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The Ghost Blog logo.

Introduction

I believe that upgrades should be simple, as such, I really hate dealing with zips and messing around in Ghost's core directory just to get the thing updated. Being the lazy developer that I am, I created this mini-project called Slight Ghost - a simple scaffolding for a Ghost blog, optimised for streamlined updates.

Install

Make sure git and node is installed before attempting to install slight-ghost

Bash 
# Ubuntu
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git node

Installing is as simple as a git clone. First clone the scaffolding.

Bash 
cd /var/www/ 
git clone https://github.com/Silvenga/Slight-Ghost.git ghost
cd ghost

Clone the default theme.

Bash 
git submodule update --init --recursive

Install Ghost and its dependencies.

Bash 
npm install

Copy the sample configuration file.

Bash 
cp config.sample.js config.js

And edit config.js for your own needs.

Bash 
nano config.js

Note: Make sure to include the paths.contentPath directive.

Done! Checkout the Upgrade section for information on how to upgrade.

Run

Run slight-ghost just like the normal installation of Ghost. I recommend using Upstart to keep Ghost running (https://silvenga.com/power-ghost-with-upstart/).

Bash 
node index.js

Notes:
index.js will automatically set Ghost into production mode. An export NODE_ENV=production is not needed. Make sure to change the permissions of the content directory!

Upgrade

Update the base scaffolding and the default theme using git.

Bash 
git pull --recurse-submodules

Updated and install any new dependencies using npm.

Bash 
npm install

Done! Ghost has been updated to the latest stable revision - no need to deal with those pesky zips.

Advance

Update the content directory. This is normally not required.

Switch the repository to a scratch branch.

Bash 
git checkout ghost

Get the latest stable version of Ghost to base the scaffolding off of.

Bash 
git pull https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost.git stable

Switch back to our original branch.

Bash 
git checkout master

Merge the content directory to the scaffolding.

Bash 
git checkout ghost -- content

Done! The content directory should now be updated to the latest version of Ghost.

License

This project is under the MIT license, fork away!