---
title: Upgrading from 0.x to 2.x
permalink: /docs/upgrading/0-to-2/
---

Upgrading from an older version of Jekyll? A few things have changed in 1.0
and 2.0 that you'll want to know about.

Before we dive in, go ahead and fetch the latest version of Jekyll:

```sh
$ gem update jekyll
```

<div class="note feature">
  <h5 markdown="1">Diving in</h5>
  <p markdown="1">Want to get a new Jekyll site up and running quickly? Simply
   run <code>jekyll new SITENAME</code> to create a new folder with a bare bones
   Jekyll site.</p>
</div>

### The Jekyll Command

For better clarity, Jekyll now accepts the commands `build` and `serve`.
Whereas before you might simply run the command `jekyll` to generate a site
and `jekyll --server` to view it locally, in v2.0 (and later) you should
use the subcommands `jekyll build` and `jekyll serve` to build and preview
your site.

<div class="note info">
  <h5>Watching and Serving</h5>
  <p markdown="1">With the new subcommands, the way sites are previewed locally
   changed a bit. Instead of specifying `server: true` in the site's
   configuration file, use `jekyll serve`. The same holds true for
   `watch: true`. Instead, use the `--watch` flag with either `jekyll serve`
    or `jekyll build`.</p>
</div>

### Absolute Permalinks

In Jekyll v1.0, we introduced absolute permalinks for pages in
subdirectories. Starting with v2.0, absolute permalinks are opt-out,
meaning Jekyll will default to using absolute permalinks instead of
relative permalinks. Relative permalink backwards-compatibility was removed in v3.0.

<div class="note warning" id="absolute-permalinks-warning">
  <h5 markdown="1">Absolute permalinks will be required in v3.0 and on</h5>
  <p markdown="1">
    Starting with Jekyll v3.0, relative permalinks functionality will be removed and thus unavailable for use.
  </p>
</div>

### Draft Posts

Jekyll now lets you write draft posts, and allows you to easily preview how
they will look prior to publishing. To start a draft, simply create a folder
called `_drafts` in your site's source directory (e.g., alongside `_posts`),
and add a new markdown file to it. To preview your new post, simply run the
`jekyll serve` command with the `--drafts` flag.

<div class="note info">
  <h5 markdown="1">Drafts don't have dates</h5>
  <p markdown="1">
    Unlike posts, drafts don't have a date, since they haven't
    been published yet. Rather than naming your draft something like
    `2013-07-01-my-draft-post.md`, simply name the file what you'd like your
    post to eventually be titled, here `my-draft-post.md`.</p>
</div>

### Custom Config File

Rather than passing individual flags via the command line, you can now pass
an entire custom Jekyll config file. This helps to distinguish between
environments, or lets you programmatically override user-specified
defaults. Simply add the `--config` flag to the `jekyll` command, followed
by the path to one or more config files (comma-delimited, no spaces).

#### As a result, the following command line flags are now deprecated:

* `--no-server`
* `--no-auto` (now `--no-watch`)
* `--auto` (now `--watch`)
* `--server`
* `--url=`
* `--maruku`, `--rdiscount`, and `--redcarpet`
* `--pygments`
* `--permalink=`
* `--paginate`

<div class="note info">
  <h5>The config flag explicitly specifies your configuration file(s)</h5>
  <p markdown="1">If you use the `--config` flag, Jekyll will ignore your
    `_config.yml` file. Want to merge a custom configuration with the normal
    configuration? No problem. Jekyll will accept more than one custom config
    file via the command line. Config files cascade from right to left, such
    that if I run `jekyll serve --config _config.yml,_config-dev.yml`,
    the values in the config files on the right (`_config-dev.yml`) overwrite
    those on the left (`_config.yml`) when both contain the same key.</p>
</div>

### New Config File Options

Jekyll 1.0 introduced several new config file options. Before you upgrade,
you should check to see if any of these are present in your pre-1.0 config
file, and if so, make sure that you're using them properly:

* `excerpt_separator`
* `host`
* `include`
* `keep_files`
* `layouts`
* `show_drafts`
* `timezone`
* `url`

### Baseurl

Often, you'll want the ability to run a Jekyll site in multiple places,
such as previewing locally before pushing to GitHub Pages. Jekyll 1.0 makes
that easier with the new `--baseurl` flag. To take advantage of this
feature, first add the production `baseurl` to your site's `_config.yml`
file. Then, throughout the site, simply prefix relative URLs
with `{% raw %}{{ site.baseurl }}{% endraw %}`.
When you're ready to preview your site locally, pass along the `--baseurl`
flag with your local baseurl (most likely `/`) to `jekyll serve` and Jekyll
will swap in whatever you've passed along, ensuring all your links work as
you'd expect in both environments.


<div class="note warning">
  <h5 markdown="1">All page and post URLs contain leading slashes</h5>
  <p markdown="1">If you use the method described above, please remember
  that the URLs for all posts and pages contain a leading slash. Therefore,
  concatenating the site baseurl and the post/page url where
  `site.baseurl = /` and `post.url = /2013/06/05/my-fun-post/` will
  result in two leading slashes, which will break links. It is thus
  suggested that prefixing with `site.baseurl` only be used when the
  `baseurl` is something other than the default of `/`.</p>
</div>