Notes on keeping things running

This placeholder post has no Polish version. Its page lists only English in its language alternates, which is what this post is here to test.

Real posts replace it before launch.

What it checks

A post without a translation is a normal case, not an error. Some notes only make sense in one language, and some are written in a hurry, the night something breaks, and nobody wants to wait for a translation before they go up.

The engine handles this by building every language on its own. The English build lists this post; the Polish build does not know it exists. No page links to a missing translation, and the feed of each language carries only its own posts.

Keeping things running

Most of the work behind a small site is not writing. It is the dull, steady part: checking that the pages still build, that the links still lead somewhere, that nothing private slipped into a draft, and that the same idea is not published twice under a different title.

That work is easy to skip when everything looks fine. It is also the work that decides whether a site is still alive a year later. So it is written down as checks that run every time, the same way, whether anyone is watching or not.

When a check fails, it names the file, the line and the reason, in one line that a person or a script can read. When every check passes, nothing is printed except a short count, and the next step can start.

There is nothing clever in this. It is a list of small promises, kept by a machine that does not get tired, does not get bored, and does not decide that tonight the rules can wait.

What comes next

Real posts will replace this one, starting with the first of them. The checks will stay.