blosxom.zsh

A minimal static blog engine written in Zsh. This script generates blog pages from plain text files under the data/ directory, using simple HTML templates.

Features

• Pure Zsh implementation (no external dependencies)
• Blog entries are just text files (1st line: title, rest: body)
• Supports nested directories for organizing posts
• Simple template system using head.html, story.html, and foot.html
• Filters posts by PATH_INFO (for CGI or static generation)
• Sorts posts by modification time (newest first)

Directory Structure

blosxom.zsh
head.html
story.html
foot.html
data/
  first.txt
  second.txt
  2024/12/last-year.txt
  examples/hello.txt
  tips/zsh-tips.txt

How It Works

1. Collects posts: Recursively finds all *.txt files under data/, sorts by modification time.
2. Parses posts: Each file's first line is the title, the rest is the body.
3. Renders templates: Fills variables into the HTML templates for head, each story, and foot.
4. PATH_INFO filtering: If PATH_INFO is set, only matching posts are shown.

Templates

• head.html: Blog header (receives variables like title, home)
• story.html: Each post (receives variables like title, body, date, name, etc.)
• foot.html: Blog footer (receives variables like version)

Example Post File

First Post
This is the very first post on my blosxom.zsh blog.
Welcome to the world of Zsh blogging!

Usage

This script is designed to work as a CGI program (for example, with Apache or nginx + fcgiwrap), so it reads environment variables such as PATH_INFO and outputs the result to standard output. You can also use it to generate static HTML files.

Run as CGI with Python's built-in server (for testing)

You can easily test this script as a CGI program using Python 3:

cd cgi-bin
python3 -m http.server --cgi 8000

Then access: http://localhost:8000/cgi-bin/blosxom.zsh

Note: This is for local testing and demonstration purposes only.

Generate static HTML

zsh blosxom.zsh > index.html

Or deploy as a CGI script with a web server that supports Zsh CGI.

Note

This is a "toy" or "joke" script for fun and demonstration purposes. Not intended for production use.

License

MIT