This post will guide you how to write a post on _Chirpy_ theme. Even if you have previous experience with Jekyll, this article is worth reading, because many features require specific variables to be set.
Create a new file named `YYYY-MM-DD-TITLE.EXTENSION`{: .filepath} and put it in the `_posts`{: .filepath} of the root directory. Please note that the `EXTENSION`{: .filepath} must be one of `md`{: .filepath} and `markdown`{: .filepath}. If you want to save time of creating files, please consider using the plugin [`Jekyll-Compose`](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-compose) to accomplish this.
In order to accurately record the release date of a post, you should not only set up the `timezone` of `_config.yml`{: .filepath} but also provide the post's timezone in variable `date` of its Front Matter block. Format: `+/-TTTT`, e.g. `+0800`.
The author information of the post usually does not need to be filled in the _Front Matter_ , they will be obtained from variables `social.name` and the first entry of `social.links` of the configuration file by default. But you can also override it as follows:
By default, the **T**able **o**f **C**ontents (TOC) is displayed on the right panel of the post. If you want to turn it off globally, go to `_config.yml`{: .filepath} and set the value of variable `toc` to `false`. If you want to turn off TOC for a specific post, add the following to the post's [Front Matter](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/front-matter/):
The global switch of comments is defined by variable `comments.active` in the file `_config.yml`{: .filepath}. After selecting a comment system for this variable, comments will be turned on for all posts.
[**Mermaid**](https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid) is a great diagrams generation tool. To enable it on your post, add the following to the YAML block:
Starting from _Chirpy v5.0.0_, `height` and `width` support abbreviations (`height` → `h`, `width` → `w`). The following example has the same effect as the above:
If you host the images on the CDN, you can save the time of repeatedly writing the CDN URL by assigning the variable `img_cdn` of `_config.yml`{: .filepath} file:
When a post contains many images, it will be a time-consuming task to repeatedly define the path of the images. To solve this, we can define this path in the YAML block of the post:
```yml
---
img_path: /img/path/
---
```
{: .nolineno }
And then, the image source of Markdown can write the file name directly:
If you want to add an image to the top of the post contents, specify the attribute `src`, `width`, `height`, and `alt` for the image:
```yaml
---
image:
src: /path/to/image/file
width: 1000 # in pixels
height: 400 # in pixels
alt: image alternative text
---
```
Except for `alt`, all other options are necessary, especially the `width` and `height`, which are related to user experience and web page loading performance. The above section "[Size](#size)" also mentions this.
Starting from _Chirpy v5.0.0_, the attributes `height` and `width` can be abbreviated: `height` → `h`, `width` → `w`. In addition, the [`img_path`](#image-path) can also be passed to the preview image, that is, when it has been set, the attribute `src` only needs the image file name.
By default, all languages except `plaintext`, `console`, and `terminal` will display line numbers. When you want to hide the line number of a code block, add the class `nolineno` to it:
You may have noticed that the code language will be displayed at the top of the code block. If you want to replace it with the file name, you can add the attribute `file` to achieve this:
