How to Install Hugo Site Generator On Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Hugo is a free and open-source framework written in Go language that can be used to create websites with ease. It is simple, fast and secure static site generator, you don’t need any database to run it. Hugo supports unlimited content types, taxonomies, menus, dynamic API-driven content, and more, all without plugins. Hugo comes with a rich set of features including, Robust Content Management, Built-in Templates, Shortcodes, Custom Outputs, Multilingual and many more.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Hugo on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server.

Requirements

• A server running Ubuntu 18.04.
• A static IP address 136.243.240.39 is configured on your server.
• A root password is setup to your server.

Getting Started

Before starting, you will need to update your system with the latest version. You can do this by running the following command:

apt-get update -y
apt-get upgrade -y

Once your server is updated, restart your server to apply the changes.

Install Hugo

By default, the latest version of Hugo is not available in the Ubuntu 18.04 default repository. So, you will need to download it from the Git repository. You can download it with the following command:
wget https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v0.58.2/hugo_0.58.2_Linux-64bit.deb

Once the download is completed, install the Hugo with the following command:
dpkg -i hugo_0.58.2_Linux-64bit.deb

If you get any dependency error then run the following command to resolve the dependency:
apt-get install -f

Next, you can check the Hugo version with the following command:
hugo version

You should get the following output:
Hugo Static Site Generator v0.58.2-253E5FDC linux/amd64 BuildDate: 2019-09-13T08:05:59Z


You can also see a list of options available with Hugo by running the following command:
hugo --help

You should get the following output:
hugo is the main command, used to build your Hugo site.

Once you have finished, you can proceed to the next step.

Create a Website with Hugo

Hugo is now installed, it’s time to create a website and content with Hugo.

You can create a new website named test.example.com by running the following command:
hugo new site test.example.com

Once the website has been created successfully, you should get the following output:
Congratulations! Your new Hugo site is created in /root/test.example.com.

Visit https://gohugo.io/ for quickstart guide and full documentation.


You can also list all the files created under your website with the following command:
ls test.example.com/

You should see the following output:
archetypes config.toml content data layouts static themes


Create an About page and Blog Post

Now, change the directory to your website and create an about.md page with the following command:
cd test.example.com
hugo new about.md

You should see the following output:
/root/test.example.com/content/about.md created


Next, open an about.md file and add some content:
nano content/about.md

Make the following changes:
---
title: "About"
date: 2019-09-10T06:57:08Z
draft: false
---

I am hitesh jethva working as a technical writer.


Save and close the file when you are finished. Then, create your first post with the following command:
hugo new post/first.md

You should see the following output:
/root/test.example.com/content/post/first.md created


Next, open the file first.md and add some content:
nano content/post/first.md

Make the following changes:
---
title: "First"
date: 2019-09-10T06:58:51Z
draft: false
---

Hi How are you!


Setup Your First Theme

Your about page and blog post is now created, it’s time to set up your first theme.

First, change the directory to themes and download the hugo-strata-theme with the following command:
cd themes
wget https://github.com/digitalcraftsman/hugo-strata-theme/archive/master.zip

Once downloaded, extract the downloaded theme with the following command:
unzip master.zip

Next, rename the extracted theme as shown below:
mv hugo-strata-theme-master hugo-strata-theme

Next, you will need to copy the contents of the example config.toml file from themes/hugo-strata-theme to your site’s config.toml file located at /root/test.example.com/config.toml.

YOu can do it with the following command:
cat hugo-strata-theme/exampleSite/config.toml > ../config.toml

Next, update the baseurl variable and also include your new about page into this theme’s navigation in the config.toml file as shown below:
nano ../config.toml

Update the base URL as shown below:
baseurl = "/"


Also add the following lines to include your new about page:
[[menu.main]] name = "About"
url = "about"
weight = 5


Save and close the file when you are finished.

Next, you will also need to update your landing page layout with the theme’s template layout located at themes/hugo-strata-theme/layouts/index.html to test.example.com/layouts/index.html:
nano /root/test.example.com/layouts/index.html

Add the following content:
{{ define "main" }}
{{ if not .Site.Params.about.hide }}
{{ partial "about" . }}
{{ end }}

{{ if not .Site.Params.contact.hide }}
{{ partial "contact" . }}
{{ end }}
{{ end }}


Save and close the file when you are finished.

Once you have finished, you can proceed to the next step.

Build Your Website

Your theme is now configured for your website. It’s time to build your website. To do so, change the directory to your website and build the site with the following command:
cd /root/test.example.com
hugo

You should see the following output:
| EN
+------------------+----+
Pages | 17
Paginator pages | 0
Non-page files | 0
Static files | 26
Processed images | 0
Aliases | 5
Sitemaps | 1
Cleaned | 0

Total in 18 ms


Now, start your Hugo server and bind it with your server IP address by running the following command:
hugo server --bind=0.0.0.0 --baseUrl=http://136.243.240.39 -D -F

Once the server started successfully, you should see the following output:
| EN
+------------------+----+
Pages | 17
Paginator pages | 0
Non-page files | 0
Static files | 26
Processed images | 0
Aliases | 5
Sitemaps | 1
Cleaned | 0

Total in 28 ms
Watching for changes in /root/test.example.com/{content,data,layouts,static,themes}
Watching for config changes in /root/test.example.com/config.toml
Serving pages from memory
Running in Fast Render Mode. For full rebuilds on change: hugo server --disableFastRender
Web Server is available at http://136.243.240.39:1313/ (bind address 0.0.0.0)
Press Ctrl+C to stop


Once you have done, you can proceed to access Hugo web interface.

Access Hugo Server

Your Hugo server is now started and listening on port 1313. Next, open your web browser and type the URL http://136.243.240.39:1313. You will be redirected to your Hugo server dashboard as shown below:

Now, click on the About in the left pane. You should see your About page in the following image:

Now, click on the Blog button in the left pane. You should see your blog post in the following image:

Conclusion

In the above tutorial, we learned how to install Hugo server on Ubuntu 18.04 server. We have also learned how to create a site with about page and theme with Hugo. For more information about Hugo, you can visit the Hugo official documentation at Hugo Doc. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.