posts

Upgrading Linewise

Jun 3, 2026 1 min read

How to update the Hugo theme without mixing it with your content.

Linewise ships as a Hugo theme. Your posts and site configuration stay in your Hugo site; theme code lives under themes/linewise or in a Hugo module.

If installed as a git submodule

Update the theme repository:

cd themes/linewise
git fetch --tags
git checkout v0.2.0
cd ../..
hugo

Then commit the submodule pointer from your site repository:

git add themes/linewise
git commit -m "chore: update linewise theme"

If installed as a Hugo module

Update the module version:

hugo mod get github.com/tabsp/linewise@v0.2.0
hugo mod tidy
hugo

What to review

Theme upgrades should not touch your content files. Review these areas after updating:

  • hugo.toml, especially [params.linewise]
  • any local layout overrides
  • any custom CSS in your site
  • generated routes such as /posts/, /tags/, /find/, and /search.json

Breaking changes

Linewise will document breaking changes in release notes. A breaking change usually means one of these:

  • a config key under [params.linewise] changed
  • a documented partial override changed shape
  • a shortcode changed
  • the search index format changed

If you do not override theme internals, updates should normally be limited to changing the theme version and running hugo.