hugo/docs/content/extras/livereload.md

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Hugo may not be the first static site generator to utilize LiveReload technology, but its the first to do it right.

The combination of Hugos insane build speed and LiveReload make crafting your content pure joy. Virtually instantly after you hit save your rebuilt content will appear in your browser.

Using LiveReload

Hugo comes with LiveReload built in. There are no additional packages to install. A common way to use Hugo while developing a site is to have Hugo run a server and watch for changes:

$ hugo server --watch

This will run a full functioning web server while simultaneously watching your file system for additions, deletions or changes within your:

  • static files
  • content
  • data files
  • layouts
  • current theme

Whenever anything changes Hugo will rebuild the site, continue to serve the content and as soon as the build is finished it will tell the browser and silently reload the page. Because most hugo builds are so fast they are barely noticeable, you merely need to glance at your open browser and you will see the change already there.

This means that keeping the site open on a second monitor (or another half of your current monitor) allows you to see exactly what your content looks like without even leaving your text editor.

It's worth noting that "--watch" is enabled by default when "hugo server" is run.

Disabling LiveReload

LiveReload works by injecting JavaScript into the pages it creates that creates a web socket client to the hugo web socket server.

Awesome for development, but not something you would want to do in production. Since many people use hugo server --watch in production to instantly display any updated content, weve made it easy to disable the LiveReload functionality.

$ hugo server --watch --disableLiveReload