Portable Jekyll

Portable Jekyll is a self-contained Windows distribution of Jekyll v3.2.1 that bundles Ruby 2.0, the Ruby Development Kit, and Git 2.0, letting users run Jekyll for static site generation without a separate installation of these dependencies. This GitHub-hosted project targets Windows users who want a portable Jekyll environment that can be carried on a USB drive or run in isolated setups.

What is Portable Jekyll?

Portable Jekyll is a portable version of Jekyll v3.2.1 for Windows that includes everything required to run Jekyll on that platform: Ruby 2.0, the Ruby Development Kit, and Git 2.0. It takes standard Jekyll commands as input and produces static websites as output, just like a regular Jekyll installation, but without requiring the user to install Ruby or Git themselves. The project is available on GitHub under the madhur/PortableJekyll repository, where it has attracted 381 stars.

Key Features

• Portable, no-install environment — Bundles Ruby 2.0, Ruby Development Kit, and Git 2.0 so Jekyll v3.2.1 runs on Windows without a system install of these components.
• Jekyll v3.2.1 included — The distribution pins a specific Jekyll version (v3.2.1), giving users a consistent, known environment.
• Windows-targeted — Designed specifically for Windows users, avoiding Unix-only toolchains.
• Git 2.0 bundled — Includes Git for version control, which Jekyll often uses for deployment workflows.
• Ruby Development Kit included — Provides the native build tools needed to compile Ruby gems on Windows, avoiding common setup failures.
• Usage instructions via Wiki — The GitHub wiki contains setup and usage guidance for running the portable environment.

Who should use Portable Jekyll?

• Windows web developers who build Jekyll static sites and want to avoid manual Ruby and Git installation steps — they can unzip and run.
• Bloggers on Windows who use Jekyll for personal blogs and need a reproducible local environment without admin rights.
• Users on shared or locked-down machines who cannot install system-level software; the portable distribution runs from a folder or USB drive.

Use cases

• Windows developers starting a Jekyll project: Set up a local environment by extracting the portable package, then run jekyll new and jekyll serve from the command line to build and preview a site.
• Users deploying static sites: Use the bundled Git 2.0 to push generated _site output to GitHub Pages or other static hosts.
• Offline or isolated development: Carry the entire Jekyll toolchain on a USB drive and build sites on machines without an internet connection for installing gems.

FAQ

What is Portable Jekyll?

Portable Jekyll is a pre-packaged, portable distribution of Jekyll v3.2.1 for Windows. It bundles Ruby 2.0, the Ruby Development Kit, and Git 2.0 so that users can run Jekyll commands without separately installing these dependencies. It is hosted on GitHub and has 381 stars.

Which dependencies are included in the portable package?

The portable package includes Ruby 2.0, the Ruby Development Kit, and Git 2.0. These three components are enough to run Jekyll v3.2.1 and typical static site workflows on Windows.

Does Portable Jekyll work on Windows?

Yes, Portable Jekyll is specifically designed for Windows. It packages everything needed to run Jekyll v3.2.1 on Windows, avoiding the usual setup of Ruby and Git that Unix-oriented documentation expects.