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# zs - Zen Static site generator
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zs is an extremely minimal static site generator written in Go.
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[](https://ci.mills.io/prologic/zs)
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Table of Contents:
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- [zs - Zen Static site generator ](#zs---zen-static-site-generator )
* [Quick Start ](#quick-start )
* [Features ](#features )
* [Installation ](#installation )
* [Ideology ](#ideology )
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* [Configuration ](#configuration )
* [Configuration file ](#configuration-file )
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* [Extensions (Markdown) ](#extensions-markdown )
* [Plugins ](#plugins )
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* [Include ](#include )
* [RSS ](#rss )
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* [Hooks ](#hooks )
* [Command line usage ](#command-line-usage )
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* [zs Users ](#zs-users )
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* [Frequently Asked Questions ](#frequently-asked-questions )
* [How do I link to other pages? ](#how-do-i-link-to-other-pages )
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* [License ](#license )
<!-- tocstop -->
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## Quick Start
```console
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go install go.mills.io/zs@latest
mkdir .zs & & cat > .zs/layout.html < < EOF
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< html >
< head >
< title > {{ title }}< / title >
< / head >
< body > {{ content }}< / body >
< / html >
EOF
cat > index.md < < EOF
---
title: Hello World
---
# Hello World
Hello World!
EOF
zs serve
```
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For a starter template see the [zs-starter-template ](https://git.mills.io/prologic/zs-stater-template ) which can also be found running live at [zs.mills.io ](https://zs.mills.io ).
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## Features
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- Zero configuration (optional configuration file)
- Highly configurable (flags, env vars, configuration file)
- Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux)
- Highly extensible via plugins in any language
- Works well for blogs and generic static websites (landing pages, etc)
- Easy to learn
- Fast!
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## Installation
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Download the binaries from [go.mills.io/prologic/zs ](https://git.mills.io/prologic/zs ):
```console
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go install go.mills.io/zs@latest
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```
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Or build from source manually:
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```console
git clone https://git.mills.io/prologic/zs
cd zs
make install
```
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## Ideology
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Keep your texts in markdown, or HTML format right in the main directory
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of your blog/site.
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Keep all service files (extensions, layout pages, deployment scripts etc)
in the `.zs` subdirectory.
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Define variables in the header of the content files using [YAML front matter ](https://assemble.io/docs/YAML-front-matter.html ):
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```markdown
---
title: My web site
keywords: best website, hello, world
---
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Markdown text goes after a header *separator*
```
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Use placeholders for variables and plugins in your markdown or html
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files, e.g. `{{ title }}` or `{{ command arg1 arg2 }}.
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Write extensions in any language you like and put them into the `.zs`
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sub-directory.
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Everything the extensions prints to stdout becomes the value of the
placeholder.
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Every variable from the content header will be passed via environment variables like `title` becomes `$ZS_TITLE` and so on. There are some special variables:
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- `$ZS` - a path to the `zs` executable
- `$ZS_OUTDIR` - a path to the directory with generated files
- `$ZS_FILE` - a path to the currently processed markdown file
- `$ZS_URL` - a URL for the currently generated page
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## Configuration
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By default no configuration is required. Variables can be defined at the top of each content page using YAML front-matter as described in [Idealogy ](#ideology ). As your site gets more complex, you _may_ want to define a site-level configuration file. There are a couple of ways to do this:
- Using command-line flags of `zs` itself, see `zs --help` for configuration options.
- Using environment variables such as `ZS_PRODUCTION=1` . These match the command-line flags above, are uppercase and prefixed with `ZS_` .
- Using `zs -c/--config ...` to pass an explicit configuration file.
- Placing a `.zs/config.yml` configuration file in your `.zs` directory.
### Configuration file
The basic structure of a configuration file looks like:
```yaml
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---
title: zs starter template
description: A starter template for the Zen Static (zs) site generator
keywords: zen, static, zs, starter, template, site, website, template, generator, ssg
extensions:
- typography
- wikilink
- fences
- embed
- d2
```
## Extensions (Markdown)
`zs` supports content written in Markdown, `index.md` for example and uses the [Goldmark][goldmark] Markdown parser with a number of extensions enabled by default:
- [anchor][anchor] -- Adds anchors (permalinks) next to all headers in a document.
- [d2][d2] -- Adds support for [D2 ](https://d2lang.com/ ) diagrams.
- [embed][embed] -- Adds support for rendering embeds from YouTube links.
- [fences][fences] -- Support for pandoc-style fenced divs.
- [highlighting][highlighting] -- Adds support for syntax highlighting of code.
- [wikilink][wikilink] -- Adds support for [[wiki]]-style links to goldmark.
For a full-list of default extensions enabled, see `zs --help` and the `-e/--extensions` flag.
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## Plugins
Plugins are just executables in any language that output content. They can be system executables like `data` or custom scripts or programs that you place in `.zs/` . To use a plugins simply reference it in your content like so:
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```markdown
Site last updated at {{{ date }}
```
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or:
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```markdown
Here's a list of support features:
{{ features }}
```
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Where `features` is a script defined in `.zs/features`
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Plugins can be written in any language you know (Bash, Python, Lua, JavaScript, Go, even Assembler).
Here are some example plugins you might find useful in your site.
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### Include
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`.zs/include` :
```bash
#!/bin/sh
if [ -f "$1" ]; then
cat "$1"
else
echo "error: file not found $1"
fi
```
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### RSS
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`.zs/rss` :
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```bash
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#!/bin/sh
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for f in ./blog/*.md ; do
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d="$("$ZS" var "$f" date)"
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if [ ! -z $d ] ; then
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timestamp="$(date --date "$d" +%s)"
url="$("$ZS" var "$f" url)"
title="$("$ZS" var "$f" title | tr A-Z a-z)"
desc="$("$ZS" var "$f" description)"
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echo $timestamp \
"< item > " \
"< title > $title< / title > " \
"< link > http://zserge.com/$url< / link > " \
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"< description > $desc< / description > " \
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"< pubDate > $(date --date @$timestamp -R)< / pubDate > " \
"< guid > http://zserge.com/$url< / guid > " \
"< / item > "
fi
done | sort -r -n | cut -d' ' -f2-
```
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Looking for more plugins? Check out the [contrib/plugins ](https://git.mills.io/prologic/zs/src/branch/main/contrib/plugins ) collection!
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## Hooks
There are two special plugin names that are executed every time the build
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happens:
- `prehook` -- executed before the build
- `posthook` -- executed after the build
You can use these to customize the build before and after. For example you can use the `posthook` to minify CSS or Javascript files.
`.zs/posthook` :
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```bash
#!/bin/sh
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minify -o "$ZS_OUTDIR/css/fa.min.css" "$ZS_OUTDIR/css/fa.css"
minify -o "$ZS_OUTDIR/css/site.min.css" "$ZS_OUTDIR/css/site.css"
```
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Looking for more hooks? Check out the [contrib/hooks ](https://git.mills.io/prologic/zs/src/branch/main/contrib/hooks ) collection!
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## Command line usage
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- `zs build` re-builds your site.
- `zs build <file>` re-builds one file and prints resulting content to stdout.
- `zs watch` rebuilds your site every time you modify any file.
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- `zs serve` rebuilds your site and serve it on the network.
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- `zs var <filename> [var1 var2...]` prints a list of variables defined in the
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header of a given markdown file, or the values of certain variables (even if
it's an empty string).
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For full usage see `zs --help` :
```console
$ zs --help
zs is an extremely minimal static site generator written in Go.
- Keep your texts in markdown, or HTML format right in the main directory of your blog/site.
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- Keep all service files (extensions, layout pages, deployment scripts etc) in the .zs subdirectory.
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- Define variables in the header of the content files using YAML front matter:
- Use placeholders for variables and plugins in your markdown or html files, e.g. {{ title }} or {{ command arg1 arg2 }}.
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- Write extensions in any language you like and put them into the .zs sub-directory.
- Everything the extensions prints to stdout becomes the value of the placeholder.
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Usage:
zs [command]
Available Commands:
build Builds the whole site or a single file
completion Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
help Help about any command
serve Serves the site and rebuilds automatically
var Display variables for the specified file
watch Watches for file changes and rebuilds modified files
Flags:
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-c, --config string config file (default: .zs/config.yml)
-D, --debug enable debug logging $($ZS_DEBUG)
-d, --description string site description ($ZS_DESCRIPTION)
-e, --extensions strings override and enable specific extensions (default [table,linkify,highlighting,fences,footnote,cjk,d2,embed,wikilink,tasklist,definitionlist,anchor,strikethrough,typography])
-h, --help help for zs
-k, --keywords string site keywords ($ZS_KEYWORDS)
-p, --production enable production mode ($ZS_PRODUCTION)
-t, --title string site title ($ZS_TITLE)
-v, --version version for zs
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Use "zs [command] --help" for more information about a command.
```
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## zs Users
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Here's a few sites that use `zs` today:
- https://yarn.social -- Landing page of the decentralized microBlogging ecosystem.
- https://salty.im -- Landing page of the e2e encrypted IndieWeb inspired messaging protocol.
- https://zs.mills.io -- zs starter template demo.
- https://prologic.shortcircuit.net.au -- Home page of James Mills / prologic (author of zs)
Want to add your site here? File an issue or submit a pull-request!
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## Frequently Asked Questions
### How do I link to other pages?
Easy! Just write a normal HTML link using an `<a href="/other.html">title</a>` tag or a Markdown link using the normal `[title](/other.html)` syntax.
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## License
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`zs` is licensed under the terms of the [MIT License ](/LICENSE ) and was originally forked from [zserge/zs ](https://github.com/zserge/zs ) also licensed under the terms of the [MIT License ](/LICENSE.old ).
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----
[goldmark]: https://github.com/yuin/goldmark
[anchor]: https://github.com/abhinav/goldmark-anchor
[d2]: https://github.com/FurqanSoftware/goldmark-d2
[embed]: https://github.com/13rac1/goldmark-embed
[fences]: https://github.com/stefanfritsch/goldmark-fences
[highlighting]: https://github.com/yuin/goldmark-highlighting
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[wikilink]: https://github.com/abhinav/goldmark-wikilink
