HUGO-BUILD(1)

📦
version 0.169.0 · 7 versions
, in arch rolling

💅 HUGO-BUILD(1) — the Hugo Manual, bestie edition 🎀

okay so this is the hugo-build page from the Hugo Manual, and honestly? it's a whole vibe. buckle up 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

hugo-build — build your project. that's it. that's the tweet. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

hugo build [flags]

🧚 DESCRIPTION 🧚

build is the main character command, fr fr — it's the one you use to build your Hugo project. 👑

Hugo is a Fast and Flexible Static Site Generator built with love by spf13 and friends in Go. no cap, that's the actual description, we don't make the rules. 💐

Complete documentation is available at https://gohugo.io/. go read it, it's giving ✨reference material✨.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

so many flags. all of them iconic. here we go:

  • -b, --baseURL="" — hostname (and path) to the root, e.g. https://spf13.com/. your site's home address 🏠
  • -D, --buildDrafts[=false] — include content marked as draft. let the WIPs see the light of day 🙈
  • -E, --buildExpired[=false] — include expired content. resurrect it, lowkey 💀
  • -F, --buildFuture[=false] — include content with publishdate in the future. time travel behavior, honestly ⏰
  • --cacheDir="" — filesystem path to cache directory
  • --cleanDestinationDir[=false] — remove stale files from destination. declutter era 🧹
  • --clock="" — set the clock used by Hugo, e.g. --clock 2021-11-06T22:30:00.00+09:00
  • --config="" — config file (default is hugo.yaml|json|toml). yup, all three, pick your fighter 🌈
  • --configDir="config" — config dir
  • -c, --contentDir="" — filesystem path to content directory
  • -d, --destination="" — filesystem path to write files to
  • --disableKinds=[] — disable different kind of pages (home, RSS etc.). sometimes you just don't want a homepage, and that's valid 🫶
  • --enableGitInfo[=false] — add Git revision, date, author, and CODEOWNERS info to the pages
  • -e, --environment="" — build environment
  • --forceSyncStatic[=false] — copy all files when static is changed. notice the period, it's in the original, we keep it, periodt 💅
  • --gc[=false] — enable to run some cleanup tasks (remove unused cache files) after the build. self-care for your disk 🧼
  • -h, --help[=false] — help for build
  • --ignoreCache[=false] — ignore the configured file caches
  • --ignoreVendorPaths="" — ignores any _vendor for module paths matching the given Glob pattern
  • -l, --layoutDir="" — filesystem path to layout directory
  • --logLevel="" — log level (debug|info|warn|error)
  • --minify[=false] — minify any supported output format (HTML, XML etc.). shrink it, slay it ✂️
  • --noBuildLock[=false] — don't create .hugo_build.lock file
  • --noChmod[=false] — don't sync permission mode of files
  • --noTimes[=false] — don't sync modification time of files
  • --panicOnWarning[=false] — panic on first WARNING log. dramatic? yes. useful? also yes, sometimes 😭
  • --poll="" — set this to a poll interval, e.g --poll 700ms, to use a poll based approach to watch for file system changes
  • --printI18nWarnings[=false] — print missing translations
  • --printMemoryUsage[=false] — print memory usage to screen at intervals
  • --printPathWarnings[=false] — print warnings on duplicate target paths etc.
  • --printUnusedTemplates[=false] — print warnings on unused templates. notice the period again. we're consistent. 🎀
  • --quiet[=false] — build in quiet mode. shhh 🤫
  • --renderSegments=[] — named segments to render (configured in the segments config)
  • -M, --renderToMemory[=false] — render to memory (mostly useful when running the server)
  • -s, --source="" — filesystem path to read files relative from
  • --templateMetrics[=false] — display metrics about template executions. numbers!! stats!! 📊
  • --templateMetricsHints[=false] — calculate some improvement hints when combined with --templateMetrics. bestie duo fr fr 🫶
  • -t, --theme=[] — themes to use (located in /themes/THEMENAME/)
  • --themesDir="" — filesystem path to themes directory
  • --trace="" — write trace to file (not useful in general). the original said it, not me, ngl 💀
  • -w, --watch[=false] — watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed. live-reload energy, we're obsessed 👀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

  • hugo(1) — the parent, the icon, the moment 👑

that's the whole page bestie, every flag accounted for, no skips, no cap. now go build something pretty 🌸

hugo-build, from Hugo 0.169.0, dated Oct 2026 — mwah, xoxo, go touch some static files 💜✨

📦 where this page comes from