Local build of the blog on a new machine

Overview

I should have been aware that building my blog on a new machine with the latest components would work. Since I don’t want to spend numerous hours the next time again, I’m creating this guide.

Original approach

Install ruby

From a command line search for the available Ruby versions

winget search Ruby

Install the latest version with RubyWithDevKit

winget install RubyInstallerTeam.RubyWithDevKit.4.0

Install jekyll and bundler

After the installation a new command line session needs to be started. Ruby will update the PATH variable. Install jekyll and bundler from the blog root folder.

gem install jekyll bundler

Update bundler verion

bundle update --bundler 

Install gems

Trigger the installation of all listed gems from the blog root folder.

bundle install

Result

Happy debugging in finding all issues which are caused due to old gem versions which are not compatible with the latest Ruby/jekyll/bundler combination. One of the symptoms I’ve run into:

• Gem is not compatible with a version
• Gem building fails
• According to internet searches it’s fixed in the latest version
• Silently an older gem version was installed which was installed because a nested gem isn’t compatible with other components

Future approach

Installation

1. Install the latest versions Same approach as before but an improved process to find out all issues.
2. Define latest github-pages gem Search for the latest version

     gem search github-pages
   

   and force the latest version in the gemfile

     gem "github-pages", "232"
   

3. Execute bundle install This may output a version conflict with the installed components. I don’t have any idea how to check the supported Ruby, jekyll version without installing a version before.

    Because github-pages >= 228, < 232 depends on jekyll-commonmark-ghpages = 0.4.0
    and github-pages >= 232 depends on jekyll-commonmark-ghpages = 0.5.1,
    github-pages >= 228 requires jekyll-commonmark-ghpages = 0.4.0 OR = 0.5.1.
    And because jekyll-commonmark-ghpages >= 0.2.0 depends on jekyll-commonmark ~>
    1.4.0,
    github-pages >= 228 requires jekyll-commonmark ~> 1.4.0.
    And because jekyll-commonmark >= 1.4.0 depends on commonmarker ~> 0.22
    and commonmarker >= 0.22.0, < 1.0.0.pre depends on Ruby >= 2.6, < 4.0,
    github-pages >= 228 requires Ruby >= 2.6, < 4.0.
    So, because Gemfile depends on github-pages >= 230
    and current Ruby version is = 4.0.3,
    version solving has failed.
   

4. Install the allowed version of Ruby
5. Execute bundle install again
6. Execute run_server.batfile and take a look at the warnings regarding missing gems. There may be gems which are no longer installed by default. ` warning: fiddle/import is found in fiddle, which will no longer be part of the default gems starting from Ruby 4.0.0. `

   Minimal mistake migration

   In case there’s a new version of minimal mistakes:

7. Review the Quick-Start Guide for new gem files to reference
8. Update the remote theme version
9. Execute run_serve_trace as this does not use the incremental flag which causes problems when updating files in the next step
10. The files in the _includes and _layouts should be compared and updated accordingly. The custom.html can be ignored, it contains only custom HTML.