Install Jekyll on MacOS

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Install Command Line Tools

First, you need to install the command-line tools to be able to compile native extensions, open a terminal and run:

$ xcode-select --install

Install Ruby

Jekyll requires Ruby > 2.5.0. macOS Catalina 10.15 comes with ruby 2.6.3, so you’re fine. If you’re running a previous macOS system, you’ll have to install a newer version of Ruby.

With Homebrew

To run the latest Ruby version you need to install it through [Homebrew][Homebrew].

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

$ ruby -v
ruby 2.3.7p456 (2018-03-28 revision 63024) [universal.x86_64-darwin18]

$  brew install ruby
By default, binaries installed by gem will be placed into:
  /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/2.7.0/bin

You may want to add this to your PATH.

If you need to have ruby first in your PATH run:
  echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> /Users/skyhawk/.bash_profile

For compilers to find ruby you may need to set:
  export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/ruby/lib"
  export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/ruby/include"

Then relaunch your terminal and check your updated Ruby setup:

$ ruby -v
ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin18]

With rbenv

People often use rbenv to manage multiple Ruby versions. This is very useful when you need to be able to run a given Ruby version on a project.

Install Jekyll

Now all that is left is installing Bundler and Jekyll.

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
$ gem install --user-install bundler jekyll

$ ruby -v
ruby 2.7.1p83 (2020-03-31 revision a0c7c23c9c) [x86_64-darwin18]

$ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.gem/ruby/2.7.0/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Create the First Website

$ jekyll new my-awesome-site
$ cd my-awesome-site/

$ bundle exec jekyll serve
Could not find gem 'minima (~> 2.5)' in any of the gem sources listed in your Gemfile.
Run `bundle install` to install missing gems.

$ gem install minima
$ gem install jekyll-feed

$ bundle exec jekyll serve
Configuration file: /Users/skyhawk/my-awesome-site/_config.yml
            Source: /Users/skyhawk/my-awesome-site
       Destination: /Users/skyhawk/my-awesome-site/_site
 Incremental build: disabled. Enable with --incremental
      Generating...
       Jekyll Feed: Generating feed for posts
                    done in 0.232 seconds.
 Auto-regeneration: enabled for '/Users/skyhawk/my-awesome-site'
    Server address: http://127.0.0.1:4000/
  Server running... press ctrl-c to stop.

Check out the [Jekyll on macOS][Jekyll-on-macOS] for more info on how to install Jekyll on macOS.

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