The Graylog documentation

Architecture

This is the repository that is used to create docs.graylog.org running at readthedocs. After changes are pushed to the specific branches, the new pages are built automatically. When the build runs without error, the new pages are available after some minutes.

The typical workflow to make changes to the documentation and preview them before you push the changes to this repository needs the following preparation.

• clone the repository (to your workplace)
• initialize the virtual environment for python
• install the required python packages

After the above is done, changes can be made and previewed with the following

• create git branch for your changes
• change to the virtual environment
• make the modifications/additions
• run the build and check for errors
• push the branch to GitHub and create a pull request

Now a review of the changes is needed and, finally, it will be merged by the reviewer into the branch/version of the documentation you created the pull request for. Should the change be available in other versions of the documentation this should be written in the pull request that the reviewer can push this to the specific versions too.

Building locally

required software

• git
• python (including pip)
  • virtualenv (pip install virtualenv)
• make
• browser (to preview)

Mac & Linux

It is very likely that you already have all needed software available. If not we recommend homebrew for Mac and the package manager of the Linux distribution you are using.

first time preparation

Clone the repository to your workbench:

# git clone https://github.com/Graylog2/documentation.git 

Create and enter the python virtual environment:

# cd documentation
# virtualenv .
# source ./bin/activate

Install Sphinx, the theme we are using, and sphinx-autobuild:

# pip install -r requirements.txt

Windows

For Windows we recommend chocolatey to install the requirements. If that is not possible to use, download and install the software from the project webpages.

Windows Installation in detail

This can not be a complete guide, but this might give you some guidance.

Installation the needed software using chocolatey. Github Desktop and Notepad+ are optional, but a good addition. The commands need to be run in your administrator Powershell.

# choco install python
# choco install git
# choco install make
# choco install github-desktop
# choco install notepadplus

Use the Github Desktop application to clone the repository, by default this can be found in C:\Users\$USERNAME\Documents\GitHub\$REPONAME. Or you run git clone https://github.com/Graylog2/documentation.git in your Workbench directory.

Open Powershell at this location and enable your user to run scripts:

# Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Force;

Use the python package manager pip to install virtulenv. Create the virtual environment, change into the environment and install all requirements:

# pip install virtualenv
# virtualenv .
# .\Scripts\activate
# pip install -r requirements.txt

Once the above is done you are prepared to contribute to the documentation and preview the work live in your local browser. See the daily usage chapter.

daily usage

How to work with git, create branches and push them will not be covered in this document. Change into the prepared directory, update the sources (git pull), change into the virtual python environment (Linux/Mac source ./bin/active, Windows .\Scripts\activate) and start making the changes.

Build the static documentation and open them in your browser:

# make html
# open _build/html/index.html

Build the documentation and automatically build them on any change:

# make livehtml
# open http://127.0.0.1:8000/