How to Install and Set Up Jekyll on Mac

This blog is also built on Jekyll and published through GitHub posts.
My development environment recently changed from Windows to Mac, so I had to set up a new environment on my MacBook:
install Homebrew -> install Ruby -> install rbenv for Ruby version management -> install bundler and Jekyll.

How to set up Jekyll

Open Terminal.

1. Install Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Update brew:

brew update

2. Install Ruby and rbenv

First, install rbenv using brew.
rbenv is a package that lets you manage multiple Ruby versions.

brew install rbenv ruby-build

• How to check installed Ruby versions available in rbenv:

rbenv versions

You can check the currently selected version.

• How to check which Ruby versions can be installed:

rbenv install -l

As of 2023-10-30, 3.2.2 is the latest version.

3. Install the latest Ruby version in rbenv and set it as global

• Install the version you want:

rbenv install 3.2.2

• Set your desired version globally:

rbenv global 3.2.2

But if you try to install bundler or Jekyll gems right away, you may get this error:

Gem::FilePermissionError: You don't have write permissions for the /usr/local/bin directory.

ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
    You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.3.0 directory.

4. Fixing Gem::FilePermissionError

• You need to apply rbenv settings in .zshrc. Open the vim editor and modify .zshrc.

vim ~/.zshrc

• You must enter INSERT mode to edit the file.

From that screen, press i to enter INSERT mode.

• INSERT mode

• Now you can type

• Press ESC to leave INSERT mode and return to NORMAL mode.

• Press : to run commands like quit/save.

:q    // quit
:w    // save
:wq   // save and quit
:q!   // quit without saving
:wq!  // force save and quit

• Copy the content below and add it to .zshrc using the same process:

[[ -d ~/.rbenv  ]] && \
export PATH=${HOME}/.rbenv/bin:${PATH} && \
eval "$(rbenv init -)"

5. Install bundler

gem install bundler

6. Move to your blog folder and install bundler dependencies

bundler install

After that, instead of building every time through GitHub Pages, you can run a local Jekyll server to preview your site.

• Run Jekyll server:

bundle exec jekyll s
bundle exec jekyll serve

Both work.

Local host URL:

http://127.0.0.1:4000/