How can I debug plugins that are being silently ignored?

Question

Newcomer to Jekyll here (previously on Hyde).

• Ruby files placed in the _plugins/ directory are apparently silently ignored.
• I am using version 0.11.2 of Jekyll, with ruby 1.8.7 on Ubuntu 12.04.

Should an extra config parameter be added to load these plugins? The doc doesn't say so - the sane default should be to look into _plugins, and they should be required automatically. How can one debug the loading of Jekyll plugins?

Answer 1

For my instance of jekyll (also 0.11.2, but with ruby 1.9.2p290 on a Mac), I don't have to add any extra configuration, but you can try adding the following line to your top level "_config.yml" file.

plugins:     _plugins

or, possibly,

plugins:     ./_plugins

---

The simplest way to test that your plugins are working is to remove all of them except for one that you know will work. I've put together the following which works as expected on my install.

1. Create a new file in the root of your jekyll source directory called "plugin_test.md" with the following contents:

   ---
   layout: default
   title: Plugin Test
   ---
   
   the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
   
   Testing plugin output of '_plugins/testplugin.rb': {% testplugin %}
   

   Note that you may need to change "layout: default" to whatever you are actually using.

2. Create a new file at "_plugins/testplugin.rb" with the following contents:

   module Jekyll
     class TestPlugin < Liquid::Tag
       def render(context)
         "It's Working!"
       end
     end
   end
   
   Liquid::Template.register_tag('testplugin', Jekyll::TestPlugin)
   

3. Run jekyll on your source dir.

All that testplugin.rb does is replace instances of the liquid tag {% testplugin %} with the text "It's Working!". If your plugins are triggering, you'll see the output

Testing plugin output of '_plugins/testplugin.rb': It's Working!" 

on the page "plugin_test.html" at your output site root. If you see:

Testing plugin output of '_plugins/testplugin.rb':

that means that the plugin didn't trigger. If you run into that, I think it's a sign that something is pretty out of whack and would advise reinstalling jekyll.

Answer 2

I know I'm little bit late but for others who still come across this question I would like to add my resolution: Restart the server to get the newly added plugin working. So stop jekyll serve (Ctrl C) and restart it again with jekyll serve.