In a world where every piece of software is filled with scope creep, bloat, and unneeded complexity, it can be refreshing to have a website that is simple and straightforward. In this article, we will explore how to set up a website using Python 3, HTML, and Pandoc.

The website in question will be pretty similar to mine, and can be a pretty good starting point for everybody with some programming experience.

Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Setting up Apache2
3. Setting up templates

Prerequisites

• A text editor
• Python 3.12
• Pandoc
• A VPS running Debian, or GitHub pages (although I am using the former)
• Git
• Some domain, or GitHub page’s

Setting up Apache2

For people on GitHub pages, skip this section.

Apache2 (Apache hereafter) is the most popular web server out there - it is ubiquitous, versatile, and has a pretty straight-forward configuration.

Install it with:

# yes | apt-get install apache2

Debian’s default Apache2 configuration is pretty bland, but it is a pretty good starting point. Open <your server host>:80 in your browser, and you should see a page with a header that says “It works!”.

Now, we’ll add a virtual host for our website. Create a file called /etc/apache2/sites-available/<your full hostname>.conf (for me, it is /etc/apache2/sites-available/mariorosell.es.conf) with the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName mariorosell.es

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =mariorosell.es
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

NOTE: Do NOT delete the default config

(We’ll then expand this to support HTTPS with certbot, for now stick to HTTP.)

Now make