hugo/docs/content/overview/usage.md

---
title: "Using Hugo"
date: "2013-07-01"
aliases: ["/doc/usage/"]
---

Make sure either hugo is in your path or provide a path to it.

    $ hugo --help
    usage: hugo [flags] []
      -b, --base-url="": hostname (and path) to the root eg. http://spf13.com/
      -D, --build-drafts=false: include content marked as draft
          --config="": config file (default is path/config.yaml|json|toml)
      -d, --destination="": filesystem path to write files to
      -h, --help=false: show this help
          --port="1313": port to run web server on, default :1313
      -S, --server=false: run a (very) simple web server
      -s, --source="": filesystem path to read files relative from
          --uglyurls=false: if true, use /filename.html instead of /filename/
      -v, --verbose=false: verbose output
          --version=false: which version of hugo
      -w, --watch=false: watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed

## Common Usage Example:

The most common use is probably to run hugo with your current
directory being the input directory.


    $ hugo
    > X pages created
    > Y indexes created
      in 8 ms


If you are working on things and want to see the changes
immediately, tell Hugo to watch for changes. **It will
recreate the site faster than you can tab over to
your browser to view the changes.**

    $ hugo -s ~/mysite --watch
       Watching for changes. Press ctrl+c to stop
       15 pages created
       0 tags created
       in 8 ms

Hugo can even run a server and create your site at the same time!

    $hugo --server -ws ~/mysite
       Watching for changes. Press ctrl+c to stop
       15 pages created
       0 tags created
       in 8 ms
       Web Server is available at http://localhost:1313
       Press ctrl+c to stop
sanity: move from json to yaml 2013-07-06 19:36:30 -04:00			`---`
			`title: "Using Hugo"`
Complete overhaul of the docs 2013-08-17 08:34:25 -04:00			`date: "2013-07-01"`
			`aliases: ["/doc/usage/"]`
YAML support similar to jekyll (start and end with '---') 2013-07-08 17:57:01 -04:00			`---`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00
			`Make sure either hugo is in your path or provide a path to it.`

			`$ hugo --help`
			`usage: hugo [flags] []`
Adding proper command line option parsing 2013-07-19 03:38:24 -04:00			`-b, --base-url="": hostname (and path) to the root eg. http://spf13.com/`
Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`-D, --build-drafts=false: include content marked as draft`
Adding proper command line option parsing 2013-07-19 03:38:24 -04:00			`--config="": config file (default is path/config.yaml\|json\|toml)`
Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`-d, --destination="": filesystem path to write files to`
Adding proper command line option parsing 2013-07-19 03:38:24 -04:00			`-h, --help=false: show this help`
			`--port="1313": port to run web server on, default :1313`
			`-S, --server=false: run a (very) simple web server`
			`-s, --source="": filesystem path to read files relative from`
Clarify uglyurls flag. Mention more clearly that, for generating `/filename.html`, you need to set the `uglyurls` flag to `true`. 2013-08-14 04:53:41 -04:00			`--uglyurls=false: if true, use /filename.html instead of /filename/`
Adding proper command line option parsing 2013-07-19 03:38:24 -04:00			`-v, --verbose=false: verbose output`
			`--version=false: which version of hugo`
			`-w, --watch=false: watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00
			`## Common Usage Example:`

Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`The most common use is probably to run hugo with your current`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00			`directory being the input directory.`


			`$ hugo`
			`> X pages created`
better install instructions and fixing usage typo 2013-07-05 00:35:11 -04:00			`> Y indexes created`
Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`in 8 ms`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00

Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`If you are working on things and want to see the changes`
			`immediately, tell Hugo to watch for changes. **It will`
			`recreate the site faster than you can tab over to`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00			`your browser to view the changes.**`

Fix example in docs that wouldn't work in practice The pflag package used in hugo has to use the "=" sign for double dash options such as --source. Thus the original example `--source ~/mysite` is already incorrect. Adding the = sign though woul not fix things in this case, since `--source=~/mysite` does not get resolved to /home/username/mysite, but looks for the ./~/mysite directory within the current directory. To resolve this, either the directory name has to be changed in the docs not to use the "~" sign, or have to change to use the single dash version of the command line flag. The latter seems to be more in line with the rest of the example. Leaving `--watch` as a double dash option to minimize the change, though it could be either way, since the follow up example uses the single dash version of both. 2013-08-05 09:45:01 -04:00			`$ hugo -s ~/mysite --watch`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00			`Watching for changes. Press ctrl+c to stop`
			`15 pages created`
			`0 tags created`
Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`in 8 ms`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00
			`Hugo can even run a server and create your site at the same time!`

Adding proper command line option parsing 2013-07-19 03:38:24 -04:00			`$hugo --server -ws ~/mysite`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00			`Watching for changes. Press ctrl+c to stop`
			`15 pages created`
			`0 tags created`
Updating a bunch of the docs 2013-08-03 03:30:34 -04:00			`in 8 ms`
adding hugo 2013-07-04 11:32:55 -04:00			`Web Server is available at http://localhost:1313`
			`Press ctrl+c to stop`