Converting a Jekyll Gem-Based Theme to a Regular Theme

02 Jul, 2022

Note that if you convert a gem-based Jekyll theme to a regular theme that lives in your website's directory, you won't receive theme updates.

To convert your theme:

1. Find the location of the gem directory. In a terminal or command line window, enter bundle info --path minima (replace minima with the actual name of the theme).
2. Copy all the folders from the gem's directory into your Jekyll site directory; no need to copy over the LICENSE.txt or README.md files.
3. Find the runtime dependency plugins used by the theme:
   • The plugins will be in the theme's .gemspec file, which should be in the specifications folder of your Ruby installation directory (e.g., /usr/lib/ruby/gems/3.0.0/specifications/minima-2.5.1.gemspec).
   • The plugins you're looking for will should look something like the following:

		s.add_runtime_dependency(%q<jekyll-feed>.freeze, ["~> 0.9"])
		s.add_dependency(%q<jekyll-seo-tag>.freeze, ["~> 2.1"])

4. In your Jekyll website folder, open the Gemfile. In the group :jekyll_plugins do section, add references to the runtime plugins like so:

	group :jekyll_plugins do
	  gem "jekyll-feed", "~> 0.12"
	  gem "jekyll-seo-tag", "~> 2.7"
	end

Note: If one or more of the plugins are already listed in the Gemfile, just leave them in place. 5. In the terminal, enter bundle update. 6. In your Jekyll site, remove the reference to the theme gem: 1. Open the Gemfile and remove gem "minima", "~> 2.5". 2. Open _config.yml and remove theme: minima.

#jekyll