Installing Jekyll on Ubuntu

Installing Jekyll on Ubuntu | Generated by AI

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Setting Up and Running Jekyll on Ubuntu

Based on your error (“Command ‘bundle’ not found”) and the commands you’re trying to run, it looks like you need to install Ruby, Bundler, and Jekyll properly first. Ubuntu doesn’t come with these by default, but it’s straightforward using the official Jekyll guide. I’ll walk you through the full setup step by step, then how to run your specific commands.

Step 1: Install System Dependencies

Open your terminal and run this to install Ruby and build tools (this includes Ruby 3.x via ruby-full):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ruby-full build-essential zlib1g-dev

This sets up Ruby (check with ruby -v—it should show something like 3.0+).
If you’re on a recent Ubuntu (e.g., 22.04+), this works out of the box. Avoid Snap for Ruby if possible, as it can cause path issues.

Step 2: Set Up a User Gem Directory (Recommended to Avoid Sudo)

To install gems without root privileges (prevents permission errors later):

echo '# Install Ruby Gems to ~/gems' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export GEM_HOME="$HOME/gems"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Verify: Run gem env—it should show your GEM_HOME as ~/gems.

Step 3: Install Jekyll and Bundler

Now install the tools:

gem install jekyll bundler

This adds gem, jekyll, and bundle commands to your path.
If you get permission errors, double-check Step 2 or temporarily use sudo (but avoid it long-term).

Step 4: Create and Run Your Blog

Now you can run the commands from your snippet. I’ll explain each:

Create a new Jekyll site:
```
jekyll new myblog
```
- This generates a basic site in a myblog folder.
Enter the directory:
```
cd myblog
```
Install dependencies (this is where your original bundle install failed—now it should work):
```
bundle install
```
- Pulls in gems like Jekyll plugins.
Serve the site (starts a local server at http://127.0.0.1:4000):
```
bundle exec jekyll serve
```
- Open your browser to that URL to see your site.
Serve with incremental rebuilds (faster for development, only rebuilds changed files):
```
bundle exec jekyll serve --incremental
```
Serve including drafts (shows unpublished posts):
```
bundle exec jekyll serve --draft
```
If you get a “webrick” error (common on Ruby 3+, as it’s not bundled by default):
```
bundle add webrick
```
- Then restart the serve command: bundle exec jekyll serve.
- Alternatively, add gem "webrick" to your Gemfile and run bundle install.
Quick serve without Bundler (if you skip bundle exec):
```
jekyll serve
```
- But use bundle exec for consistency in projects.

Troubleshooting

Still “bundle not found”? Ensure Step 2 sourced your ~/.bashrc correctly (source ~/.bashrc), then restart your terminal or run hash -r. Check with which bundle.
Permission issues with gems? Stick to the user directory setup in Step 2.
Ruby version too old? If ruby -v is <3.0, consider using rbenv for a newer version (install via curl -fsSL https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv-installer/raw/HEAD/bin/rbenv-installer | bash, then rbenv install 3.2.0).
Firewall blocking port 4000? Ubuntu usually doesn’t, but test with curl http://127.0.0.1:4000.
Your project is in ~/projects/blog-source—run these from there or adjust paths.

Once served, edit files in _posts/ or _config.yml and save—Jekyll auto-rebuilds. For production, build with jekyll build and deploy to GitHub Pages or Netlify.

Jekyll Ubuntu Installation Guide

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