2026 website

All the code required to generate the website of the 2026 edition of Pass the SALT conference.

Installation

apt install hugo

or visit https://gohugo.io/installation/linux/ and take the Extended edition.

Get the source files, Git repo creation and initial commit

• Clone previous year Github repo: git clone https://github.com/pass-the-salt/2025.git
• Rename the directory 2025 to 2026.
• Suppress the .git subdirectory in 2026 directory.
• create on Github the 2026 repository and type following commands in 2026 directory on your server:

  git init
  git *add README.md*
  git commit -m "first commit"
  git branch -M main
  git remote add origin [email protected]:pass-the-salt/test.git
  git push -u origin main
  

Modify content

Some instructions or indications about the different directories and files:

• cgi-bin/update.cgi : change all mentions of 2025 to 2026 (notably on path and filenames)
• config.toml: contains global parameters of the site (title, logo, lang, top and bottom menu content).
• data/en/homepage.yml: Yaml parameters to inject into homepage through Vex theme templates.
• themes/vex-hugo/layouts/: several directories containing all HTML templates of the Vex theme.
• themes/vex-hugo/layouts/index.html: structure of the homepage which calls HTML snippets located in partial directory. If you want to add a section in the homepage, just add a call to a HTML snippet file and create the HTML file in the partial directory.
• content/: Markdown content of individual pages.
• static/: images and files.
• public/: HTML pages generated by the Hugo engine.

Test locally, produce final HTML files and push to website

• run hugo server from the root of the repository to run the site locally in memory. Do it until you are satisfied by the result.
• then, run hugo from the root of the repository to produce the static site pages in public/.
• finally, commit and push changes to the Github repo: git add * && git commit -m "your commit message" && git push origin main

Prepare webserver environment

• [DNS] create 2026.pass-the-salt.org DNS record on Gandi DNS : 2026 10800 IN CNAME unicorn.pass-the-salt.org.

• [DNS] verify if the DNS resolution returns the correct IP of the server: dig 2026.pass-the-salt.org

• [Apache] create the Apache definition of the website with the listening port set to TCP/80.

  # cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
  # vim 2026.passthesalt.conf
  <VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName 2026.pass-the-salt.org 
  DocumentRoot /var/www/2026-passthesalt
  </VirtualHost>
  # mkdir /var/www/2026-passthesalt/
  # chown www-data:www-data /var/www/2026-passthesalt/
  # a2ensite 2026.passthesalt.conf 
  # systemctl reload apache2
  # service apache2 status
  

• [TLS] obtain the TLS certificate: Select the 2026 hostname on the list proposed by Certbot :

  # certbot --apache
  Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
  Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
  We recommend selecting either all domains, or all domains in a VirtualHost/server block.
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  1: pass-the-salt.org
  [...]]
  10: 2026.pass-the-salt.org
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
  blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel): 10
  Requesting a certificate for 2026.pass-the-salt.org
  Successfully received certificate.
  Certificate is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/2026.pass-the-salt.org/fullchain.pem
  Key is saved at:         /etc/letsencrypt/live/2026.pass-the-salt.org/privkey.pem
  This certificate expires on 2026-03-09.
  These files will be updated when the certificate renews.
  Certbot has set up a scheduled task to automatically renew this certificate in the background.
  
  Deploying certificate
  Successfully deployed certificate for 2026.pass-the-salt.org to /etc/apache2/sites-available/2026.passthesalt-le-ssl.conf
  Congratulations! You have successfully enabled HTTPS on https://2026.pass-the-salt.org
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  

• [SRC] Initialize the website with an initial clone of the Github source repo of the website:

  # cd /var/www
  # git clone https://github.com/pass-the-salt/2026.git
  Cloning into '2026'...
  remote: Enumerating objects: 282, done.
  remote: Counting objects: 100% (282/282), done.
  remote: Compressing objects: 100% (217/217), done.
  remote: Total 282 (delta 41), reused 282 (delta 41), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
  Receiving objects: 100% (282/282), 22.95 MiB | 8.85 MiB/s, done.
  Resolving deltas: 100% (41/41), done.
  Updating files: 100% (376/376), done.
  # chown www-data:www-data 2026
  # git pull
  fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at '/var/www/2026'
  To add an exception for this directory, call:
    git config --global --add safe.directory /var/www/2026
  # git config --global --add safe.directory /var/www/2026
  # git pull
  Already up to date.
  

• [Apache & Webhook] Add webhook CGI script section in the Apache config file & restart Apache:

  # vim /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/2026.passthesalt-le-ssl.conf
  
  ajout des lignes :
  
  ScriptAlias "/cgi-bin/" "/var/www/2026/cgi-bin/"
  
  <Directory "/var/www/2026/cgi-bin/">
      Options +ExecCGI
      AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
  </Directory>
  # chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/2026
  # service apache2 restart
  # service apache2 status
  

• [Webhook] Github webhook:

  • Important: check if you have really changed any mentions to 2025 in favor of 2026 inside the cgi-bin/update.cgi as asked in the "Modify content" section.
  • [Github] create a new webhook on the GUI Settings\Webhooks of the repository giving following payload: https://2026.pass-the-salt.org/cgi-bin/update.cgi
  • each push on the Github repo 2026 will activate a webhook (URL: https://2026.pass-the-salt.org/cgi-bin/update.cgi).
  • script pointed by the webhook : cgi-bin/update.cgi file.
  • how it works:
    • check if updates exist on Github repo 2026.
    • if updates exist on the Github repo 2026:
      • the script fetchs them to /var/www/2026 directory on the server
      • rsync the content of the public/ sub directory of /var/www/2026 directory with the content of the website located in /var/www/2026-passthesalt.