Local Development Guide

Local Development Guide

Due to eventmachine compilation issues on macOS with newer Ruby versions, local development requires an alternative approach.

The site is configured with GitHub Actions for automatic deployment:

  1. Commit and push your changes: 
    git add .
git commit -m "Update content"
git push origin main
  2. GitHub Actions will automatically:
    • Build the Jekyll site
    • Deploy to GitHub Pages
    • Available at: https://shanmuga-sundaram-n.github.io
  3. Check build status:
    • Go to your repository on GitHub
    • Click “Actions” tab
    • View the workflow run

Option 2: Use Docker (Alternative for Local Preview)

If you need to preview locally, use Docker:

# Pull Jekyll Docker image
docker pull jekyll/jekyll:latest

# Serve the site
docker run --rm -it \
  --volume="$PWD:/srv/jekyll" \
  --publish 4000:4000 \
  jekyll/jekyll \
  jekyll serve

Then visit: http://localhost:4000

Option 3: Simple Python Server (Static Preview Only)

For quick static preview without Jekyll processing:

# Build once (if you can get bundle install to work)
bundle exec jekyll build

# Or use the Python server script
python3 serve.py

Why Local Jekyll Doesn’t Work

The eventmachine gem (required for Jekyll’s live reload) fails to compile on:

  • macOS with Apple Silicon
  • Ruby 3.x versions
  • Newer Xcode/Command Line Tools

This is a known issue with the gem, not with your setup.

  1. Edit files locally in your editor
  2. Commit and push to GitHub
  3. GitHub Actions builds and deploys automatically
  4. View live site at your GitHub Pages URL

This is actually the standard workflow for GitHub Pages sites!