Please document the difference between the "extended" and non-"extended" versions

[nelhage]

I'm setting up a new site with Hugo for the first time, after happily using hugo for years. I'm exploring themes, and many of them now cite that they need the "extended" version. I've now spent half an hour trying to figure out the difference between the "extended" and non-"extended" versions and why I should care, and I'm still pretty baffled. The "extended" version seems to support SASS/SCSS, but I can't figure if there's a reason I might not want it. Is it slower? Less reliable or portable somehow?

I've extensively searched the documentation and the forum, and I can't find an explanation. Please consider writing a page somewhere in the documentation explaining why there is this confusing bifurcation of hugo into two incompatible projects, and helping users make decisions about which one to use.

[bep]

I agree.

• The only functional difference is SASS/SCSS
• The technical build time difference is that it requires a C++ build chain for the target platform to build, the reason why we currently only build the extended for 3 platforms (Windows, Linux, MacOS)
• Binaries are slightly less portable as you need a compatible Libc version on your computer (for Windows we build a fully static version as Libc is rather uncommon unless you have Visual Studio or something installed).

[kenmorse]

Maybe a note in the "Install Hugo" page?

[davidsneighbour]

But @kenmorse not only that. Let's introduce some kind of marker (label in bootstrap lingo?) that shows people on subsequent pages of the documentation that the extended version is required for this to work.

[faraixyz]

I put in a pull request a few weeks ago addressing this. #1124

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[venteto]

The only functional difference is SASS/SCSS

I'm confused and I still don't understand what I can do with the mythical extended version that I cannot do with the normal version (?).

I seem to already be making use of SASS/SCSS with the regular binary on Manjaro (via the regular repository), as well as themes that depend on SASS/SCSS. Is there still some actual difference in the "extended" version (which seems to be available via the AUR)?

I do have a Go binary installed too, does that effectively extended the capabilities of the normal Hugo binary and lead to my confusion?

I know it's been a year since this issue was created, have the two projects been merged? Will they be in the future?

[faraixyz]

Assuming the package is this one (https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/hugo/) it uses the extended one by default (https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-community/blob/08a9d645782d2d8fefd108c9836247cae3772e41/trunk/PKGBUILD#L27).

As of writing this, the differences are that the extended version has libsass for Sass/SCSS (although the normal binary does this uses dartsass) and supports webp image processing.

[bep]

As of writing this, the differences are that the extended version has libsass for Sass/SCSS (although the normal binary does this uses dartsass) and supports webp image processing.

The above is correct. Or, to be more precise: You need the extended version to encode webp images, all versions support decoding them (reading).

[breyed]

The lack of a definition of "extended" makes the quick start not so quick for Windows users. A windows user going through the Quick Start page gets sent over to Installing Hugo. On that page, in the Windows section, he's presented with the choice of installing hugo or hugo-extended. The only guidance provided is:

Or if you need the “extended” Sass/SCSS version

It's not clear what this means. Is Sass/SCSS the only extension or just a primary one? Some clear, concise guidance, probably in the form of a link to a page describing the features of the extended version, would keep the quick start process moving along smoothly.

[nai888]

Just a quick poke and addition of my support for the idea: I would love for this to be documented somewhere. @bep's comment is the first time I've actually seen it stated anywhere. A colleague of mine who's not using the extended version was running into issues, and it was because I was trying to encode .webp, but it took me until finally finding this Issue to figure out what the problem was because everything I found simply said the extended version was just for scss/sass.