Since lighttpd is a maintained package for Unbuntu, all we have to do is follow the Ubuntu install instructions . sudo apt-get install lighttpd Security Once installed, you may want to tighten security a bit. cd ~ vi .profile # change umask to 027 and save umask 027 # to apply to current session Sitebuild Script Now we can create a build script for our site. Go to the directory your Jekyll code is in and create sitebuild.sh containing #!/bin/bash docroot = "/var/www/html" sudo -- sh -c "umask 0027; bundle exec jekyll build -d $docroot " sudo chown -R root:www-data $docroot sudo chmod -R o-rwx,g-w $docroot Hopefully this will ensure that none of your site files have any lingering read attributes that they should not. Finally, you will want to edit your _config.yml and add the following to the end (or at least uncomment some) exclude: - sitebuild.sh - Gemfile - Gemfile.lock - node_modules - vendor/bundle/ - vend