NIKOLA(1)

NAME
Nikola - A Static Site and Blog Generator

SYNOPSIS

Create an empty site (with a setup wizard): nikola init mysite

(You can create a site with demo files in it with nikola init --demo mysite)

Create a post (inside the mysite directory): nikola new_post

Build the site: nikola build

Start the test server and open a browser: nikola serve -b

DESCRIPTION

Nikola is a static website and blog generator. The very short explanation is that it takes some texts you wrote, and uses them to create a folder full of HTML files. If you upload that folder to a server, you will have a rather full-featured website, done with little effort.

Its original goal is to create blogs, but it supports most kind of sites, and can be used as a CMS, as long as what you present to the user is your own content instead of something the user generates.

Nikola can do:

•   A blog

•   Your company's site

•   Your personal site

•   A software project's site

•   A book's site

    Since Nikola-based sites don't run any code on the server, there is no way to process user input in forms.

    Nikola can't do:

•   Twitter

•   Facebook

•   An Issue tracker

•   Anything with forms, really (except for comments!)

    Keep in mind that "static" doesn't mean boring. You can have animations, slides or whatever fancy CSS/HTML5 thingie you like. It only means all that HTML is generated already before being uploaded. On the other hand, Nikola sites will tend to be content-heavy. What Nikola is good at is at putting what you write out there.

COMMANDS

The most basic commands needed to get by are:

nikola help
    get a list of commands, or help for a command

nikola version [--check]
    print version number

nikola init [-d|--demo] [-q|--quiet] folder
    initialize new site

nikola build
    build a site

nikola new_post
    create a new post

nikola new_page
    create a new page

nikola status [--list-drafts] [--list-modified] [--list-scheduled]
    show site and deployment status

nikola check [-v] (-l [--find-sources] [-r] | -f [--clean-files])
    check for dangling links or unknown files

nikola deploy [[preset [preset...]]
    deploy the site using the DEPLOY_COMMANDS setting

nikola github_deploy [-m COMMIT_MESSAGE]`
    deploy the site to GitHub Pages

nikola serve [-p PORT] [-a ADDRESS] [-d|--detach] [-b|--browser] [-6|--ipv6]
    start development web server

nikola auto [-p PORT] [-a ADDRESS] [-b|--browser] [-6|--ipv6]
    start development web server with automated rebuilds and reloads

nikola plugin [options]
    manage plugins from the Plugins Index (https://plugins.getnikola.com/)

nikola theme [options]
    manage themes from the Themes Index (https://themes.getnikola.com/)

    Use nikola help to get a list of all commands.

BUGS

Issue Tracker: https://github.com/getnikola/nikola/issues

SEE ALSO

•   The Nikola Website: https://getnikola.com/

•   Handbook: https://getnikola.com/handbook.html

•   Support: https://getnikola.com/contact.html