Hugo is a command-line-based static site generator, so it is essential to understand its basic commands.

Common Commands

You can use the hugo help command to access Hugo’s command-line documentation. Each command is described in more detail below. Before getting started, you need to install Hugo locally and add it to your environment variables.

hugo new site

Creates a new website skeleton. For example, hugo new site mysite creates a mysite folder in the current directory and populates it with the required directories and files. You can also specify a path where the new website should be created. The structure of the mysite folder is shown below:

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├─archetypes
├─content
├─data
├─layouts
├─resources
│  └─_gen
│      ├─assets
│      └─images
├─static
└─themes
    └─study-theme
        ├─archetypes
        ├─layouts
        │  ├─partials
        │  └─_default
        └─static
            ├─css
            └─js

The content folder contains the source material used to generate the website, while the themes folder contains the website’s UI. Hugo uses these resources to generate the static website.

hugo new

Adds content to the website. For example, hugo new about.md creates an about.md file in the content directory, from which the corresponding static page can be generated. You can add a path before about.md, but the path is always relative to the content directory. In other words, all newly added files are stored under the content directory.

hugo new theme

Adds a UI to the website, namely template or theme files. For example, hugo new theme mytheme creates a mytheme directory under the themes directory and adds a basic file structure to it by default. All template and theme files are stored in the themes directory.

hugo

hugo is itself a command used to generate the static website. By default, the generated static files are saved in the public directory. You can also specify a different path.

hugo server

Hugo includes a built-in web server. After running hugo server, you can access the static website at http://localhost:1313. There is no need to set up a server environment yourself, which is very convenient.

Below are commonly used parameters for hugo server. Note that they are case-sensitive:

• -p port: Changes the default port.
• -D: When previewing the website using the server, draft files whose draft property is set to true are not included in the preview. Add -D to preview draft files.