docs/_docs/front-matter.md
Any file that contains a YAML front matter block will be processed by Jekyll as a special file. The front matter must be the first thing in the file and must take the form of valid YAML set between triple-dashed lines. Here is a basic example:
---
layout: post
title: Blogging Like a Hacker
---
Between these triple-dashed lines, you can set predefined variables (see below for a reference) or even create custom ones of your own. These variables will then be available for you to access using Liquid tags both further down in the file and also in any layouts or includes that the page or post in question relies on.
<div class="note warning"> <h5>UTF-8 Character Encoding Warning</h5> <p> If you use UTF-8 encoding, make sure that no <code>BOM</code> header characters exist in your files or very, very bad things will happen to Jekyll. This is especially relevant if you’re running <a href="{{ '/docs/installation/windows/' | relative_url }}">Jekyll on Windows</a>. </p> </div> <div class="note"> <h5>Front Matter Variables Are Optional</h5> <p> If you want to use <a href="{{ '/docs/variables/' | relative_url }}">Liquid tags and variables</a> but don’t need anything in your front matter, just leave it empty! The set of triple-dashed lines with nothing in between will still get Jekyll to process your file. (This is useful for things like CSS and RSS feeds!) </p> </div>There are a number of predefined global variables that you can set in the front matter of a page or post.
<div class="mobile-side-scroller"> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Variable</th> <th>Description</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><code>layout</code></p> </td> <td> <p> If set, this specifies the layout file to use. Use the layout file
name without the file extension. Layout files must be placed in the
<code>_layouts</code> directory.
</p>
<ul>
<li>
Using <code>null</code> will produce a file without using a layout
file. This is overridden if the file is a post/document and has a
layout defined in the <a href="{{ '/docs/configuration/front-matter-defaults/' | relative_url }}">
front matter defaults</a>.
</li>
<li>
Starting from version 3.5.0, using <code>none</code> in a post/document will
produce a file without using a layout file regardless of front matter defaults.
Using <code>none</code> in a page will cause Jekyll to attempt to
use a layout named "none".
</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>permalink</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
If you need your processed blog post URLs to be something other than
the site-wide style (default <code>/year/month/day/title.html</code>), then you can set
this variable and it will be used as the final URL.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>published</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Set to false if you don’t want a specific post to show up when the
site is generated.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
You can also set your own front matter variables you can access in Liquid. For
instance, if you set a variable called food, you can use that in your page:
{% raw %}
---
food: Pizza
---
<h1>{{ page.food }}</h1>
{% endraw %}
These are available out-of-the-box to be used in the front matter for a post.
<div class="mobile-side-scroller"> <table> <thead> <tr> <th>Variable</th> <th>Description</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><code>date</code></p> </td> <td> <p> A date here overrides the date from the name of the post. This can be used to ensure correct sorting of posts. A date is specified in the format <code>YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS +/-TTTT</code>; hours, minutes, seconds, and timezone offset are optional. </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p><code>category</code></p> <p><code>categories</code></p> </td> <td> <p> Instead of placing posts inside of folders, you can specify one or
more categories that the post belongs to. When the site is generated
the post will act as though it had been set with these categories
normally. Categories (plural key) can be specified as a <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML#Basic_components">YAML list</a> or a
space-separated string.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>tags</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
Similar to categories, one or multiple tags can be added to a post.
Also like categories, tags can be specified as a <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML#Basic_components">YAML list</a> or a
space-separated string.
</p>
</td>
</tr>