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Getting Started with Ghost
Getting Started with Ghost

Getting Started with Ghost: Reach out to the world and publish great content with the power of Ghost

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Profile Icon Bracey Profile Icon Andrew J Boutte Profile Icon Balderston
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4 (5 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2014 152 pages 1st Edition
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₱579.99 ₱1101.99
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₱1377.99
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Bracey Profile Icon Andrew J Boutte Profile Icon Balderston
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Free Trial
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4 (5 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2014 152 pages 1st Edition
eBook
₱579.99 ₱1101.99
Paperback
₱1377.99
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Free Trial
eBook
₱579.99 ₱1101.99
Paperback
₱1377.99
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Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Getting Started with Ghost

Chapter 2. Manual Installation and Configuration of Ghost

In this chapter, we will discuss how to install Ghost manually on your computer or a VPS. Given installing on a VPS requires many of the same steps as a local installation, you'll also see what additional steps you need to take to install Ghost manually on a VPS, based on the two most popular operating systems VPS hosts tend to run: Ubuntu and CentOS.

If you are new to using the command line, you may want to look at one of the automated installs instead of installing manually, because it can get a little tricky. We are going to give you all the commands you will need, but it may get complicated for someone who has never used the tools before.

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • Manually installing Ghost
    • Using the command line and SSH
    • CentOS (local and VPS)
    • Ubuntu (local and VPS)
    • OSX (local)
    • Windows (local)
  • Additional configuration
    • Pointing a custom domain to your blog
    • Hosting multiple blogs on a single VPS
    • Keeping Ghost...

Manually installing Ghost on your local computer

In this section, we will detail how to install Ghost locally on your personal computer and on your web hosting company's server. We will be covering Ubuntu, CentOS, Mac OS X, and Windows. The steps to install Ghost are largely the same whether installing locally on your personal computer or on a remote server. However, there are some key differences that we will highlight.

Command-line interface and SSH access

In order to install Ghost manually, a command-line tool and, if you are using a VPS, an application for Secure Shell (SSH) access is needed. If you are using Mac OS X or Linux, you can use the Terminal application. On Mac OS X, it is located in your Applications | Utilities folder. For Windows, you need to download an application in order to use SSH; however, if you're installing locally, you can use the command prompt by navigating to Accessories | Command Prompt. For SSH access, we suggest using Putty (http://www.putty.org...

Additional configuration for VPS usage

There's a few additional configuration steps to consider when hosting your blog on a VPS.

Pointing a custom domain at Ghost (VPS)

Now that your have Ghost up and running, a common next step will be pointing a domain name at your blog. This section will cover the concepts of pointing your custom domain name at the server hosting Ghost. These steps will be specific for a domain purchased at Namecheap to a DigitalOcean droplet running Ghost. We have chosen to document NameCheap and DigitalOcean because of their popularity, but almost every domain name registrar has similar steps.

Tip

If you run into any problems, contact your domain name registrar, they make these changes for people all the time.

Perform the following steps to point your custom domain to Ghost:

  1. Buy a domain name at Namecheap.
  2. Now you need to configure your domain to point to DigitalOcean. To do that click on the My Account tab in Namecheap and then on Manage Domains.
  3. Next click on your...

Troubleshooting

Even with detailed installation instructions, problems may still arise while installing or starting Ghost. We will look at some of the common errors that occur.

listen EADDRINUSE IN USE

If you come across this error when trying to start Ghost, this means that the port on which you are trying to start Ghost is already in use. This error usually occurs when trying to start Ghost, but another website or application is already running on this port. Usually this happens when someone tries to start Ghost but it is already running. In this instance, you will either need to stop the application or start Ghost on a different port. If you choose to start Ghost on a different port, this change should be made in the config.js file.

listen EADDRNOTAVAIL

When starting Ghost, if you see this error, it means that something is wrong in the host: or port: section of your config.js file. Usually this is caused by a syntax error, or by entering an address or port that does not exist. Here is the...

Summary

Throughout this chapter, we have covered how to install Ghost on four of the main operating systems as well as some of the more common errors. We have also shown you how to keep Ghost running with forever process manager. If you followed the mentioned steps, your Ghost blog should now be up and running. Congratulations on successfully installing Ghost! The next chapter will cover the inner workings of Ghost and Handlebars.js, the template languages Ghost uses. This will give you a great baseline on how Ghost works and how to create themes for it.

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Description

If you are new to Ghost, this book is ideal for you. You might be completely new to content management systems or you might have experience with others such as WordPress. Some knowledge of web design basics such as HTML and CSS will be useful, but the book is designed so you can enter at the point relevant to you.

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Nov 26, 2014
Length: 152 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783985180
Languages :
Concepts :
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Product Details

Publication date : Nov 26, 2014
Length: 152 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783985180
Languages :
Concepts :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

7 Chapters
1. The First Steps with Ghost Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Manual Installation and Configuration of Ghost Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Preparing for Theme Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Beginning Ghost Theme Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Applying Design Choices and Visual Styling Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Markdown Syntax and Ghost Shortcut Keys Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4
(5 Ratings)
5 star 40%
4 star 60%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Ankit Modi Feb 05, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
A book that explains in detail what ghost blogging platform is all about and why its the future for bloggers and publishers. Must Read.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Harish C Feb 02, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Ghost is very new and this book covers all the information one needs to get started. I have been following the authors of this book on their personal sites and feel this book is a nice attempt to combine all their knowledge about Ghost in one place.If you are interested in learning about Ghost than this is the book you must read.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Christine Dec 30, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Great read for getting started with Ghost blogging or creating themes for Ghost. The book goes in depth on setting up a development environment for creating themes on all operating systems.The author does a good job of breaking down everything to help someone who is not a computer expert, but who is comfortable using a computer. The author does gloss over basics of getting Ghost hosted on other VPS hosting services beyond using Ghost(Pro). But again, this book is more setup for someone looking to start a blog or move from another blogging platform.Creating themes is the meat and potatoes of the book. It will go over the basics of two different design types (ie: one or two column layout) and make the reader think about how they would like their site to look. Code snippets are included to help the reader through it all.I recommend this book to anyone wanting to start with Ghost or developing themes for Ghost.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Anonymous Mar 03, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
This book feels incomplete. If you aren't accustomed to building your own themes from scratch or have completed websites on your own then this book will still work for you. It's a good book for intermediate to ADVANCED users. It leaves a lot of self-research to complete an elastic layout theme. The entire premise of the book is to use elastic layouts with stylus. In order to finish your website you will have to refer to documentation and lots of other tutorials.The best part is how they handle the source code. They way it's organized makes a lot of sense and is a good workflow to adapt.Kezz Bracey is one of my favorite devs. She has a great technical workflow and reading this book you too can have this workflow. Watch all her previous videos and tutorials too. If I did not do that there is no way I would have a fully polished and complete website.The one major fault in this book is not setting a font size on the root element. When you do this with 4-6 lines of media query code in your elements_default.styl applied to the html root element. Everything sizes very nicely.I appreciate their approach of leaving things open ended and allowing you to choose which style to create. This is good but they don't have enough "recipe's" in the book. You will find yourself scouring tutorial sites and documentation to complete a theme as you want.I don't know who the other two authors are but I think Kezz should of just released it herself. Lastly, the idea of choose or own theme path is great. It shouldn't be abandoned but improved upon. Maybe take the approach of a "Choose your adventure book" ;)
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Daniel G. Murray Jan 19, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
If you want to build you own themes or modify existing ones this book provides some great tips. The authors also explain some options for setting-up self hosted deployments of the Ghost platform.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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