Merge branch 'master' of github.com:carlesfe/bashblog

1 files changed, 60 insertions, 35 deletions

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 bashblog
 ========
 
-A Bash script that handles blog posting.
+A single Bash script to create blogs. 
 
-Some would say it's a CMS, but I don't like that word. It's just a script that lets you write a blog post with your favorite editor, puts all the posts together into an index, and creates an RSS file and a list of posts.
+I created it because I wanted a very, very simple way to post entries to a blog by using a public folder on my server, without any special requirements and dependencies. Works on GNU/Linux, OSX and BSD.
 
-I created it because I wanted a very, very simple way to post entries to a blog by using a public folder on my server, without any special requirements and dependencies.
+You can see it live here: [read the initial blog post](http://mmb.pcb.ub.es/~carlesfe/blog/creating-a-simple-blog-system-with-a-500-line-bash-script.html). My blog has been 100% generated using bashblog, no additional tweaking.
+
+
+Features
+--------
+
+- No installation required. Download `bb.sh` and start blogging.
+- Ultra simple usage: Just type a post with your favorite editor and the script does the rest. No templating.
+- All content is static. You only need shell access to a machine with a public web folder.
+  *Tip: advanced users could mount a remote public folder via `ftpfs` and run this script locally*
+- Allows drafts, includes a simple but clean stylesheet, generates the RSS file automatically.
+- Support for Markdown, Disqus comments, Twitter, Feedburner, Google Analytics.
+- GNU/Linux, BSD and OSX compatible out of the box (no need for GNU `coreutils` on a Mac)
+- Everything stored in a single 700-line bash script, how cool is that?! ;) 
 
-You can read [the initial blog post](http://mmb.pcb.ub.es/~carlesfe/blog/creating-a-simple-blog-system-with-a-500-line-bash-script.html) for more information and as a demo, as my site has been 100% generated using bashblog.
 
 Usage
 -----
 
-You only need SSH access to a server which allows its users to run shell scripts.
-
-Copy bb.sh into a public folder of yours and run it:
+Copy bb.sh into a public folder (for example, `$HOME/public_html/blog`) and run
 
     ./bb.sh
 
 This will show the available commands. If the file is not executable, you can either `chmod +x bb.sh`
 or run it with `bash bb.sh`
 
-**Before creating a blog post, edit `bb.sh` and modify the variables in the `global_variables()` function or create a `.config` file with your configutation values**
+**Before creating your first post, you may want to configure the blog settings (title, author, etc).
+Read the Configuration section below for more information**
 
-To create your first post, make sure `$EDITOR` is set, and then just do:
+To create your first post, just run:
 
     ./bb.sh post
 
-When you're done, access the public URL for that folder and you should see the index
-file and a new page for that post!
+When you're done, access the public URL for that folder  (e.g. `http://server.com/~username/blog`) 
+and you should see the index file and a new page for that post!
 
-Features
---------
 
-- Simple creation and edition of the posts with your favorite text editor
-- **NEW** Markdown support via a third-party library (e.g. 
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+Configuration is not required for a test drive, but if you plan on running your blog with bashblog, you will
+want to change the default titles, author names, etc, to match your own.
+
+There are two ways to configure the blog strings:
+
+- Edit `bb.sh` and modify the variables in the `global_variables()` function
+- Create a `.config` file with your configuration values (useful if you don't want to touch the script)
+
+The software will load the values in the script first, then overwrite them with the values in the `.config` file.
+This means that you don't need to define all variables in the config file, only those which you need to override
+from the defaults.
+
+The format of the `.config` file is just one `variablename="value"` per line, just like in the `global_variables()`
+function. **Please remember:** quote the values, do not declare a variable with the dollar sign, do not use 
+spaces around the equal sign.
+
+bashblog uses the `$EDITOR` environment value to open the text editor.
+
+
+Detailed features
+-----------------
+
+- A simple but nice and readable design, with nothing but the blog posts
+- **NEW on 2.0** Markdown support via a third-party library (e.g. 
   [Markdown.pl](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)). Use
   it via `./bb.sh post -m`. The third party library must support an invokation
   like `markdown_bin in.html > out.md` as the code calls it that way.
 - Post preview
-- Save posts as drafts and resume later
-- Transformation of every post to its own html page, using the title as the URL
-- Generation of an index.html file with the latest 10 posts
-- Generation of an RSS file! Blog's magic is the RSS file, isn't it...?
-- Generation of a page with all posts, to solve the index.html pagination problem
-- Rebuilding the index files without the need to create a new entry
-- By default, comments are delegated to Twitter. Can be configured for Disqus 
-- Google Analytics support
-- Feedburner support
-- Auto-generated CSS support
+- Save posts as drafts and resume editing later
+- HTML page for each post, using its title as the URL
+- Configurable number of posts on the front page
+- Automatic generation of an RSS file, feedburner support
+- Additional page containing an index of all posts
+- Rebuild all files while keeping the original data
+- Comments delegated to Twitter, with additional Disqus support
+- Google Analytics code support
+- Contains its own CSS so that everything is reasonably styled by default
 - Headers, footers, and in general everything that a well-structured html file needs
+- Support to add extra content on top of every page (e.g. banners, images, etc)
 - xhtml validation, CSS validation, RSS validation by the w3c
-- Backup of the site every time you post
-- Everything contained in a single 700-line bash script!
-- A simple but nice and readable design, with nothing but the blog posts
+- Automatic backup of the site every time you post (stored as `.backup.tar.gz`)
 
 Read the CHANGELOG section of the script header for more updates
-
-Future ideas
-------------
-
-This software is still maintained, however, it can be considered more or less finished. 
-It has been used by many people and no bugs have been found, but if you happen to find one,
-please report it.