27th May 2020, 1 min read

Hosting Static Content with netlify.app

Many people associate netlify.com with its integration to GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket. But you can just deploy your local files to Netlify as well.

Install netlify command via npm install netlify-cli. cd to the directory where you locate your static content. Login to Netlify site via

netlify login

This will either directly open a browser, where you confirm the login, or enter your credentials. If the browser is not opened, then enter the URL given on console. Once you are logged in and have configured your domain name in the Netlify administration menu, you can deploy. For this run below command

netlify deploy --prod -d .

Netlify has the notion of two environments: preview and production. You can skip the preview environment and deploy directly to production.

The netlify command offers the following options.

$ netlify -h
Netlify command line tool

VERSION
  netlify-cli/2.48.0 linux-x64 node-v13.13.0

USAGE
  $ netlify [COMMAND]

COMMANDS
  addons     (Beta) Manage Netlify Add-ons
  api        Run any Netlify API method
  build      (Beta) Build on your local machine
  deploy     Create a new deploy from the contents of a folder
  dev        Local dev server
  functions  Manage netlify functions
  help       display help for netlify
  init       Configure continuous deployment for a new or existing site
  link       Link a local repo or project folder to an existing site on Netlify
  login      Login to your Netlify account
  open       Open settings for the site linked to the current folder
  plugins    list installed plugins
  sites      Handle various site operations
  status     Print status information
  switch     Switch your active Netlify account
  unlink     Unlink a local folder from a Netlify site
  watch      Watch for site deploy to finish

The netlify script stores your credentials in $HOME/.netlify/config.json.

The netlify deploy --prod . command does not honor symbolic links. For example, symlinked images will not get uploaded.

My static site on netlify.app is here: klm.netlify.app.

Added 27-Oct-2024: Latest twist in command line trickery:

netlify deploy --prod -s klm .