add initial structure + flesh out README + set up CI & auto-deploy vi…

…a GitHub Actions workflows

.github/workflows/deploy.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# documentation: https://help.github.com/en/articles/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions
+name: deploy documentation (only on push to master branch)
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: master
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
+    steps:
+    - name: checkout
+      uses: actions/checkout@v2
+
+    - name: set up Python
+      uses: actions/setup-python@v1
+      with:
+        python-version: 3.8
+
+    - name: install mkdocs
+      run: |
+          pip install mkdocs mkdocs-material mkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-plugin
+          mkdocs --version
+
+    - name: build tutorial
+      run: make test && make deploy

.github/workflows/test.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# documentation: https://help.github.com/en/articles/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions
+name: build documentation
+on: [push, pull_request]
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
+    steps:
+    - name: checkout
+      uses: actions/checkout@v2
+
+    - name: set up Python
+      uses: actions/setup-python@v1
+      with:
+        python-version: 3.8
+
+    - name: install mkdocs
+      run: |
+          pip install mkdocs mkdocs-material mkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-plugin
+          mkdocs --version
+
+    - name: build tutorial
+      run: make test

.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+site/

Makefile

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+all: build
+
+build:
+	mkdocs build
+
+deploy:
+	mkdocs gh-deploy --force
+
+test:
+	mkdocs build --strict
+
+preview:
+	mkdocs serve

README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,66 @@
 ## Documentation for the European Environment for Scientific Software Installations (EESSI)
 
 Welcome to the repository that hosts the **[EESSI](https://github.com/EESSI)** documentation, see https://eessi.github.io/docs.
+
+## Basic info
+
+* contents are located in ``docs/`` subdirectory
+
+* [Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown) is used as syntax
+
+
+## Getting started
+
+This documentation is rendered via [MkDocs](https://www.mkdocs.org/),
+which makes it very easy to preview the result of the changes you make locally.
+
+* First, install ``mkdocs``:
+
+        pip install mkdocs
+
+* Build the documentation:
+
+        make
+
+  or:
+
+        mkdocs build
+
+* Test the documentation (make sure there are no issues):
+
+        make test
+
+  or:
+
+        mkdocs build --strict
+
+* Start the MkDocs built-in dev-server to preview the documentation as you work on it:
+
+        make preview
+
+  or:
+
+        mkdocs serve
+
+  Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000 to see the local live preview of the changes you make.
+
+* If you prefer building a static preview you can use ``make``,
+  which should result in a ``site/`` subdirectory that contains the rendered documentation.
+
+
+## Automatic updates
+
+The rendered version of this documentation at https://eessi.github.io/docs
+is automatically updated on every push to the ``master`` branch,
+thanks to the GitHub Actions workflow defined in
+[``.github/workflows/deploy.yml``](https://github.com/EESSI/docs/blob/master/.github/workflows/deploy.yml).
+
+The [``gh-pages``](https://github.com/EESSI/docs/tree/gh-pages) branch in this repository contains the rendered version.
+
+https://eessi.github.io/docs will only be updated if the tests pass,
+see GitHub Actions workflow defined in
+[``.github.workflows/test.yml``](https://github.com/EESSI/docs/blob/master/.github/workflows/test.yml).
+
+**Note**: **do *not* change the files in the ``gh-pages`` branch directly!**
+
+All your changes will be lost the next time the ``master`` branch is updated...

docs/00_general.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*(more info coming soon)*

docs/01_overview.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*(more info coming soon)*

docs/11_cvmfs.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*(more info coming soon)*

docs/12_gentoo_prefix.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*(more info coming soon)*

docs/13_easybuild.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*(more info coming soon)*

docs/99_contact.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*(more info coming soon)*

docs/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+!!! warning
+    *(May 7th 2020)*<br/>
+    **This is very much a work in progress!**<br/>
+    Many pages are still empty, that will hopefully change soon...
+
+# European Environment for Scientific Software Installations (EESSI)
+
+---
+
+## Contents
+
+* [General info](00_general.md)
+* [Overview](01_overview.md)
+* [CVMFS layer](11_cvmfs.md)
+* [Gentoo Prefix layer](12_gentoo_prefix.md)
+* [EasyBuild later](13_easybuild.md)
+* [Contact info](99_contact.md)

mkdocs.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+site_name: "<a href='/'>European Environment for Scientific Software Installations (EESSI)</a>"
+theme:
+  name: material
+  features:
+      - instant
+      - tabs
+repo_name: EESSI @ GitHub
+repo_url: https://github.com/EESSI
+edit_uri: docs/edit/master/docs
+nav:
+  - Home: index.md
+  - General info: 00_general.md
+  - Overview: 01_overview.md
+  - CVMFS layer: 11_cvmfs.md
+  - Gentoo Prefix layer: 12_gentoo_prefix.md
+  - EasyBuild later: 13_easybuild.md
+  - Contact info: 99_contact.md
+plugins:
+  # show revision date at bottom of each page
+  - git-revision-date-localized
+  # necessary for search to work
+  - search
+markdown_extensions:
+  # notes, warnings, hints, ...
+  - admonition
+  # code blocks with syntax highlighting, graphs
+  - pymdownx.superfences
+  # tabbed contents
+  - pymdownx.tabbed
+  - toc:
+      permalink: true
+extra:
+  # add links in bottom right
+  social:
+    - type: github
+      icon: octicons/logo-github
+      link: https://github.com/EESSI