serfGeek's Geek::Blog

Simple password generator

2012-02-03T20:11:00.008Z

This generates shadow file entries with MD5 crypted passwords.If you don't specify a password to use on the command line, it will generate a random 15 character password for you.NB: You really shouldn't use it with a password on the command line, as this can be seen by other users with the ps command while it's running. I've just done this to simplify the example. This code is a snippet, intended

Yesterday...

2012-02-02T09:30:00.001Z

You can get yesterday's date with$(TZ=GMT+24 date +%y%m%d)(or tomorrow's with -24)

Perl keyword 'our' doesn't work on old Perl

2012-01-27T18:58:00.005Z

If you need to declare a variable in old (pre 5.6?) Perl, and can't use the 'my' keyword...#!/usr/bin/perl -w###use strict;use Getopt::Std;our $opt_v;getopts('v');sub VERBOSE { $opt_v; }This will fail:$ ./try.plUse of reserved word "our" is deprecated at ./try.pl line 8.Global symbol "$opt_v" requires explicit package name at ./try.pl line 8.Execution of ./try.pl aborted due to compilation

Registry entries for TheGun

2011-10-07T10:40:00.003+01:00

TheGun is a great replacement for notepad on Windows. It's a bit funny with registering itself to open file types though, but if you add these registry entries (which expect it to be in C:\Program Files\TheGun\THEGUN.EXE) it should work the way you want it.Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pl\OpenWithList]"g"="

rpm queries

2011-10-05T10:58:00.004+01:00

The rpm options you usually need:rpm -qa (list all packages installedrpm -qf /path/to/file (which package provides this file)rpm -ql (list the files in a package)http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/s1-rpm-query-parts.html

NIS & Automount

2011-08-12T10:51:00.003+01:00

# vi /var/yp/etc/auto_home # cd /var/yp # make auto.home To flush the old mapping on the client server: # automount -v

Spark Timezone

2011-08-01T14:42:00.004+01:00

To correct the timezone in Spark, create a Spark.vmoptions file (not spark.vmoptions and not Spark.vmoptions.txt) beside the Spark.exe and add this to it:-Duser.timezone=Europe/Londonthen restart Spark.Thanks to:http://community.igniterealtime.org/docs/DOC-1151http://community.igniterealtime.org/thread/42980

Comand line wrapping

2011-08-01T10:54:00.000+01:00

If you're having trouble on Solaris with your command line wrapping at 80 characters so it starts printing again at the start of the line...Have you logged in via a jump server and have your terminal settings configured in the first machine, which is controlling what the second machine can send back?

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Function Keys...

2011-06-14T15:36:00.003+01:00

Did you know the natural keyboard 4000 has a "F-Lock" key?http://www.ehow.com/how_6777639_enable-function-keys-microsoft-keyboard.htmlOpen a program that uses the function keys such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. Check your keyboard for an "F-Lock" or "Function Lock" key. This key is used to toggle function-key support; when it is toggled on, the function keys will not work.

Windows hosts file ignored

2011-06-13T15:32:00.004+01:00

If you have already tried all of these things:http://mihaiu.name/2005/windows-hosts-file-ignored/If you've copied the file from somewhere else rather than opening it and pasting in entries, check the permissions on the file.The file permissions could be wrong meaning Windows will not read it.More reading:http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial52.html

Why does ifup eth1 make eth0 stop working?

2011-06-01T18:16:00.003+01:00

and this was a gotcha that stole a couple of hours...Answer... it didn't stop working, I just couldn't see it...bringing up eth1 when I'd cloned eth0's config:/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1and neglected to remove this line:GATEWAY=AA.BB.CC.DDWhen eth1 came up after eth0, it would over-write the default route.I realised what the problem was when

Two things I learned today...

2011-06-01T18:08:00.002+01:00

One, was (by fluke) that ^Y suspends a process like ^Z does... although it waits until the process wants to read input from the terminal before it suspends it... I guess that could be a useful criteria in some situations... I can probably think of other more useful things that could be implemented as built-in features though :-)http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#

Uploading an ISO in vSphere Client

2011-05-09T17:47:00.004+01:00

On http://communities.vmware.com/thread/258207, RParker says:"But you shouldn't be uploading ISO to the datastore anyway, users can mount ISO from their client, or you can create an NFS store, and connect your ESX hosts to it."But...Select your host.Click on the "Storage Views" tab (grey tab on the far right at the top)Click on a Datastore in the list.In the explorer pane list on the left you

Entry for local iso in /etc/apt/sources.list

2011-05-06T16:28:00.003+01:00

deb file:///mnt/ubuntu-iso jaunty main restricted(This was an Ubuntu BSD box and the iso was mounted under /mnt/ubuntu-iso)http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-35807.html

Turning off Passive mode in FTP

2011-04-08T10:46:00.007+01:00

Curl:curl -O -P- ftp://ftp.sunfreeware.com/pub/freeware/sparc/10/xz-5.0.1-sol10-sparc-local.gzFrom the cURL man page here: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/manpage.html#-P--ftp-portor you can add:-P-to your ~/.curlrcFor lftp you can add this to ~/.lftprc:set ftp:passive-mode offOr just type the same command at the lftp prompt if you only want it for the current session.

File descriptors for read loops...

2011-03-17T16:10:00.004Z

while read with a command that eats input (ssh, another read etc)for file:$ cat $tempfilea bc de fg hIn ksh:#!/bin/kshexec 4<$tempfilewhile read -u4 first seconddo echo first=$first echo second=$second printf "number?: " read NUM echo "name=$NUM" ssh localhost uname 2>/dev/nulldonein bash:#!/bin/bashexec 4<$tempfilewhile read <&4 first seconddo echo first=$first echo second=$second

Repeat after me, awk is not Perl...

2011-03-16T17:10:00.005Z

What does a semicolon mean to awk?This works:$ /usr/bin/ps -ef | awk '/ root\ /{p++};END{print p}'but this doesn't:$ /usr/bin/ps -ef | awk 'BEGIN{p=0};/ root\ /{p++}END{print p}'awk: syntax error near line 1awk: bailing out near line 1and this does:$ /usr/bin/ps -ef | awk 'BEGIN{p=0}/ root\ /{p++}END{print p}'0and just to prove it's REALLY niggly, it's fussy about the order you give it things too

Backticks can be dangerous!

2011-03-02T17:31:00.008Z

For years I've preferred to use$(command)rather than`command`while shell scripting.For me it was mostly a matter of style, but I pretty much thought that the two were equivalents.I felt it was a bit easier to see $(...) than `...` and sometimes I need to nest commands with:$(command $(othercommand))which would be impossible with backticks.THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!#!/bin/ksh###for STRING in '

git bits...

2011-01-27T20:16:00.003Z

Cheat sheetsAlexander Zeitler’s Git Cheat SheetZach Rusin’s Git Cheat Sheethttp://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/git/Nate Murray’s Git Cheat Sheethttp://www.codingdomain.com/git/tricks/http://help.github.com/git-cheat-sheets/https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Aliaseshttp://www.draconianoverlord.com/2010/03/04/git-config.htmlhttp://www.sourcemage.org/Git_Guidehttp://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/githttp://

Toggle Character Codes

2011-01-27T13:12:00.002Z

In Windows, when you enter text you can press Alt-X after it to show the hex for that character. (inversely you can type a number and do Alt-X to make the character, or hold Alt & type the number on the numeric keypad to get the character)

How to expand * on bash command line

2011-01-18T09:14:00.003Z

<Esc>* in set -o vior <Ctrl-X>* in standard bashhttp://superuser.com/questions/215950/how-to-expand-on-bash-command-line

vim one liner to convert backslashes in clipboard to percents

2011-01-12T19:07:00.002Z

Windows clipboard modifier in vim...I was exporting a whole lot of registry entries in Windows.I would do F3 to find the next match, right click & click "Export",then select the whole key name, the press ^C to copyThen go to vim and press v to run the mapped macro below.Then go to the filename box and press ^V to paste & click save.:map v dd"+gP^Q:%s/\\/%/g^Q^MV"+yWhich looks like::map v dd"+gP^[

Apache Directory Index

2011-01-12T17:04:00.001Z

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_autoindex.htmlIndexOptions NameWidth=* FancyIndexing FoldersFirst HTMLTable SuppressHTMLPreamble VersionSort IgnoreCase

Mail sender for mutt to gmail

2011-01-11T18:35:00.000Z

http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/doc/msmtp.html

Windows bits

2011-01-05T14:53:00.002Z

"Desktop As Shortcut" Command Is Missing from the "Send To" Menu:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/191882Sysinternals Process Utilities:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx