Docsy - Show The Last Modified Date

Background

Hugo supports two ways to get the last modified date of posts:

• Using the last commit date in Git.
• Using the lastmod property in the frontmatter of posts.

To use the Git way, we need to enable it in the Hugo configuration file hugo.toml:

enableGitInfo = true

With the above configuration, it seems we can have both. That means if we defined date or lastmod property in the frontmatter of a post, Hugo is supposed to use them, otherwise Hugo will use Git information instead.

However, from my test, Hugo always uses Git information for the last modifition date of posts.

The Issue

In the Docsy theme, the last modified date is processed in /layouts/partials/page-meta-lastmod.html, shown below:

{{ if and (.GitInfo) (.Site.Params.github_repo) -}}
<div class="text-muted mt-5 pt-3 border-top">
  {{ T "post_last_mod" }} {{ .Lastmod.Format .Site.Params.time_format_default -}}
  {{ with .GitInfo }}: {{/* Trim WS */ -}}
    <a href="{{ $.Site.Params.github_repo }}/commit/{{ .Hash }}">
      {{- .Subject }} ({{ .AbbreviatedHash }}) {{- /* Trim WS */ -}}
    </a>
  {{- end }}
</div>
{{ end -}}

It doesn't work for me. The last modified date never shows on my posts because my GitHub repo is private and I didn't provide the repo's URL in hugo.toml.

How I Do It

Here is my customized version of /layouts/partials/page-meta-lastmod.html:

{{ if .Lastmod }}  
  <div class="text-muted pt-3 border-top">
    {{ T "post_last_mod" }}: {{ .Lastmod.Format .Site.Params.time_format_default }}
  </div>
{{ else if .PublishDate }} 
  <div class="text-muted pt-3 border-top"> 
    {{ T "post_last_mod" }}: {{ .PublishDate.Format .Site.Params.time_format_default }}
  </div>    
{{ end }}

I know the code isn't pretty. It just works.

Now if Hugo can fetch the last commit date of a post from my Git repo, the .Lastmod will have a value, hence displayed at the bottom of my posts. Or, if anything goes wrong with the .Lastmod variable, I can still use the date property in the frontmatter.

See also: Hugo document > Configure front matter

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