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Contribute to Linode

This guide describes how to write and submit a guide for the Linode docs. If you would like to write on a topic, please visit our Contribute page to choose a topic and submit a writing sample. When you have received an email notifying you that your topic has been accepted, you are ready to follow the steps in this guide.

Fixing an issue

If you want to start contributing by helping us correct existing issues, go to our GitHub issues page and look for issues with the label help wanted. Read through the comments and make sure there is not an open pull request against the issue, and that nobody has left a comment stating that they are working on the issue (3 days without activity is a good rule of thumb). Leave a comment stating that you would like to work on the issue.

Install prerequisites

Install Go

Some parts of the Linode documentation environment will require the GO programming language. This guide was created using GO 1.15.3, and the install steps included will be for this specific version:

Install Go on macOS and Windows

The GO package can be found on the GO downloads page. On macOS, download the go1.15.3.darwin-amd64.pkg installer. On Windows, download the go1.15.3.windows-amd64.msi installer. Once the installer is downloaded, open it.

The installer prompts you to make changes to your system. Once the installation is complete, enter the following command in your terminal to verify the version of GO that you're currently running:

go version

Install Go on Linux

Download the Linux binary for GO and extract it into the /usr/local folder:

wget https://golang.org/dl/go1.15.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.15.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Add /usr/local/go/bin to the PATH variable:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin

You can ensure that go has been installed by checking the version currently in use:

go version

Install Node and NPM

To support the JavaScript runtime environment used by the Linode documentation site, Node v14.18.1 must be installed on your system.

Install Node on macOS and Linux

In order to install Node on Linux and macOS, we recommend using the Node Version Manager (NVM) to switch between other versions of Node you may be using now or may use in the future.

NVM can be installed by entering the following command, which will download and run an install script:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.36.0/install.sh | bash

You may need to exit and create a new command line session before NVM will work:

exit

Next, use NVM to both install NVM and set it as the version of Node that you're actively using:

nvm install 14.18.1
nvm use 14.18.1

Install Node on Windows

To Install Node 14.18.1 on Windows, navigate to the downloads page for this release and install the appropriate .msi installer file for your type of processor (32-bit or 64-bit). Open the file and follow the prompts to complete the installation process. To confirm that Node and NPM has been installed successfully, open up your command prompt and enter the following command to check your version:

node -v
npm -v

Install Hugo

The Linode documentation library is built using Hugo, an open-source static site generator. In order to preview your guide before submission, you need to install Hugo on your local computer. This site currently uses Hugo v0.83.1. To remain consistent in the testing and development process, it's recommended to install this version instead of using a newer version.

Note: If you observe any issues on a newer version, please file an issue in the docs GitHub repository.

macOS and Linux

To install Hugo, download the appropriate binary for your system, extract it, and move it to a directory within your PATH.

  1. Download the file below that corresponds with the OS and platform on your local system. If you don't see your system on this list, you can find additional files on the Hugo v0.83.1 GitHub release page under Assets.

    You can download this file through a terminal using the curl command, replacing [url] with the URL for your platform:

    curl -OL [url]

  2. Extract the archive file using the tar command, replacing [file] with the correct filename.

    tar -xvzf [file]

    Once extracted, there should be a hugo file in the same directory. This is used to run hugo.

  3. Move the hugo file to a location within your system's PATH variable. For most systems, the /usr/local/bin path can be used.

    mv hugo /usr/local/bin

    You may need to use sudo to run this command successfully:

    sudo mv hugo /usr/local/bin

    If you do not have permission to move the file to one of the system folders, you can instead add it to a location in your home directory and then set that location in your PATH:

    mkdir ~/bin
mv hugo ~/bin
export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH

    Make sure to also add the final export PATH line in the above snippet to your terminal's configuration file, like ~/.zshrc on macOS.

  4. Test hugo by running hugo version. This should output a long string indicating that version 0.83.1 is being used. If not, review the prior steps and the Install Hugo from Tarball section of the Hugo documentation.

Windows

While macOS and Linux are preferred by most of the core Linode Docs team, it's also possible to use Hugo on Windows.

  1. Download the hugo_0.83.1_Windows-64bit.zip file. Additional files for other operating sytems can be found on the Hugo v0.83.1 GitHub release page under Assets.

  2. Extract the file to the directory you'd like to install Hugo under, such as C:\Hugo\bin.

  3. Add the directory to your PATH. In powershell, this can be accomplished with the following command:

    set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Hugo\bin

Fork and Clone the Linode Library

All of our guides are stored in the github.com/linode/docs repository. You will need to clone this repository to your local computer.

For more information about using Git, refer to the official Git documentation. If you're a Git beginner, both GitHub and GitLab offer excellent primers to get you started.

  1. On Github, navigate to the linode/docs repository. Click fork on the top right corner.

  2. Clone your fork of the repository. Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your Github username. This example creates a linode-docs directory:

    git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/docs linode-docs

    This may take a few minutes to copy all of the files and images to your machine.

  3. Navigate to the project directory:

    cd linode-docs

  4. After you first clone the repository, you should be on the develop branch by default:

    git status

    On branch develop
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/develop'.

nothing to commit, working directory clean

  5. Add the linode/docs repository that you forked from as the upstream Git remote for your local repository:

    git remote add upstream https://github.com/linode/docs.git

  6. Install the Node dependencies for the repository:

    npm install

Create a New Guide

This section takes you through the process of creating a new guide, using the topic of installing nginx on Debian as an example. You will use a Hugo archetype to simplify the process.

  1. Checkout the develop branch:

    git checkout develop

  2. Update the develop branch with the latest changes from the upstream repository:

    git pull upstream develop

  3. Create a new branch for your guide:

    git checkout -b nginx-on-debian

  4. From the root of the Docs repository, run the following example command:

    hugo new guides/web-servers/nginx/how-to-install-nginx-on-debian/index.md --kind content

    • By running this command, you're specifying that the guide should be listed under the guides/web-servers/nginx/ section.

    • The guide itself will later be published under the /docs/guides/how-to-install-nginx-on-debian/ URL path. Note that the URL for the guide will not include the web-servers/nginx/ section information. This is intentional, as the docs website publishes guides under a flattened URL structure.

    • The index.md file will contain the Markdown content for your guide.

    • The --kind content option specifies that the content archetype will be used to populate the new Markdown file with sample content. The archetypes available can be found under the archetypes/ directory in the repository.

  5. The command will output the location of your new guide on your filesystem:

    /Users/your-computer-user/linode-docs/docs/guides/web-servers/nginx/how-to-install-nginx-on-debian/index.md created

    Note that the guide is created under a docs/ subdirectory that's within the docs repository (e.g. /Users/your-computer-user/linode-docs/docs/), which can be a little confusing initially. The root of the docs repository (e.g. /Users/your-computer-user/linode-docs/) contains other non-content files that are needed for publishing the site: Hugo's configuration file, theme information, unit testing information, etc.

  6. Start the local Hugo web server:

    hugo server

    This starts a local server you can use to view the Linode library in your browser on http://localhost:1313/docs/.

  7. In a web browser, navigate to the location of your new guide. The example nginx guide will be located at http://localhost:1313/docs/guides/how-to-install-nginx-on-debian/.

    Note that you will not be able to navigate to the new guide within the local website's Explore Docs menu, or through the search feature. This is because these features rely on a central search index, and this index is not updated until the production docs website is published.

Write and Submit

Your local Hugo development server has hot-reloading enabled, so you will be able to view changes to your guide as you save them. Please see our Linode Writer's Formatting guide for more information.

Any images that you include in the guide should be added inside the same directory as the new index.md file. Images should be linked to using their filename as the relative URL: ![Image Title](image.png).

  1. Commit your changes to your local branch:

    git add docs/guides/web-servers/nginx/how-to-install-nginx-on-debian/
git commit -m "Initial draft of guide"

  2. Push the local branch to your fork:

    git push --set-upstream origin nginx-on-debian

  3. Go to https://github.com/linode/docs and open a pull request.

Your guide is now submitted. Thank you for contributing to Linode! A member of the content team will review your guide and contact you if any changes are required.

Run Tests

Tests are automatically run by Travis CI for every pull request that is submitted. To view the results of these tests, navigate to the end of the pull request's conversation, and then click on the details link for the Travis CI - Pull Request check. You may need to click the Show all checks link to see this feature. After clicking the details link, an overview of the Travis CI tests appears.

In the Travis CI overview, under the Jobs and Stages header, three tests are present:

  • Vale: An automatic spell-checking service

  • Blueberry: A custom script which ensures that a guide's frontmatter section follows certain guidelines

  • Docs404: A custom script that scrapes the site and reports any internal 404 links. This script does not currently check for external 404 links.

To review the output of a given test, click on the link for the corresponding Travis CI job.