Install Hugo

Hugo is written in Go with support for multiple platforms. The latest release can be found at Hugo Releases.

Hugo currently provides pre-built binaries for the following:

• macOS (Darwin) for x64, i386, and ARM architectures
• Windows
• Linux
• FreeBSD

Hugo may also be compiled from source wherever the Go compiler tool chain can run; e.g., on other operating systems such as DragonFly BSD, OpenBSD, Plan 9, Solaris, and others. See https://golang.org/doc/install/source for the full set of supported combinations of target operating systems and compilation architectures.

Quick Install

Binary (Cross-platform)

Download the appropriate version for your platform from Hugo Releases. Once downloaded, the binary can be run from anywhere. You don’t need to install it into a global location. This works well for shared hosts and other systems where you don’t have a privileged account.

Ideally, you should install it somewhere in your PATH for easy use. /usr/local/bin is the most probable location.

Homebrew (macOS)

If you are on macOS and using Homebrew, you can install Hugo with the following one-liner:

brew install hugo

For more detailed explanations, read the installation guides that follow for installing on macOS and Windows.

Chocolatey (Windows)

If you are on a Windows machine and use Chocolatey for package management, you can install Hugo with the following one-liner:

choco install hugo -confirm

Source

Prerequisite Tools

• Git
• Go 1.5+
• govendor

Vendored Dependencies

Hugo uses govendor to vendor dependencies, but we don’t commit the vendored packages themselves to the Hugo git repository. Therefore, a simple go get is not supported because the command is not vendor aware. You must use govendor to fetch Hugo’s dependencies.

Fetch from GitHub

go get github.com/kardianos/govendor
govendor get github.com/gohugoio/hugo
go install github.com/gohugoio/hugo

govendor get will fetch Hugo and all its dependent libraries to $GOPATH/src/github.com/gohugoio/hugo, and go install compiles everything into a final hugo (or hugo.exe) executable inside $GOPATH/bin/.

macOS

Assumptions

1. You know how to open the macOS terminal.
2. You’re running a modern 64-bit Mac.
3. You will use ~/Sites as the starting point for your site. (~/Sites is used for example purposes. If you are familiar enough with the command line and file system, you should have no issues following along with the instructions.)

Pick Your Method

There are three ways to install Hugo on your Mac

1. The Homebrew brew utility
2. Distribution (i.e., tarball)
3. Building from Source

There is no “best” way to install Hugo on your Mac. You should use the method that works best for your use case.

Pros and Cons

There are pros and cons to each of the aforementioned methods:

1. Homebrew. Homebrew is the simplest method and will require the least amount of work to maintain. The drawbacks aren’t severe. The default package will be for the most recent release, so it will not have bug fixes until the next release (i.e., unless you install it with the --HEAD option). Hugo brew releases may lag a few days behind because it has to be coordinated with another team. Nevertheless, brew is the recommended installation method if you want to work from a stable, widely used source. Brew works well and is easy to update.

2. Tarball. Downloading and installing from the tarball is also easy, although it requires a few more command line skills than does Homebrew. Updates are easy as well: you just repeat the process with the new binary. This gives you the flexibility to have multiple versions on your computer. If you don’t want to use brew, then the tarball/binary is a good choice.

3. Building from Source. Building from source is the most work. The advantage of building from source is that you don’t have to wait for a release to add features or bug fixes. The disadvantage is that you need to spend more time managing the setup, which is manageable but requires more time than the preceding two options.

Install Hugo with Brew

Step 1: Install brew if you haven’t already

Go to the brew website, https://brew.sh/, and follow the directions there. The most important step is the installation from the command line:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Step 2: Run the brew Command to Install hugo

Installing Hugo using brew is as easy as the following:

brew install hugo

If Homebrew is working properly, you should see something similar to the following:

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/hugo-0.21.sierra.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################### 100.0%
==> Pouring hugo-0.21.sierra.bottle.tar.gz
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/hugo/0.21: 32 files, 17.4MB

brew should have updated your path to include Hugo. You can confirm by opening a new terminal window and running a few commands:

$ # show the location of the hugo executable
which hugo
/usr/local/bin/hugo

# show the installed version
ls -l $( which hugo )
lrwxr-xr-x  1 mdhender admin  30 Mar 28 22:19 /usr/local/bin/hugo -> ../Cellar/hugo/0.13_1/bin/hugo

# verify that hugo runs correctly
hugo version
Hugo Static Site Generator v0.13 BuildDate: 2015-03-09T21:34:47-05:00

Install Hugo from Tarball

Step 1: Decide on the location

When installing from the tarball, you have to decide if you’re going to install the binary in /usr/local/bin or in your home directory. There are three camps on this:

1. Install it in /usr/local/bin so that all the users on your system have access to it. This is a good idea because it’s a fairly standard place for executables. The downside is that you may need elevated privileges to put software into that location. Also, if there are multiple users on your system, they will all run the same version. Sometimes this can be an issue if you want to try out a new release.

2. Install it in ~/bin so that only you can execute it. This is a good idea because it’s easy to do, easy to maintain, and doesn’t require elevated privileges. The downside is that only you can run Hugo. If there are other users on your site, they have to maintain their own copies. That can lead to people running different versions. Of course, this does make it easier for you to experiment with different releases.

3. Install it in your Sites directory. This is not a bad idea if you have only one site that you’re building. It keeps every thing in a single place. If you want to try out new releases, you can make a copy of the entire site and update the Hugo executable.

All three locations will work for you. In the interest of brevity, this guide focuses on option #2.

Step 2: Download the Tarball

1. Open https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases in your browser.

2. Find the current release by scrolling down and looking for the green tag that reads “Latest Release.”

3. Download the current tarball for the Mac. The name will be something like hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit.tgz, where X.YY is the release number.

4. By default, the tarball will be saved to your ~/Downloads directory. If you choose to use a different location, you’ll need to change that in the following steps.

Step 3: Confirm your download

Verify that the tarball wasn’t corrupted during the download:

tar tvf ~/Downloads/hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit.tgz
-rwxrwxrwx  0 0      0           0 Feb 22 04:02 hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit/hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit.tgz
-rwxrwxrwx  0 0      0           0 Feb 22 03:24 hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit/README.md
-rwxrwxrwx  0 0      0           0 Jan 30 18:48 hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit/LICENSE.md

The .md files are documentation for Hugo. The other file is the executable.

Step 4: Install Into Your bin Directory

# create the directory if needed
mkdir -p ~/bin

# make it the working directory
cd ~/bin

# extract the tarball
tar -xvzf ~/Downloads/hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit.tgz
Archive:  hugo_X.Y_osx-64bit.tgz
  x ./
  x ./hugo
  x ./LICENSE.md
  x ./README.md

# verify that it runs
./hugo version
Hugo Static Site Generator v0.13 BuildDate: 2015-02-22T04:02:30-06:00

You may need to add your bin directory to your PATH variable. The which command will check for us. If it can find hugo, it will print the full path to it. Otherwise, it will not print anything.

# check if hugo is in the path
which hugo
/Users/USERNAME/bin/hugo

If hugo is not in your PATH, add it by updating your ~/.bash_profile file. First, start up an editor:

nano ~/.bash_profile

Add a line to update your PATH variable:

export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

Then save the file by pressing Control-X, then Y to save the file and return to the prompt.

Close the terminal and open a new terminal to pick up the changes to your profile. Verify your success by running the which hugo command again.

You’ve successfully installed Hugo.

Build from Source on Mac

If you want to compile Hugo yourself, you’ll need to install Go (aka Golang). You can install Go directly from the Go website or via Homebrew using the following command:

brew install go

Step 1: Get the Source

If you want to compile a specific version of Hugo, go to https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/releases and download the source code for the version of your choice. If you want to compile Hugo with all the latest changes (which might include bugs), clone the Hugo repository:

git clone https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo

Step 2: Compiling

Make the directory containing the source your working directory and then fetch Hugo’s dependencies:

mkdir -p src/github.com/gohugoio
ln -sf $(pwd) src/github.com/gohugoio/hugo

# set the build path for Go
export GOPATH=$(pwd)

go get

This will fetch the absolute latest version of the dependencies. If Hugo fails to build, it may be the result of a dependency’s author introducing a breaking change.

Once you have properly configured your directory, you can compile Hugo using the following command:

go build -o hugo main.go

Then place the hugo executable somewhere in your $PATH. You’re now ready to start using Hugo.

Windows

The following aims to be a complete guide to installing Hugo on your Windows PC.

Assumptions

1. You will use C:\Hugo\Sites as the starting point for your new project.
2. You will use C:\Hugo\bin to store executable files.

Set up Your Directories

You’ll need a place to store the Hugo executable, your content, and the generated Hugo website:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Create a new folder: C:\Hugo, assuming you want Hugo on your C drive, although this can go anywhere
3. Create a subfolder in the Hugo folder: C:\Hugo\bin
4. Create another subfolder in Hugo: C:\Hugo\Sites

Technical Users

1. Download the latest zipped Hugo executable from Hugo Releases.
2. Extract all contents to your ..\Hugo\bin folder.
3. The hugo executable will be named as hugo_hugo-version_platform_arch.exe. Rename the executable to hugo.exe for ease of use.
4. In PowerShell or your preferred CLI, add the hugo.exe executable to your PATH by navigating to C:\Hugo\bin (or the location of your hugo.exe file) and use the command set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Hugo\bin. If the hugo command does not work after a reboot, you may have to run the command prompt as administrator.

Less-technical Users

1. Go to the Hugo Releases page.
2. The latest release is announced on top. Scroll to the bottom of the release announcement to see the downloads. They’re all ZIP files.
3. Find the Windows files near the bottom (they’re in alphabetical order, so Windows is last) – download either the 32-bit or 64-bit file depending on whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. (If you don’t know, see here.)
4. Move the ZIP file into your C:\Hugo\bin folder.
5. Double-click on the ZIP file and extract its contents. Be sure to extract the contents into the same C:\Hugo\bin folder – Windows will do this by default unless you tell it to extract somewhere else.
6. You should now have three new files: hugo executable (e.g. hugo_0.18_windows_amd64.exe), license.md, and readme.md. (You can delete the ZIP download now.) Rename that hugo executable (hugo_hugo-version_platform_arch.exe) to hugo.exe for ease of use.

Now you need to add Hugo to your Windows PATH settings:

For Windows 10 Users:

• Right click on the Start button.
• Click on System.
• Click on Advanced System Settings on the left.
• Click on the Environment Variables… button on the bottom.
• In the User variables section, find the row that starts with PATH (PATH will be all caps).
• Double-click on PATH.
• Click the New… button.
• Type in the folder where hugo.exe was extracted, which is C:\Hugo\bin if you went by the instructions above. The PATH entry should be the folder where Hugo lives and not the binary. Press Enter when you’re done typing.
• Click OK at every window to exit.

For Windows 7 and 8.x users:

Windows 7 and 8.1 do not include the easy path editor included in Windows 10, so non-technical users on those platforms are advised to install a free third-party path editor like Windows Environment Variables Editor or Path Editor.

Verify the Executable

Run a few commands to verify that the executable is ready to run, and then build a sample site to get started.

1. Open a Command Prompt

At the prompt, type hugo help and press the Enter key. You should see output that starts with:

hugo is the main command, used to build your Hugo site.

Hugo is a Fast and Flexible Static Site Generator
built with love by spf13 and friends in Go.

Complete documentation is available at https://gohugo.io/.

If you do, then the installation is complete. If you don’t, double-check the path that you placed the hugo.exe file in and that you typed that path correctly when you added it to your PATH variable. If you’re still not getting the output, search the Hugo discussion forum to see if others have already figured out our problem. If not, add a note—in the “Support” category—and be sure to include your command and the output.

At the prompt, change your directory to the Sites directory.

C:\Program Files> cd C:\Hugo\Sites
C:\Hugo\Sites>

2. Run the Command

Run the command to generate a new site. I’m using example.com as the name of the site.

C:\Hugo\Sites> hugo new site example.com

You should now have a directory at C:\Hugo\Sites\example.com. Change into that directory and list the contents. You should get output similar to the following:

C:\Hugo\Sites> cd example.com
C:\Hugo\Sites\example.com> dir
Directory of C:\hugo\sites\example.com

04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          .
04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          ..
04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          archetypes
04/13/2015  10:44 PM                83 config.toml
04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          content
04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          data
04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          layouts
04/13/2015  10:44 PM    <DIR>          static
               1 File(s)             83 bytes
               7 Dir(s)   6,273,331,200 bytes free

Troubleshoot Windows Installation

@dhersam has created a nice video on common issues:

Linux

Snap Package

In any of the Linux distributions that support snaps:

snap install hugo

Debian and Ubuntu

Debian and Ubuntu provide a hugo version via apt-get:

sudo apt-get install hugo

Pros

• Native Debian/Ubuntu package maintained by Debian Developers
• Pre-installed bash completion script and man pages

Cons

• Might not be the latest version, especially if you are using an older, stable version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). Until backports and PPA are available, you may consider installing the Hugo snap package to get the latest version of Hugo.

Arch Linux

You can also install Hugo from the Arch Linux community repository. Applies also for derivatives such as Manjaro.

sudo pacman -Sy hugo

Fedora, CentOS, and Red Hat

• https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/spf13/Hugo/ (updated to Hugo v0.16)
• https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/daftaupe/hugo/ (updated to Hugo v0.22); usually released a few days after the official Hugo release.

See the related discussion in the Hugo forums.

Upgrade Hugo

Upgrading Hugo is as easy as downloading and replacing the executable you’ve placed in your PATH or run brew upgrade hugo if using Homebrew.

Install Pygments (Optional)

The Hugo executable has one optional external dependency for source code highlighting (Pygments).

If you want to have source code highlighting using the highlight shortcode, you need to install the Python-based Pygments program. The procedure is outlined on the Pygments homepage.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve installed Hugo, read the Quick Start guide and explore the rest of the documentation. If you have questions, ask the Hugo community directly by visiting the Hugo Discussion Forum.