From afe13e33b76416b8f44f10cb3a4523c4f0f19109 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Pavel 'LEdoian' Turinsky Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:47:10 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Add a page about the blog --- content/about-blog.rst | 260 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 260 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/about-blog.rst diff --git a/content/about-blog.rst b/content/about-blog.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6d87f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/about-blog.rst @@ -0,0 +1,260 @@ +About this blog +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +:slug: about-blog +:date: 2024-01-10 16:47 +:tags: meta, infrastructure +:category: technology +:keywords: blog, pelican, self-hosting, git +:lang: en +:translation: false +:status: published + +This is my blog and this article describes its setup and other details about my +intentions. The actual `setup `__ is probably the most +interesting tech-wise. + +What is this? +============= + +My own space on the internet where I can post whatever and link others to it. +It might end up containing rants, guides, ideas, or maybe nothing at all in the +end. Only the future will tell. + +The blog might even serve as my personal web page/introduction. Maybe. Maybe not… + +The main motivation is to have low-effort way to post random stuff. Which leads +to my requirements for this thing. + +Requirements +============ + +(The requirements are a bit too idealistic, so not all of them were satisfied…) + +- low-effort, me-friendly, low-maintenance – I don't want to have to learn too + many new technologies to use this. This includes the required technologies: + Python, Markdown/reStructuredText, Jinja2, git, … +- Technical and math content ~~friendly~~ compatible – I expect that to appear + here. +- Static site – for security, coolness factor and control. Also static on the + front-end, because I don't like JavaScript and/or running untrusted code on + my machine (even when in a sandbox). The SSG should likely be aimed at + creating blogs, not documentation. Also, self-contained, as in not depending + on third-party sites. +- No moving parts in the infrastructure (or as few as possible) – if it works + on my machine, it should just get mirrored to the public site with as few + modifications as possible. +- Transparent – I should be able to understand it, maybe others could also use + it as a resource or take inspiration. (At one point, this deployment itself + started being interesting, so if I can share the background as well as the + final webpage, it would be cool.) +- Followable – I know you internet guys like to ~~stalk~~ follow people :-) +- Aligned with my values: minimalist, simple, extensible/hackable, FLOSS +- If the platform could distinguish translations and do strikethroughs, it would + be nice, but that is not a hard requirement. + +There are several features of conventional blogs that I consider to be a +non-goals or even anti-goals. Mostly it is about interactivity – I don't aim +for having any kind of comments here, or really anything that would require +JavaScript or complex HTML/CSS. And appearance goes past me as well, I instead +try to let the browser decide how to display this page – more on that `below +`__. + +The workflow I wanted to achieve is something like: Write the content, git it, +build it (locally, no CI/CD), push it, done. Single write, single push, very +simple. + +And I managed to achieve something like that, via learning (too much?) about +git. + +.. TODO: fix the worktree bug already! + +The setup +========= + +Naturally for a sysadmin/netadmin, the setup consists of 7 ~~ISO/OSI~~ layers: + +1. **Physical layer**: cheap Hetzner VPS. Not physical, but whatever. +2. **Network layer**: Nginx +3. **Persistence layer**: `this git repo + `__. I will elaborate below why can + you see this both rendered here and in the source form in Forgejo. +4. **Content layer**: Markdown or reStructuredText files. +5. **Business logic layer**: `Pelican `__. It's rather + popular and written in Python, I didn't look further. +6. **Presentation layer**: I hacked my own theme, because I didn't like any in + the `pelican-themes repo `__. + I was a bit inspired by the layout of `eevee's blog + `__, but I wanted a dark theme. And as you can see, I + can't do quality frontend, so it ended up horrible… :-D +7. **Stalking layer**: Pelican's built-in RSS and Atom feed generators. Not + linked from anywhere at the moment, but `the repo will tell you + `__ what + hides under the ``/feeds/`` path. Or you can utilize the repo (for personal + use – the content's license is not decided at the moment)… + +Most of this is straightforward, the fancy part is my repo. The repo contains +both source and rendered content, so that I can point Nginx right at a checkout +and have Git solve both persistence and deployment without additional moving +parts. + +There are two tricks in the configuration of Git repositories: pushing to a +checked out repo is enabled by configuring ``receive.denyCurrentBranch = +updateInstead`` in the target repository (which is just a normal repo, not a +bare one), and then I just told my source repositories [#multiple-src]_ to use +two push targets for the remote (the first line *replaces* the original push +address for some reason):: + + git remote set-url --add --push blog_remote gitea@gitea.ledoian.cz:LEdoian/blog.git + git remote set-url --add --push blog_remote blog_user@blog.ledoian.cz:blog_dir + +The blog user is just a user with SSH access via authorized keys, no special +sauce there. Nginx is then pointed to serve ``~blog_user/blog_dir/output/`` at +``blog.ledoian.cz``. (The |git-remote| manpage requires me to have both +repositories in sync, but as long as I configure all my repositories this way, +I should be safe, and I think I could get away with my blog checkout getting +behind accidentally.) + +.. |git-remote| replace:: ``git-remote(1)`` +.. _git-remote: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-remote + +My workflow and lots of drafts +============================== + +It's Git so it's only natural for me to use various branches and repositories +even for a dumb blog. There are in fact 4 stages an article may go through [#skipping-stages]_: + +1. A private draft: lives on a branch ``priv/something``, may contain private + infos (like when I would just copy-paste from terminal without redaction) + and this branch will probably never be merged to the main repo. Nothing + about these branches is guaranteed. +2. A public WIP draft: uses a branch called ``pub/something`` which is pushed + to Forgejo (and in fact also to the blog itself, but that is just an + implementation detail). The draft is either does not build or is very + incomplete and I expect to add stuff in a way that could break the build, so + I put it on a separate branch. The branch will be probably merged to the + main branch (called ``blog``) when it is ready. + + The ``pub/…`` branches can be created either manually or by cherry-picking + from the respective ``priv/…`` branch, but that will likely not be + distinguishable. (I am too lazy to keep the references even in the commit + logs.) +3. When a draft is almost ready (or the content has simple syntax), it gets + placed on the ``blog`` branch. The only thing that designates it as a draft + is ``status: draft`` in the frontmatter, which means that the article will + get rendered and put somewhere on the public blog, but not reachable from + the title page ("unlisted"). +4. Of course, eventually (and hopefully) the article gets published for + everyone to see. At that point, it is complete (or at least that is what I + thought when marking it as published). Possibly it might be updated in the + future, but no such update is anticipated at the moment of publishing. [#update-this]_ + +I use Git to synchronize my private branches among machines, so there are +actually two "server-side" repositories (private and public one) and thus two +remotes. [#private-branches-wish]_ + +As for the actual workflow, for the main branch it usually consists of: writing +content, committing it, building the web, checking it locally, committing the +built blog and pushing it. Sometimes I do the commits together, but I always +separate the rendering/building commits from the content-creating ones, so that +I can handle those differently if needed (i.e. there is no point in +cherry-picking the built content, I can generate it). [#git-purists]_ + +For other branches I use some applicable subset of the steps above, probably. + +Design considerations +===================== + +The appearance of the blog is maybe not nice. That is for two reasons: I don't +have the right idea about how to make it much better and I want to have a +rather simple CSS for the web. The latter wish is because I tend to tweak +appearance of sites I visit using my own styles, so I would like you to be able +to do the same. + +And for the former reason, if you have any ideas / improvements (including user +styles), hit me at `blog@pokemon.ledoian.cz `__ :-) + +My overall idea is a dark-by-default [#light-theme]_ minimalist page with a single menu on the +right containig all the relevant links. The page should not dictate too much +but rather let the user agent decide the rendering (`it does anyway… +`__). + +I want my blog to render similarly in Gecko-, WebKit- and Blink-based browsers +(e.g. Firefox, Badwolf, Qutebrowser). Others should be usable. +Browser-/engine-specific styles are not welcome – let's keep it simple. And no +JavaScript… + +Work in progress / TODOs +======================== + +This thing is at the moment very barebones, which is sufficient for the main +purpose. However, I would like to have some features here, one day, hopefully: + +- Dates in the article headers (and maybe more improvements of the theme, see + above) +- Stable category and tag names and a page with a description of them. As of + now I haven't really invented a system of sorting my content, which leads to + a mess… Please don't rely on categories having any particular name / URL for + now. +- Link the RSS feeds from somewhere +- Personal info with links to my other profiles +- Some linking to the Fediverse and using it for comments (since there will be + no comments here) +- Sensible translations, maybe (if I/someone ever get to write the same content + again in a different language…) +- Improve the list of talks I've given (create some kind of sensible table maybe?) +- Decide on a licence for the content (If you want to utilize something here + before I do that, please ask me, I think we can find a way :-)) + +If you are so upset with this blog (or maybe bored) that you want to improve +it, send me patches / ideas. I don't expect anyone to do that, though :-D (And +I do not promise you that I will use the patch, even if it matches all my +opinions above. I also have some gut feelings about what I like…) + +Also, tell me if you hate something else about my page. I want to at least know +whom I upset :-D (but I will probably also think about your gripes and whether +I can and should try to avoid them…) + +------- + +.. [#multiple-src] I also use multiple machines on which I can write stuff. + +.. [#skipping-stages] I am lazy and chaotic (good), so the stages are optional + and non-linear, and sometimes involve paper. This article is a prime + example: parts of it were on two different private branches, but at the end + I wrote it from scratch directly on the main branch. And the requirements + were written on a paper originally. + + Nevertheless, the general idea still holds and may inspire others, so it + makes sense to keep this part in the article. (Also, this footnote might not + make sense before reading the definition of the stages, but I didn't find a + better place to put it…) + +.. [#update-this] Well, given this article contains some future plans, I + actually anticipate update of this one, but maybe not in the near future. So + the outline is not really correct, but I make the rules :-) (There + were some build breaks on the main branch, too :-D) + +.. [#private-branches-wish] I would love if my Forgejo could have "private + branches", but I understand that the overhead for doing this is not nice, + since it would need to be able to decide for any object, whether it is + public or not (you can do ``git fetch ``) and somehow + keep track even with rebases, merges, force-pushes, many branches, … Having + a separate private repository is not a big problem in comparison. + +.. [#git-purists] Git purists might want to tell me that committing build + artifacts is not good practice. I know and I explicitly don't care in case + of this repo, because here I prioritise my own comfort of being able to + check everything locally and then be reasonably sure the deployed version + will also work, all this with only a single push somewhere. Of course, one + could argue that with that there is no reason to create two commits, but it + does not really bother me to run something like ``git commit -m"render" + output/`` when I am sure it works, and this keeps readable diffs separate + from the non-readable ones (i.e. the changes in generated HTML). + +.. [#light-theme] Having the page be dark-by-default is my preference, but I + respect that others may prefer light sites. However, I have not yet + determined what colors should be used (probably still cyan / blue / maybe + purple-ish, but I don't know what shade) nor understood how to use + ``@media(prefers-color-scheme)`` in a maintainable and simple way (in the + context of my theme). So naturally, this is postponed to the future…