I started creating a Jekyll website a couple of weeks ago while trying to get ahead of things. I started the process by installing Ruby, Ruby Gems and Jekyll, then created the new file structure with the following commands:
$sudo apt-get install ruby
$sudo gem install jekyll
$jekyll new jekyllblog
I should say that I could have done that. What I actually did was install Ruby, Ruby gems (as well as RDiscount and Pygments) and Jekyll as per the recommendation of Andrew Musnell, a Jekyll apologist. I'll say that the route we took in class was a bit more concise and direct. I also took his recommendations and created the file structure, which Jekyll would have done for me had I used the simple jekyll new command. Nevertheless, the file structure is built. I created a config file by typing nano _config.yml in the command line and populated the file with the front matter that Jekyll relies on to create a page. I did this with the assistance of JekyllRB, and later Elliott Hauser. Between the two, I have thought a lot about how the front matter and other aspects of Jekyll work. It's been very helpful.
I needed files to occupy the directories I had made earlier (inluding _layouts, _posts, _site and _includes). So I changed directories and copied and pasted some html from Musnell to form a default file that Jekyll would refer to when I told it to do so in the front matter. Again, I recommend going with the steps we took in class. I took his advice to experiment with Twitter Bootstrap. I have, but I don't think it was the best use of my time. It has at least allowed me to know there are more resources out there. Note: I did download some of their CSS files and have put them to use on my site.
Cut to the present. Had I simply empolyed the jekyll new jekyllblog command, I would have been ready right out the gate to customize my _config.yml file and push it all to github using my account. This is what I did, but in a more roundabout way. Same as before, when I was ready to add the files I did the following:
git status
git add (all my files)
git commit -M"(my message)"
git push origin gh-pages
(enter username)
(enter password)
Magically, I could go to my site and see what I had done, before doing a single thing on the github site itself.