Metalsmith.js: How to build to same directory as build script?

Question

I am completely new to metalsmith. I've been following this tutorial: http://www.robinthrift.com/post/metalsmith-part-1-setting-up-the-forge/

I want to build my site to the root directory of my project (the same dir as the build script). I want to do this because I want github pages to play nicely with it. But when I try to build, I get this error: Error: EBUSY, resource busy or locked

Here is my dir structure:

• project_folder/
  • _site-src/
    • index.html
  • node_modules
  • build.js
  • package.json

Here is my build.js source:

var Metalsmith = require("metalsmith");

Metalsmith(__dirname)
    .source("_site_src")
    .destination(".")
    .build();

What I want my project dir to look like:

• project_folder/
  • _site-src/
    • index.html
  • node_modules
  • build.js
  • package.json
  • index.html

I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I appreciate any help.

Answer 1

The error message:

Error: EBUSY, resource busy or locked

seems to be a file locked/in use error. (I'm not that familiar with Node.js errors)

I would assume this is happening when Metalsmith tries to clean the build folder (which is your solution folder i.e. a really bad idea). This is on by default but it can be turned off.

To turn this off use:

.clean(false)

before you build.

---

BUT if you remove items from your source folder they won't be removed from your build folder. You might be able to handle this by a custom clean-up script or plugin.

I'm not experienced with github pages but I think there should be a better alternative to the avoid the problem.

You could possibly add a symbolic link to the build folder from the project folder for the index.html file.