Homepage Setup Guide

My academic homepage building log (2025 update)

Last updated on Study Record

Here’s a comprehensive Markdown tutorial for setting up and deploying your Hugo homepage using your legacy academic-kickstart template. This guide assumes you need Hugo v0.71 or earlier due to theme compatibility.

Note:
The academic-kickstart template is old and requires Hugo v0.71 or before.
See: Rongtingting/academic-kickstart

1. Environment Preparation

1.1 Install Old Hugo (v0.71 or Earlier)

1.2 Install Prerequisites

You’ll need:

  • Git (for cloning and managing repositories)
  • Go (for some Hugo builds and theme tools)
  • Dart Sass (for advanced CSS/Sass processing, if required)

Check your versions:

git version
# git version 2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)

go version
# go version go1.24.4 darwin/arm64

hugo71 version
# Hugo Static Site Generator v0.71.0-06150C87/extended darwin/amd64 BuildDate: 2020-05-18T16:13:04Z

hugo version
# (You may also have a newer hugo installed, but use hugo71 for this project)

If you need to install Git, Go, or Dart Sass, follow their respective documentation:

2. Project Setup & Deployment

2.1 Clone Your Academic Kickstart Repo

git clone https://github.com/Rongtingting/academic-kickstart.git My_homepage
cd My_homepage

2.2 Initialize Submodules

git submodule update --init --recursive

2.3 Prepare the public Directory

Remove any existing public/ folder:

rm -r public/

Then, add your GitHub Pages repo as a submodule to public/:

git submodule add -f -b master https://github.com/Rongtingting/Rongtingting.github.io.git public

3. Local Development

3.1 Start the Hugo Server

Run the Hugo development server with drafts enabled:

hugo server -D
# Or, if you have hugo71 installed as a separate binary:
hugo71 server -D

4. Build and Deploy

4.1 Build the Site

hugo
# Or
hugo71
  • This generates the site into the public/ folder, which is connected to your GitHub Pages repository.

4.2 Deploy to GitHub Pages

Commit and push your changes in both your main repo and the public/ submodule:

# Commit changes in your main site repo
git add .
git commit -m "Update site content"
git push origin master

# Deploy the site by pushing the built files in public/
cd public
git add .
git commit -m "Publish site"
git push origin master
cd ..

5. Additional Resources

6. Common Issues

  • Theme errors?
    Ensure you’re using hugo71 (v0.71) since the theme is not compatible with newer Hugo versions.
  • Submodule issues?
    Double-check your public submodule setup and remote URLs.
  • Build errors with Sass/CSS?
    Ensure Dart Sass is installed if you’re customizing styles.

7. Updating Content

  • Edit Markdown files in content/.
  • Add images and static files to the static/ directory.
  • Customize site configuration in the config/ folders.

🎉 Your site is now ready!

If you have any questions, refer to the resources above or open an issue on your repository. If you use the most update version of academic-kickstart, please refer to HugoBlox/theme-academic-cv.

Happy publishing!

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