---
title: Upgrading from 3.x to 4.x
permalink: /docs/upgrading/3-to-4/
---

Upgrading from an older version of Jekyll? A few things have changed in Jekyll 4
that you'll want to know about.

Before we dive in, you need to have at least Ruby 2.3.0 installed. Run the following
in your terminal to check

```sh
ruby -v
```

If you're using Ruby >= 2.3.0, go ahead and fetch the latest version of Jekyll:

```sh
gem update jekyll
```


### Template rendering

We've slightly altered the way Jekyll parses and renders your various templates to improve
the overall build times. Jekyll now parses a template once, caches it internally and then
renders the parsed template multiple times as required by your pages and documents.

The downside to this is that some of the community-authored plugins may not work as they
previously used to.

#### For Plugin-authors

* If your plugin depends on the following code: `site.liquid_renderer.file(path).parse(content)`,
note that the return value (`template`, an instance of *`Liquid::Template`*), from that line will
always be the **same object** for a given `path`. <br/>
The *`template`* instance is then rendered as previously, with respect to the `payload` passed to it.
You'll therefore have to ensure that *`payload`* is not memoized or cached in your plugin instance.

* If its a requirement that `template` you get from the above step *be different* at all times,
you can invoke *`Liquid::Template`* directly:


  ```diff
  - template = site.liquid_renderer.file(path).parse(content)
  + template = Liquid::Template.parse(content)
  ```

---

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