# Feed.xml not being produced **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [August 4, 2022, 8:29pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538 "2022-08-04T20:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougbreaux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/dougbreaux/32/4796_2.png) [@dougbreaux](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/dougbreaux)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2022, 8:29pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/1 "2022-08-04T20:29:48Z")
Why is my configuration no longer producing feed.xml? > **[GitHub - dougbreaux/dougbreaux.github.io: Source for GitHub Pages blog](https://github.com/dougbreaux/dougbreaux.github.io)** > > Source for GitHub Pages blog. Contribute to dougbreaux/dougbreaux.github.io development by creating an account on GitHub. ---
**Author:** ![BillRaymond](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/billraymond/32/5963_2.png) [@BillRaymond](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/BillRaymond)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 10:52pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/2 "2022-08-05T22:52:54Z")
I noticed you do not have a gemfile. Did you happen to remove this or have you never had one? ---
**Author:** ![dougbreaux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/dougbreaux/32/4796_2.png) [@dougbreaux](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/dougbreaux)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 12:29am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/3 "2022-08-06T00:29:16Z")
I believe I never had one ---
**Author:** ![BillRaymond](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/billraymond/32/5963_2.png) [@BillRaymond](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/BillRaymond)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/4 "2022-08-08T18:28:57Z")
I cloned your repo and made a number of changes to fix the problem. As you can see from the following screenshot, I was able to build your site on a GitHub Page of my own and use Fluent Reader to open your `feed.xml` file. ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jekyllrb/original/2X/0/0833ceae895831a8f699b3ca1f12a144a2f40a43.jpeg) When I ran your code locally, I received a good number of errors before I could reliably load your site. Do you develop locally on your computer or with a Docker image? If not, I suggest you get yourself set up so you can test your work there and you will see the errors Jekyll is throwing for your site. GitHub Pages is quite nice in that they sort of set you up quickly to do a simple blogging website, but very often the build errors are either hidden or sort of washed over so you rarely see any prioblems. To address that, I always build my site locally, then push my changes up to the GH repo. That said, I will share with ## 🧑‍🔧 The fix: modify your `_config.yml` file Open your `_config.yml` file and _add_ the following lines: ```auto baseurl: "" url: "https://dougbreaux.github.io" theme: minima ``` Then, _remove_ the following line: ```auto remote_theme: jekyll/minima ``` The changes I just shared may fix the problem, but if they do not, please read on and consider using my other changes. ## 🗂 `Gemfile`, and `Gemfile.lock` Jekyll depends on certain product versions in order to run properly. Also, GitHub Pages requires certain [Dependencies](https://pages.github.com/versions/). So if my changes did not work, follow these steps to create a `Gemfile` file and a `Gemfile.lock` file in the root of your repo. `./Gemfile` ```auto source "https://rubygems.org" gem "jekyll", "~> 3.9.0" gem "webrick", "~> 1.7" gem "kramdown-parser-gfm", "= 1.1.0" gem "minima", "= 2.5.1" ``` And here is the `Gemfile.lock`: `./Gemfile.lock` ```auto GEM remote: https://rubygems.org/ specs: addressable (2.8.0) public_suffix (>= 2.0.2, < 5.0) colorator (1.1.0) concurrent-ruby (1.1.10) em-websocket (0.5.3) eventmachine (>= 0.12.9) http_parser.rb (~> 0) eventmachine (1.2.7) ffi (1.15.5) forwardable-extended (2.6.0) http_parser.rb (0.8.0) i18n (0.9.5) concurrent-ruby (~> 1.0) jekyll (3.9.2) addressable (~> 2.4) colorator (~> 1.0) em-websocket (~> 0.5) i18n (~> 0.7) jekyll-sass-converter (~> 1.0) jekyll-watch (~> 2.0) kramdown (>= 1.17, < 3) liquid (~> 4.0) mercenary (~> 0.3.3) pathutil (~> 0.9) rouge (>= 1.7, < 4) safe_yaml (~> 1.0) jekyll-feed (0.16.0) jekyll (>= 3.7, < 5.0) jekyll-sass-converter (1.5.2) sass (~> 3.4) jekyll-seo-tag (2.8.0) jekyll (>= 3.8, < 5.0) jekyll-watch (2.2.1) listen (~> 3.0) kramdown (2.4.0) rexml kramdown-parser-gfm (1.1.0) kramdown (~> 2.0) liquid (4.0.3) listen (3.7.1) rb-fsevent (~> 0.10, >= 0.10.3) rb-inotify (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.10) mercenary (0.3.6) minima (2.5.1) jekyll (>= 3.5, < 5.0) jekyll-feed (~> 0.9) jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.1) pathutil (0.16.2) forwardable-extended (~> 2.6) public_suffix (4.0.7) rb-fsevent (0.11.1) rb-inotify (0.10.1) ffi (~> 1.0) rexml (3.2.5) rouge (3.30.0) safe_yaml (1.0.5) sass (3.7.4) sass-listen (~> 4.0.0) sass-listen (4.0.0) rb-fsevent (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.4) rb-inotify (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.7) webrick (1.7.0) PLATFORMS arm64-darwin-21 DEPENDENCIES jekyll (~> 3.9.0) kramdown-parser-gfm (= 1.1.0) minima (= 2.5.1) webrick (~> 1.7) BUNDLED WITH 2.3.9 ``` ## 🧑‍💻 Recommendation: Test locally I do not know if you ever test your site locally, but given there are no `.gitignore`, `Gemfile`, and `Gemfile.lock` files, I assume you are not. It was easy for me to see the issues when bringing your files down and running `bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload`. There is, however, some work to do in order to test locally. Here are the high-level steps: 1. Install Jekyll locally or set it up in a Docker container. Go to the resources section below for help on that, then come back to this section 2. Add a `.gitignore` file at the root of your repo (best practice) 3. Add a `Gemfile` (created using the `bundle` commands I share a little later in this message) 4. Add a `Gemfile.lock` (created using the `bundle` commands I share a little later in this message) 5. Run your code with `bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload` `/.gitignore` ```auto _site/ .sass-cache/ .jekyll-cache/ .jekyll-metadata **/.DS_Store .bundle/ vendor/ ``` Create the `Gemfile` and `Gemfile.lock` files by running the following commands in the terminal window within your repo: ```auto bundle init bundle add jekyll --version "~>3.9.0" bundle add webrick bundle add "minima" --version "2.5.1" bundle add "kramdown-parser-gfm" --version "1.1.0" bundle install bundle update ``` Note that I specify version numbers because GitHub Pages require certain [Dependencies](https://pages.github.com/versions/). With your `.gitignore`, `Gemfile`, and `Gemfile.lock` in place, run the following command: ```auto bundle exec jekyll serve --livereload ``` Now, when you make changes, you can see them locally. I will point out that you do have some things hard-coded in your site, like the `assets` folder that such as the logo that should be using [relative urls](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/liquid/filters/), but that is something you can work on over time. ## Resources: 🔗 Create a local development environment If you want to install Jekyll locally on your computer, you also need to install Ruby. It will take a little work, so prepare yourself 🙂. That said, I do provide detailed steps that use Docker, so you do not have to manage Ruby on your computer. Instead, Ruby and Jekyll will be contained within a Docker image. I assume you will be using Visual Studio Code with my videos. Here is the official documentation to install Jekyll locally: > **[Installation](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/)** > > Official guide to install Jekyll on macOS, GNU/Linux or Windows. Here is a video I created that shows how to install Jekyll locally Note: since the creation of this video, Ruby made a change, so make sure you type `bundle add webrick` toward the end. This video should work on Intel and Apple Silicon. If you are on Linux or Windows, I am sorry but I do not have videos for that, but the Docker option should work. ![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jekyllrb/optimized/2X/7/73b7fc99cb00aa9092fd3064c1ddc815d6aab85b_2_690x388.jpeg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/UKB9ylw0G4U?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLWzwUIYZpnJuT0sH4BN56P5oWTdHJiTNq&start=4 Finally, if you want to go the Docker route, here is a video that will get you up and running. While I tested on a Mac, it should work just fine on Linux and Windows: [![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jekyllrb/original/2X/3/3f55eac1bf2513becae7478772b5cd750bdc16c5.jpeg "OLD: check description for new link. Develop Jekyll websites in a container (including GitHub Pages)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owHfKAbJ6_M) ---
**Author:** ![dougbreaux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/dougbreaux/32/4796_2.png) [@dougbreaux](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/dougbreaux)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 9:48pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/5 "2022-08-10T21:48:19Z")
That’s a lot of detail, thanks! I’ll reply what I can so far. - I do not develop locally. Really don’t want to climb that learning and maintenance curve if I don’t have to. - Since Pages has moved to GitHub Actions, there does seem to be some better logging, but I haven’t yet looked at details there. I will check that also. - The reason I’ve been pointing to remote\_theme is that I needed features that weren’t available in the GitHub version. I guess I don’t know if this is still true. That said, I’m certainly willing to try the simple fix. Will report back here, and greatly appreciate the help. ---
**Author:** ![dougbreaux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/dougbreaux/32/4796_2.png) [@dougbreaux](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/dougbreaux)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 11:33pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/6 "2022-08-10T23:33:31Z")
Well, I tried to cheat and only add the baseurl and url, leaving the remote\_theme, and I still don’t have a feed.xml. No errors in the GitHub Actions build, though, and no reference to “feed” at all. Only 1 deprecation warning: ```auto Run actions/jekyll-build-pages@v1 /usr/bin/docker run --name ghcrioactionsjekyllbuildpagesv104_7ceb54 --label 4cd98f --workdir /github/workspace --rm -e INPUT_SOURCE -e INPUT_DESTINATION -e INPUT_FUTURE -e INPUT_BUILD_REVISION -e INPUT_VERBOSE -e INPUT_TOKEN -e HOME -e GITHUB_JOB -e GITHUB_REF -e GITHUB_SHA -e GITHUB_REPOSITORY -e GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER -e GITHUB_RUN_ID -e GITHUB_RUN_NUMBER -e GITHUB_RETENTION_DAYS -e GITHUB_RUN_ATTEMPT -e GITHUB_ACTOR -e GITHUB_TRIGGERING_ACTOR -e GITHUB_WORKFLOW -e GITHUB_HEAD_REF -e GITHUB_BASE_REF -e GITHUB_EVENT_NAME -e GITHUB_SERVER_URL -e GITHUB_API_URL -e GITHUB_GRAPHQL_URL -e GITHUB_REF_NAME -e GITHUB_REF_PROTECTED -e GITHUB_REF_TYPE -e GITHUB_WORKSPACE -e GITHUB_ACTION -e GITHUB_EVENT_PATH -e GITHUB_ACTION_REPOSITORY -e GITHUB_ACTION_REF -e GITHUB_PATH -e GITHUB_ENV -e GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY -e RUNNER_OS -e RUNNER_ARCH -e RUNNER_NAME -e RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE -e RUNNER_TEMP -e RUNNER_WORKSPACE -e ACTIONS_RUNTIME_URL -e ACTIONS_RUNTIME_TOKEN -e ACTIONS_CACHE_URL -e ACTIONS_ID_TOKEN_REQUEST_URL -e... Deprecation: The 'gems' configuration option has been renamed to 'plugins'. Please update your config file accordingly. ``` ---
**Author:** ![dougbreaux](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/dougbreaux/32/4796_2.png) [@dougbreaux](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/dougbreaux)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 11:43pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/feed-xml-not-being-produced/7538/7 "2022-08-10T23:43:39Z")
Bah, going to the non-remote theme made the feed work, but lost my minima theme stuff. Since it seems not many people use feeds anyways these days, I’d rather disable the feed than lose the theme. Oh well, greatly appreciate the attempt.