Moving Your Hugo Site to Another Device#

What you need#

Everything is already in your GitHub repo. You don’t need to copy files manually — just clone.

On the new device#

1. Install Hugo Extended v0.164.0 (same version)#

# Debian/Ubuntu
wget https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/download/v0.164.0/hugo_extended_0.164.0_linux-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i hugo_extended_0.164.0_linux-amd64.deb

# macOS
brew install hugo

# Windows: download from https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases/tag/v0.164.0

# Verify
hugo version
# Should show: hugo v0.164.0+extended linux/amd64

Important: Always match the version. Different Hugo versions can render differently.

2. Clone your repo (includes everything)#

git clone --recursive git@github.com:yourusername/hugs.git
cd hugs

The --recursive flag pulls the Hugo Book theme submodule too.

If you forgot --recursive:

git submodule update --init --recursive

3. Preview locally#

hugo server -D --bind 0.0.0.0 --port 1313

That’s it — you’re working on the site.

What’s in the repo (everything needed)#

What’s NOT in the repo (generated/server-specific)#

Workflow: Edit on laptop, deploy to server#

Laptop (write notes) ──git push──▶ GitHub ──webhook──▶ Server (builds & serves)

1. Clone repo on laptop
2. Write/edit notes
3. git push → server auto-deploys

You only need Hugo locally for previewing before pushing.

If moving to a NEW server (replacing the current one)#

1. Install Hugo Extended v0.164.0, Caddy, Git, webhook
2. Clone the repo to /home/debian/hugs
3. Set up permissions (group, setgid, chmod 711)
4. Configure Caddyfile
5. Configure webhook (generate new secret or reuse)
6. Update GitHub webhook URL to new server’s domain/IP
7. Build: hugo --minify --gc && ~/hugs/rebuild.sh

Pin Hugo version in your repo#

cd /home/debian/hugs
echo "0.164.0" > .hugo-version
git add .hugo-version
git commit -m "Pin Hugo version to 0.164.0"
git push

On any new device, check before installing:

cat .hugo-version
# Install that exact version

For Arch Linux#

If you are on Arch install hugo from its pacman

# From official repos (always extended version)
sudo pacman -S hugo

# Verify version
hugo version

Quick summary#