new post on using HTTPS

Gemfile

 source 'https://rubygems.org'
 gem 'github-pages'
+gem 'jekyll-compose', group: [:jekyll_plugins]
+gem 'jekyll-feed', group: [:jekyll_plugins]
+gem 'jekyll-paginate', group: [:jekyll_plugins]
+

_config.yml

@@ -28,3 +28,5 @@ pages_list:
     Contact: 'contact'
 
 exclude: [vendor, "Gemfile", "Gemfile.lock"]
+paginate: 5
+paginate_path: "/blog/page:num/"

_posts/2016-05-29-ssl.md

+---
+title: Enabling HTTPS
+layout: post
+tags: [config, tech]
+---
+
+So, it's been around a year and a half since I set up this site. At the time I
+shifted to Github pages and got a custom domain, I had thought about setting up
+HTTPS. For several reasons, I'm a proponent of an HTTPS-only web. Where I can, I
+try to make it so.
+
+For example, the main IITB CSE website (<http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in>) is
+HTTPS-only, however this is only enforced for the department website. User pages
+and parts of the site proxied to other servers aren't HTTPS-only, much as I'd
+like them to be. I had initially tried enforcing HTTPS for the entire site, but
+it broke some old pages that the users were unwilling or unable to fix.
+
+Of course, it'd be hypocritical of me to not offer or enforce HTTPS on my own
+site. That, however, is difficult to do. Github Pages didn't support HTTPS at
+all earlier. (Now it does, albeit unofficially.) It still has no option to
+support HTTPS for custom domains.
+
+<!-- section -->
+
+Recently, two things happened:
+
+1. I had occasion to visit a friend's website, and he had HTTPS setup and
+   enforced.
+2. Gitlab started offering their own [Gitlab Pages][gitlab-pages] service, which
+   did support HTTPS for their Pages domains from the start.
+
+Ever since I installed Gitlab for [the CSE Git server][git.cse], I've been a fan
+of their work. Their monthly release schedule meant that bugs were fixed and
+features added regularly. Integration of a CI implementation and
+[Mattermost][mm] was a plus. So, when Gitlab Pages was announced, I was
+interested. It supported more Static Site Generators (SSGs) than did Github
+(which only supported a crippled Jekyll). You could use practically any Jekyll
+plugin you wanted, since the command to generate the site was specified by you
+as CI configuration. I didn't see much reason to migrate at the time, since I'd
+have to add CI configuration, and there seemed to be not much benefit with
+having my page available from four (!) places (#visitors &le; #sites
+:stuck_out_tongue:).
+
+Seeing the friend's site gave me impetus to investigate my options for HTTPS
+once again. This time, there seemed to be some updates:
+
+1. Using CloudFlare to provide HTTPS is a commonly-suggested method.
+2. Other options offering a similar workaround have come up, like
+   [Kloudsec][ks].
+3. [Let's Encrypt][le] has taken wing.
+4. And finally, Gitlab Pages started supporting custom domains **with HTTPS**.
+
+<!-- section -->
+
+First, I tried the CloudFlare way. That was fairly easy, following [this blog
+post][ssl-ubuntu-blog]. Register with CloudFlare, add your domains, switch
+nameservers with the ones provided by them, and then start toggling the options.
+Of interest:
+
+1. You have to enable both DNS+proxy with CF for HTTPS, HTTPS redirection and
+   HSTS to take effect.
+2. The *Full (Strict)* option is what you need to make CF use HTTPS with the
+   actual server *and* check certificate validity. This won't work with Github
+   Pages.
+3. As usual, changing nameservers takes a while. So, for immediate testing, I
+   added the CF nameservers to `/etc/resolv.conf`. (And looked up the IPs for
+   use in `/etc/hosts`, just in case.)
+
+The annoying bit is that the Github Pages site, which redirects to my custom
+domain, still prefers HTTP. So: `https://murukeshm.github.io` →
+`http://murukesh.me` → `https://murukesh.me`. :unamused: And if you do enable
+`Full (Strict)` SSL, down goes your site.
+
+<!-- section -->
+
+And so the hunt continued. Like I said, Gitlab Pages had started some time ago,
+but I didn't know that it support custom domains with HTTPS support. I learnt
+about that while browsing [the Github issue][#156] about HTTPS support on Pages,
+from @konkone's [comment][156-comment].
+
+So, off I went to Gitlab.com, where I already had an account I made for
+participating in Gitlab CE issues. I imported the repository from Github,
+renamed it, and added a `.gitlab-ci.yml` to kickstart the Gitlab CI's page
+building process. I lifted the contents from [the default Jekyll setup for
+Gitlab][gitlab-jekyll]. The build started, and took a couple of minutes to
+finish. That's not a big deal, since updates to Github Pages may take upto 5
+minutes, and with Gitlab, you can see the status of the build, and the live log
+output as well. In particular, the latter is very useful to spot bugs.
+
+Now came the most tiresome part: actually getting a certificate for
+`murukesh.me`. There are a few options for getting a free certificate. I decided
+to try *Let's Encrypt* (instead of StartSSL, just for the sake of it). So, I
+installed the `letsencrypt` package on my Arch Linux system, and ran the tool.
+And, well, apparently by default it's designed to run *on the server hosting
+the site* you want to encrypt. :neutral_face: You have to pick the `manual`
+option, and this, I discovered too late, is already well-described in [Gitlab's
+tutorial on using *Let's Encrypt*][gitlab-le].
+
+It's still cumbersome though:
+
+1. You have to add the domains on Gitlab without the certificates.
+2. When you run the `letsencrypt` tool, it generates some text you have to add
+   to your site. Annoyingly, it does so once each for each domain listed, and it
+   waits for each addition to finish. So, two domains, two commits.
+3. Then, after LE has generated the certificates, you have to remove and add
+   back the domains on Gitlab, since it doesn't support editing an added domain
+   to add a certificate. :tired_face:
+
+<!-- section -->
+
+After all that, I do have HTTPS on both `murukesh.me` and `murukesh.gitlab.io`.
+(Side note: Yay for getting in early enough to get `murukesh` as my ID!)
+However, Gitlab still doesn't support redirection of HTTP to HTTPS. So, I'm back
+to using CloudFlare to add HTTP-to-HTTPS redirection and HSTS for my site.
+
+There's also the problem of renewing the *Let's Encrypt* certificate, which
+lasts around three months. Apparently [there are plans][gitlab-474] to
+integrate LE with Gitlab Pages to automate the whole shebang. There's also a
+recent [feature request][gitlab-721] to enable redirection of HTTP to HTTPS.
+
+Here's to hoping both of them getting implemented!
+
+[git.cse]: https://git.cse.iitb.ac.in 
+[ssl-ubuntu-blog]: https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/blog/2016/02/17/how-host-your-static-site-https-github-pages-and-cloudflare/
+[ks]: https://kloudsec.com/github-pages/new 
+[le]: https://letsencrypt.org/getting-started/ 
+[gitlab-pages]: https://about.gitlab.com/2016/04/07/gitlab-pages-setup/
+[mm]: https://www.mattermost.org/
+[#156]: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/156
+[156-comment]: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/156#issuecomment-206421767
+[gitlab-jekyll]: https://gitlab.com/jekyll-themes/default-bundler
+[gitlab-le]: https://about.gitlab.com/2016/04/11/tutorial-securing-your-gitlab-pages-with-tls-and-letsencrypt/
+[gitlab-474]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/474
+[gitlab-721]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support-forum/issues/721

blog.html → blog/index.html

 ---
 title: Blog
-permalink: /blog/
 pagestyle: posts
 layout: default
 ---
 
-{% for post in site.posts %}
+{% for post in paginator.posts %}
 <section>
 	<header class="post-title">
 		<h1>
@@ -30,3 +29,14 @@ layout: default
 	{{ post.excerpt }}
 </section>
 {% endfor %}
+
+<section class="page-links">
+{% if paginator.next_page %}
+<a class="page-prev" href="{{ paginator.next_page_path }}">Older: 
+	{{ paginator.next_page }} / {{ paginator.total_pages }}</a>
+{% endif %}
+{% if paginator.previous_page %}
+<a class="page-next" href="{{ paginator.previous_page_path }}">Newer: 
+	{{ paginator.previous_page }} / {{ paginator.total_pages }}</a>
+{% endif %}
+</section>

styles/posts.css

@@ -89,6 +89,26 @@ ol.tags-list li {
 	overflow: auto;
 }
 
+.page-links {
+	overflow: auto;
+}
+
+a.page-prev {
+	float: left;
+}
+
+a.page-next {
+	float: right;
+}
+
+a.page-prev, a.page-next {
+	/*border: solid black 0.05em ;
+	box-shadow: 0 0.05em 0.05em 0.05em rgba(200,200,200,0.75);*/
+	background-color: white;
+	color: black;
+	padding: 1em;
+}
+
 @media screen and (min-device-aspect-ratio: 1/1) and (orientation: landscape) {
 	.post-date {
 		float: right;