class = $1
        @url   = $3
      elsif markup =~ IMAGE_URL
        @url = $1
      end
    end
    def render(context)
      if @class
        source = "<figure class='#{@class}'>"
      else
        source = "<figure>"
      end
      if @link
        source += "<a href=\"#{@link}\">"
      end
      source += "<img src=\"#{@url}\">"
      if @link
        source += "</a>"
      end
      source += "<figcaption>#{@caption}</figcaption>" if @caption
      source += "</figure>"
      source
    end
  end
end
Liquid::Template.register_tag('image', Jekyll::ImageTag)
```

is written as this Hugo shortcode:

```text
<!-- image -->
<figure {{ with .Get "class" }}class="{{.}}"{{ end }}>
    {{ with .Get "link"}}<a href="{{.}}">{{ end }}
        <img src="{{ .Get "src" }}" {{ if or (.Get "alt") (.Get "caption") }}alt="{{ with .Get "alt"}}{{.}}{{else}}{{ .Get "caption" }}{{ end }}"{{ end }} />
    {{ if .Get "link"}}</a>{{ end }}
    {{ if or (or (.Get "title") (.Get "caption")) (.Get "attr")}}
    <figcaption>{{ if isset .Params "title" }}
        {{ .Get "title" }}{{ end }}
        {{ if or (.Get "caption") (.Get "attr")}}<p>
        {{ .Get "caption" }}
        {{ with .Get "attrlink"}}<a href="{{.}}"> {{ end }}
            {{ .Get "attr" }}
        {{ if .Get "attrlink"}}</a> {{ end }}
        </p> {{ end }}
    </figcaption>
    {{ end }}
</figure>
<!-- image -->
```


### Usage {#usage}

I simply changed:

```text
{% image full http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4136/4829260124_57712e570a_o_d.jpg "One of my favorite touristy-type photos. I secretly waited for the good light while we were "having fun" and took this. Only regret: a stupid pole in the top-left corner of the frame I had to clumsily get rid of at post-processing." ->http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexnormand/4829260124/in/set-72157624547713078/ %}
```

to this (this example uses a slightly extended version named `fig`,
different than the built-in `figure`):

```text
{{%/* fig class="full" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4136/4829260124_57712e570a_o_d.jpg" title="One of my favorite touristy-type photos. I secretly waited for the good light while we were having fun and took this. Only regret: a stupid pole in the top-left corner of the frame I had to clumsily get rid of at post-processing." link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexnormand/4829260124/in/set-72157624547713078/" */%}}
```

As a bonus, the shortcode named parameters are, arguably, more
readable.


## Finishing touches {#finishing-touches}


### Fix content {#fix-content}

Depending on the amount of customization that was done with each post
with Jekyll, this step will require more or less effort. There are no
hard and fast rules here except that `hugo server --watch` is your
friend. Test your changes and fix errors as needed.


### Clean up {#clean-up}

You'll want to remove the Jekyll configuration at this point. If you
have anything else that isn't used, delete it.


## A practical example in a diff {#a-practical-example-in-a-diff}

[Hey, it's Alex](http://heyitsalex.net/) was migrated in less than a _father-with-kids day_ from
Jekyll to Hugo. You can see all the changes (and screw-ups) by looking
at this [diff](https://github.com/alexandre-normand/alexandre-normand/compare/869d69435bd2665c3fbf5b5c78d4c22759d7613a...b7f6605b1265e83b4b81495423294208cc74d610).

[//]: # "Exported with love from a post written in Org mode"
[//]: # "- https://github.com/kaushalmodi/ox-hugo"