Bootstrapping a blog with lisp

Tagged as lisp, web

Written on 2019-05-03 19:00:00

I recently participated in the 2019 Lisp Game Jam. I wanted to share some of the things I learned in the process. So I decided to start a lisp+gamedev blog.

But before I can post anything I need to actually set up a blog. And what better way to blog about lisp than with lisp itself?

Update: 7/8/2019: Added instructions for using nginx for ssl termination.

Goals

  1. Use common-lisp (sbcl) to host the blog
  2. Write posts in a markdown format (ideally org-mode)
  3. Deploy the blog with git (push origin/master to automatically refresh the blog)

The result? I was able to get 99% of what I wanted.

Here's what I ended up using:

So why am I only 99% happy? Well, coleslaw doesn't support org-mode source files for blogging (only md and html). However, there is an api which seems capable of supporting additional formats. If I'm feeling ambitious I could try writing an org-mode plugin. For now, markdown is good enough for me.

Detailed Setup

If you're interested in my setup, here's what you can do:

Set up the server

  • Set up your domain+VPS. I used Namecheap and Linode. I can't say I recommend either over similar alternatives, but they suite my needs.

Install the webserver

Follow these instructions on the server (or a dev machine):

  • Set up roswell with sbcl
  • Clone my template from gitlab
  • Copy settings.lisp.example to settings.lisp and change the appropriate settings.
  • Modify .coleslawrc with your desired settings.
  • If you want to run the server as a non-root user (recommended for security reasons), give sbcl permission to bind ports 80 and 443
# run as root
setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE=+eip (probably /home/<lispserver-user>/.roswell/impls/x86-64/linux/sbcl-bin/1.5.1/bin/sbcl)
  • Open up ports 80 and 443 in the firewall. Note that you may have to change zone=FedoraServer
# run as root
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=FedoraServer --add-port=80/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=FedoraServer --add-port=443/tcp
firewall-cmd --reload
  • Should now be able to run server.ros and access your domain from a web browser.
  • (optional but recommended) Set up ssl. Let's encrypt is free and has great documentation. Be sure to set *enable-ssl* in settings.lisp.

Set up the proxy

  • Copy site config (see nginx-site in git repo) to /etc/nginx/sites-available/
  • symlink to site from /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
  • Ensure /etc/nginx/nginx.conf reads from sites-enabled. sh http { .... include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; .... }

Set up automatic git deployment on the server

git remote add origin your-server:/path/to/your/blog.git
  • Copy example.post-receive to /path/to/your/blog.git/hooks/ and edit the file to finish the setup (instructions in the hook's comments)
  • Your blog should now automatically redeploy every time master is pushed.

Optional: Set up a systemd service for your server

If you're using systemd on your server, I've also included a sample lispserver.service file. Instructions to set it up in the file's comments.

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