Elektrubadur
Personal web page of Björn Lindström
2026-08-15T08:55:35+00:00
© 2010–2026 Björn Lindström
Björn Lindström
bkhl@elektrubadur.se
https://elektrubadur.se/tags/hcoop/
How This Blog Works
https://elektrubadur.se/posts/how_this_blog_works/
Björn Lindström
2020-05-03T00:00:00+02:00
2020-05-03T00:00:00+02:00
<p>This blog is created using the
<a href="https://www.getzola.org/" >Zola static site engine</a>
. I use a combination of
<a href="https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/" >GitLab CI</a>
and <code>cron</code> to automatically upload it to my web server whenever I merge a change to the
<a href="https://git-scm.com/" >Git</a>
<code>master</code> branch of the home page.</p>
<p>The <code>elektrubadur.se</code> source code is kept <em>here in GitLab</em> <em>[Update 2024-11-05:
<a href="https://github.com/bkhl/elektrubadur.se/" >elektrubadur.se source code since moved to GitHub</a>
]</em>. While writing a post I just run <code>zola serve</code> on my computer and can look at a dynamically updated website on a local web server.</p>
<p>This blog is created using the
<a href="https://www.getzola.org/" >Zola static site engine</a>
. I use a combination of
<a href="https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/" >GitLab CI</a>
and <code>cron</code> to automatically upload it to my web server whenever I merge a change to the
<a href="https://git-scm.com/" >Git</a>
<code>master</code> branch of the home page.</p>
<p>The <code>elektrubadur.se</code> source code is kept <em>here in GitLab</em> <em>[Update 2024-11-05:
<a href="https://github.com/bkhl/elektrubadur.se/" >elektrubadur.se source code since moved to GitHub</a>
]</em>. While writing a post I just run <code>zola serve</code> on my computer and can look at a dynamically updated website on a local web server.</p>
<p>Once ready, I commit on a branch and push it to GitLab, and then make a merge request. This might seem a bit silly for a one-man project, but this way I can disable pushes to the <code>master</code> branch entirely, which can help prevent an accident.</p>
<p>The repository includes the separate repository
<a href="https://gitlab.com/bkhl/web-build" >web-build</a>
as a submodule. It contains some scripts used to build and publish the web site.</p>
<p>My website is hosted at
<a href="https://hcoop.net/" >HCoop</a>
, a hosting cooperative. Because it uses AFS, passwordless login requires the use of Kerberos, so I can’t just push the page using a deploy key.</p>
<p>So, rather than pushing the website there, I’m pulling. I’ve put the script <code>fetch_website.py</code> from
<a href="https://gitlab.com/bkhl/web-build" >web-build</a>
on the target host, and makes it run it as a cron job:</p>
<pre tabindex="0"><code class="language-crontab" data-lang="crontab">*/5 * * * * k5start -qtUf "/etc/keytabs/user.daemon/$USER" -- "$HOME/scripts/fetch_website.py" "https://gitlab.com/bkhl/elektrubadur.se/-/jobs/artifacts/master/download?job=build" "$HOME/www/elektrubadur.se"
</code></pre><p>The <code>k5start</code> thing is another thing needed because of the use of AFS and Kerberos. The point here is that you give the script a URL to a GitLab artifact, and a target directory, and it will deploy it if there’s been any change.</p>
<p>
<a href="https://gitlab.com/bkhl/web-build/-/blob/f76df73fd337b43452e7cb934347357b5c9aafa7/fetch_website.py" >The entire script</a>
is a bit long to post here, but it basically checks if there is a new artifact in GitLab for the website, built from the <code>master</code> branch, and if there is downloads and deploys it. It saves the ETag in a file, so that it can compare to that and skip downloading unless there has been a change.</p>
<p>Credits for tools used making this page, inspirations for the design &c. are also on
<a href="/about_page/" >About This Page</a>
.</p>