This is my first post using Pelican as my new blogging platform. I had considered using OctoPress but encountered too much trouble getting the ruby stack to work properly without dependency problems, even following directions or tutorials. So I looked for a Python alternative and found Pelican. I found it was much simpler to get running just following the directions. Plus, I know Python, so I’m obviously more comfortable with it then Ruby. I’ve never dealt with Ruby directly until OctoPress and my prior experience only included reading about it.
I am using AWS to host this, and an AWS EC2 host or S3 bucket is securely configured to only allow login through ssh with a private key file. This makes it difficult to simply publish over ssh with the default authentication. Some changes need to be made to the site Makefile to allow for this.
On line 18:
:::Makefile
SSH_PRI_KEY=<path to private key file>
Further down on line 60:
:::Makefile
ssh_upload: publish
scp -i $(SSH_PRI_KEY) -P $(SSH_PORT) -r $(OUTPUTDIR)/* $(SSH_USER)@$(SSH_HOST):$(SSH_TARGET_DIR)
From there a simple
:::sshupload
make ssh_upload
will push it out to my AWS host.
For some reason, this type of blogging platform seems more elegant then a CMS like WordPress, it gives you the control you get from statically coding your site’s html/css/js, to say nothing of the lack of overhead required to serve static content. However, it still gives you the dynamically generated links and ease of management one gets from a CMS. That and it’s very programmer friendly.
I need some time to go through all the themes for Pelican but so far I like the simple look of the default template. I may either tweak it or try out some of the other themes.
I also have some other things to work on or learn about for this site, like getting used to using markdown, adding some more content, and testing the limitations of Pelican.