how to create a static site with python¶

first up, I strongly recommend you try pelican.
prepare directory structure
```
mkdir content output templates
```

prepare templates

cd templates

cat index.html

{% extends "layout.html" %}

{% block content %}

<h1>Site</h1>

<div>

{% for post in posts %}

    <p>
        <h2>{{loop.index}}: <a href="posts/{{ post.title }}.html">{{post.title}}</a> </h2>
        <!--{{post.summary}}-->
    </p>

{% endfor %}

</div>

{% endblock %}

cat post.html

{% extends "layout.html" %}

{% block content %}

<h1>{{post.title}}</h1>
<p>
    {{post.content}}
</p>

{% endblock %}

cat layout.html

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="ie=edge">
    <title>Site</title>
</head>
<body class="container">

    {% block content %} {% endblock %}

</body>
</html>

prepare code

cat site.py

import os
from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
from markdown2 import markdown

POSTS = {}
for markdown_post in os.listdir('content'):
    file_path = os.path.join('content', markdown_post)
    with open(file_path, 'r') as file:
        POSTS[markdown_post] = markdown(file.read(), extras=['metadata'])
POSTS = {
    post: POSTS[post] for post in sorted(POSTS, key=lambda post: POSTS[post].metadata['title'])
}
env = Environment(loader=FileSystemLoader('templates'))
index_template = env.get_template('index.html')
post_template = env.get_template('post.html')
posts_metadata = [POSTS[post].metadata for post in POSTS]
index_html = index_template.render(posts=posts_metadata)
with open('output/index.html', 'w') as file:
    file.write(index_html)
os.makedirs('output/posts/', exist_ok=True)
for post in POSTS:
    post_metadata = POSTS[post].metadata
    post_data = {
        'title': post_metadata['title'],
        'content': POSTS[post]
    }
    post_html = post_template.render(post=post_data)
    post_file_path = 'output/posts/{title}.html'.format(title=post_metadata['title'])
    with open(post_file_path, 'w') as file:
        file.write(post_html)

copy to a web server

python3 site.py
cp -r output/* /var/www/html/