The build command

The build command is used to generate a static web site from imported content and media attachments. It's used like so:

cd my-mastodon-site
fossilzer build
pagefind --keep-index-url --site build

Note: Until or unless Pagefind can be integrated into Fossilzer, it needs to be run as a separate command to provide search indexes and code modules for the site.

After using the build command, you should end up with a build directory with a structure somewhat like this:

my-mastodon-site/
├── build
│   ├── 2020
│   ├── 2021
│   ├── 2022
│   ├── 2023
│   ├── index.css
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── media
│   ├── pagefind
│   └── vendor
  • Activities are organized into a {year}/{month}/{day}.html file structure

  • An index.html page is generated for the site overall, linking to the pages for each day

  • The media directory is copied directly from data/media

  • The pagefind directory is generated by Pagefind for client-side search

  • Other files and directories like index.js, index.css, vendor are static assets copied into the build

You can customize both the templates and the static web assets used in this build. Check out the init --customize option for more information.

Options

--theme

Use the theme named <THEME> for rendering the site. This will look for a directory named themes/<THEME> in the data directory.

--clean

Delete build directory before proceeding

--skip-index

Skip building index page in HTML

--skip-index-json

Skip building index page in JSON

--skip-activities

Skip building pages for activities

--skip-assets

Skip copying over web assets