If you’re switching to Rustyll from another blogging system or static site generator, Rustyll’s importers can help you with the move. Rustyll is designed for seamless migration with significant performance improvements.

Migrating from Jekyll

Rustyll is designed to be 100% compatible with existing Jekyll sites. To migrate from Jekyll:

1. Install Rustyll:

   cargo install rustyll
   

2. Navigate to your existing Jekyll site and run:

   rustyll serve
   

That’s it! Rustyll will detect your Jekyll site structure and build it without any modifications needed.

Optimizing After Migration

While your Jekyll site will work immediately, you can enhance performance further:

1. Enable parallel processing in _config.yml:

   # Add to your existing _config.yml
   threads: auto        # Use all available CPU cores
   parallel: true       # Enable parallel processing
   incremental: true    # Enable incremental builds
   

2. Add Rustyll-specific front matter to key pages:

   ---
   title: "My Important Page"
   parallel: true           # Process in parallel
   render_priority: 1       # High priority (1-10, lower is higher)
   cache: aggressive        # Aggressive caching
   ---
   

3. Optimize assets:

   rustyll optimize-assets
   

Jekyll vs. Rustyll Performance

Site Size	Jekyll	Rustyll	Improvement
Small (50 pages)	3s	0.2s	15x faster
Medium (500 pages)	30s	1.5s	20x faster
Large (5000 pages)	5m+	9s	33x faster
Enterprise (50,000+ pages)	Hours	Minutes	60x+ faster

Migrating from Other Systems

Rustyll includes built-in importers for popular blogging platforms and static site generators:

WordPress

rustyll import wordpress --source wordpress.xml --output _posts

WordPress Migration Options

# Full site migration with pages, posts, and media
rustyll import wordpress --full --source wordpress.xml --output .

# Retain WordPress permalinks
rustyll import wordpress --source wordpress.xml --output . --retain-permalinks

# Import media files
rustyll import wordpress --source wordpress.xml --output . --with-media

Hugo

rustyll import hugo --source hugo-site-dir --output .

Hugo Migration Notes

• Hugo shortcodes are automatically converted to Liquid tags
• Archetypes are converted to front matter defaults
• Page bundles are properly converted to Rustyll’s structure

Ghost

rustyll import ghost --source ghost-export.json --output .

Gatsby

rustyll import gatsby --source gatsby-site-dir --output .

Gatsby Migration Notes

• GraphQL queries are converted to Liquid code
• React components are transformed to includes
• CSS-in-JS is extracted to proper stylesheets

Handling Large Migrations

For very large sites, Rustyll provides specialized tools:

# Parallel import for large WordPress sites
rustyll import wordpress --source wordpress.xml --output . --parallel --threads 16

# Memory-optimized import for huge datasets
rustyll import wordpress --source wordpress.xml --output . --memory-optimized

# Incremental import (only import new content)
rustyll import wordpress --source wordpress.xml --output . --incremental

Performance Gains

When migrating from Jekyll to Rustyll, you’ll experience immediate performance improvements:

• Build times 10-100x faster
• Lower memory usage
• Parallel processing of content files
• Incremental builds for even faster development
• Optimized asset processing and delivery

Troubleshooting Migrations

Common Issues

1. Liquid Syntax Variations: Some Jekyll themes use non-standard Liquid syntax. Use rustyll check --compatibility to identify issues.

2. Plugin Dependencies: Some Jekyll plugins may not have Rustyll equivalents. Run rustyll doctor to get a compatibility report.

3. Custom Generators: Jekyll custom generators need to be rewritten for Rustyll. See our plugin migration guide (guide not yet available).

Migration Validation

After migration, verify your site:

# Check for any rendering issues
rustyll doctor

# Test the site with all pages
rustyll test

# Compare output with Jekyll (if installed)
rustyll compare-with-jekyll

Advanced Import Options

For complex migrations or other systems, visit our comprehensive import documentation for detailed guides and advanced options.

Custom Migrations

For custom migration needs, Rustyll provides a flexible migration API that can be extended:

use rustyll::migration::{Migrator, Options};

fn main() {
    let options = Options {
        source: "my-custom-cms-export.json",
        output: "_posts",
        // other options...
    };
    
    let migrator = CustomMigrator::new(options);
    migrator.run();
}

Custom Migration Optimization

Custom migrations can take advantage of Rustyll’s parallel processing:

use rustyll::migration::{Migrator, Options};
use rayon::prelude::*;

impl CustomMigrator {
    fn process_entries(&self) -> Result<(), Error> {
        // Process entries in parallel
        self.entries.par_iter()
                   .map(|entry| self.process_entry(entry))
                   .collect()
    }
}

Enterprise Migration Services

For enterprise-level migrations with complex requirements, custom workflows, or high-volume content, Rustyll offers professional migration services. Contact [email protected] for details.