The ’advanced’ relates to your Git experience. You need some of that to really benefit from Advanced usage, otherwise you are looking for trouble.

You do not need to be a git master, but you should know what git merge and git rebase are. You should be able to resolve Git conflicts which sometimes come into being after using the mentioned commands.

The Advanced usage installation process is much longer and sweaty than the Default one. But it could be really beneficial afterwards, during the website maintaining.

What’s the difference?

With Advanced usage you cannot use gatsby new. The command installs Gatsby website but does not copy git repository to your localhost and there is no Advanced usage without the Git repository.

With a cloned git repository you will be able to upgrade your localhost code if I refactor codebase in the upstream repo. Sure, sometimes it will not work without resolving conflicts but still.

With Advanced usage you will be able launch your site as a Website starter and later, when the time comes, upgrade it to Blog by merging the blog branch into your master.

Git clone

Instead of gatsby new use the git clone command.

But first you have to make your own fork of the Kit’s repository.

Do not clone the original repo!

git clone https://github.com/[your-github-name]/gatsby-starter-kit.git [NEW_DIRECTORY_FOR_YOUR_SITE]

Move into the newly created folder.

cd [NEW_DIRECTORY_FOR_YOUR_SITE]

List branches of the repo.

git branch -a

As you see there is a lot of branches but only one is tracked locally master the rest are remote branches.

* master
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/blog
  remotes/origin/blog-with-content
  remotes/origin/content-for-blog
  remotes/origin/content-for-equipped
  remotes/origin/content-for-minimal
  remotes/origin/content-for-themed
  remotes/origin/content-for-website
  remotes/origin/equipped
  remotes/origin/equipped-with-content
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/minimal
  remotes/origin/minimal-with-content
  remotes/origin/testing
  remotes/origin/themed
  remotes/origin/themed-with-content
  remotes/origin/website
  remotes/origin/website-with-content
  remotes/origin/zero

Let’s assume that you want to install the Website starter. You have to tell git to track the proper branch.

git checkout --track origin/website-with-content

You should see the output.

>>> Switched to a new branch 'website-with-content'
>>> Branch 'website-with-content' set up to track remote branch 'website-with-content' from 'origin'.

List the branches again.

git branch -a

Now, two branches master and website-with-content are tracked locally and website-with-content is the current branch *.

  master
* website-with-content
  remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master
  remotes/origin/blog
  remotes/origin/blog-with-content
  remotes/origin/content-for-blog
  remotes/origin/content-for-equipped
  remotes/origin/content-for-minimal
  remotes/origin/content-for-themed
  remotes/origin/content-for-website
  remotes/origin/equipped
  remotes/origin/equipped-with-content
  remotes/origin/master
  remotes/origin/minimal
  remotes/origin/minimal-with-content
  remotes/origin/testing
  remotes/origin/themed
  remotes/origin/themed-with-content
  remotes/origin/website
  remotes/origin/website-with-content
  remotes/origin/zero

You are ready to install dependencies.

yarn install

When installation ends launch the web server using the gatsby develop command.

gatsby develop

Done. You have a working website built on the Website starter.

Developing

I strongly suggest to create a new local branch based on the starter branch before you start making any changes in the code. Let’s call it my-website.

git checkout -b my-website

More guides soon. Follow me to be informed about updates.