Have a look at http://www.kubuntu.org/ and see for yourself

cd - takes you to your previous directory, letting you easily switch back and forth between two directories. Take /home/ryan and /etc for example:

ryan@lambda:~$ cd /etc
ryan@lambda:/etc$ cd -
/home/ryan
ryan@lambda:~$ cd -
/etc
ryan@lambda:/etc$

Please share any other cool shell tricks you may know

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However, I often want to access IRC from computers I don’t control and thus installing Quassel each and everytime I want to access IRC (it’s main feature is that it’s a distributed IRC client, multiple clients can connect to one core) is impractical. I thus resort to SSH (using one time passwords, who knows what’s sniffing my keystrokes), screen and irssi. However, irssi, out of the box, does not provide you with a ‘monitor’ window similar to Quassel’s. Here are the instructions on how to get one and what the finished product should look like.

Start off by entering the following to create a new split window called ‘monitor’ with a height of 6 lines, and have irssi remember the new layout

/window new split
/window name monitor
/window size 6
/layout save


If you’re using a script like adv_windowlist.pl and chansort.pl, you can also run the following:

/window num 2
/chansort
/layout save


This will set the monitor window’s number to ‘2′ (You can now access in with Alt-2) and will resort the channels in your windowlist.

Now you’ll need to install the trigger.pl script. You can do this by downloading the file and putting it in $HOME/.irssi/autorun/ and then either restarting irssi or running /script load trigger.pl, irssi will print something like [12:31:43] Irssi: Loaded script trigger in your '(status)' window.

Now to the fun part, adding triggers. I like to be able to watch #kubuntu-devel and #kubuntu-netbook. I have the following triggers, which will copy what people say, actions (/me), notices (/notice) and topic changes in those two channels to the window monitor in real-time.

/trigger add -publics -channels '#kubuntu-devel #kubuntu-netbook' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level PUBLIC $C: <$N> $1'
/trigger add -topics -channels '#kubuntu-devel #kubuntu-netbook' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level TOPICS $C: <$N> $1'
/trigger add -pubactions -channels '#kubuntu-devel #kubuntu-netbook' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level ACTIONS $C: >>> $N $1'
/trigger add -pubnotices -channels '#kubuntu-devel #kubuntu-netbook' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level NOTICES $C:$N -> $1'


If you also want to monitor all incoming private messages (and don’t have the hilightwin.pl script installed), you can also

/trigger add -privmsg -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level MSGS <$N> $1'
/trigger add -privactions -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level ACTIONS >>> $N $1'
/trigger add -privnotices -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level NOTICES $N -> $1'


If you want to monitor every channel, here’s how:

/trigger add -publics -channels '*' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level PUBLIC $C: <$N> $1'
/trigger add -pubactions -channels '*' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level ACTIONS $C: >>> $N $1'
/trigger add -pubnotices -channels '*' -pattern '*' -command 'echo -window monitor -level NOTICES $C:$N -> $1'


As you can see, the trigger.pl is really quite powerful. For more usage ideas, run /trigger help.

Irssi Monitor Window

 ┌────────────────────┤ Configuring portmap ├─────────────────────┐
 │                                                                │
 │ By default, portmap listens to all IP addresses. However, if   │
 │ this machine does not provide network RPC services (such as    │
 │ NIS or NFS) to remote clients, you can safely bind it to the   │
 │ loopback IP address (127.0.0.1).                               │
 │                                                                │
 │ This will allow RPC local services (like FAM) to work          │
 │ properly, while preventing remote systems from accessing the   │
 │ RPC services.                                                  │
 │                                                                │
 │ This configuration can be changed by editing the OPTIONS line  │
 │ in the /etc/default/portmap file and adapting the use of the   │
 │ -i option to your needs.                                       │
 │                                                                │
 │ Should portmap be bound to the loopback address?               │
 │                                                                │
 │                 <Yes>                    <No>                  │
 │                                                                │
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

I hope this will help whoever else encounters the same issue.

This is composed of three parts, the first is a BAT script that calls putty with the hostname and points to a file with a list of commands to run. The second is this said list of commands to run. The third (and best part) is a short Perl script that will take the output of ‘quota -v‘ and format it depending on whether we’re running Solaris or Linux.

You will have to substitute HOSTNAME.DOMAINNAME.TLD with the Solaris/Linux box’s hostname. You may also have to change C:\Program~1\putty.exe with the path to your putty install. Place the following BAT file wherever. I put it in ‘Quota.bat‘ on the user’s desktop.

BAT file

REM - Quota.bat by Ryan Kavanagh <ryanakca@kubuntu.org>
@ECHO OFF
CLS
CALL C:\Program~1\putty.exe -ssh HOSTNAME.DOMAINNAME.TLD -l %USERNAME% -t -m C:\Program~1\winquota\quota

Now to the list of commands to run on the remote host, to be put in C:\Program~1\winquota\quota:

BASH script

#!/bin/bash
# By Ryan Kavanagh <ryanakca@kubuntu.org>
perl /usr/local/bin/quotacheck.pl
sh -c "echo -e 'This script will exit in:\t15 seconds\c'; sleep 1;"
sh -c 'for i in {14..10}; do echo -e "\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b"$i" seconds\c"; sleep 1; done'
sh -c 'for i in {9..1}; do echo -e "\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b "$i" seconds\c"; sleep 1; done'
sh -c 'echo ""'

This calls the Perl script. The rest of the script is to provide the user enough time (15 seconds) to read the output. If we didn’t have this, Putty would exit as soon as the display from quotacheck.pl had been displayed.

Place the following Perl script in /usr/local/bin/quotacheck.pl with executable permissions and you should be good to go.

Perl script

#!/usr/bin/perl
# quotacheck.pl -- Prettyfies the quota command's output
# Copyright (C) 2009  Ryan Kavanagh <ryanakca@kubuntu.org>
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
# with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
# 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.                            
 
use strict;
use English;
 
my @quota = `quota -v`;
 
sub fmt_quota {
    my $line = shift;
    # Get rid of leading whitespace so that we can work with Linux's quota
    # command as well.
    $line =~ s/^\s+//;
    my @a = split /\s+/, $line;
    my %data;
    my $os = $OSNAME;
    my $unit;
    if ($os == 'solaris') {
        # Solaris' quota uses 1kb as the unit
        $unit = 1024;
    } elsif ($os == 'linux') {
        # Linux's quota uses 512kb blocks as the unit
        $unit = 512;
    } else {
        $unit = 1;
        print "Disk usage unit might be incorrect";
    }
    if (($a[1] &gt; $a[2]) &amp;&amp; ($a[2] != 0)) {
        # The disk usage is over the quota, we'll receive a disk grace time
        %data = (
            'fs' =&gt; $a[0],
            'd_usage' =&gt; sprintf("%.2f", $a[1] / $unit) . 'M',
            'd_quota' =&gt; sprintf("%.2f", $a[2] / $unit) . 'M',
            'd_limit' =&gt; sprintf("%.2f", $a[3] / $unit) . 'M',
            'd_grace' =&gt; $a[4],
            'f_usage' =&gt; $a[5],
            'f_quota' =&gt; $a[6],
            'f_limit' =&gt; $a[7],
        );
    } else {
        # We won't receive a disk grace time.
        %data = (
            'fs' =&gt; $a[0],
            'd_usage' =&gt; sprintf("%.2f", $a[1] / $unit) . 'M',
            'd_quota' =&gt; sprintf("%.2f", $a[2] / $unit) . 'M',
            'd_limit' =&gt; sprintf("%.2f", $a[3] / $unit) . 'M',
            'f_usage' =&gt; $a[4],
            'f_quota' =&gt; $a[5],
            'f_limit' =&gt; $a[6],
        );
    }
    if (($data{'f_usage'} &gt; $data{'f_quota'}) &amp;&amp; ($data{'f_quota'} != 0)) {
        # The file usage is over the file quota, we'll receive a file grace
        # time.
        if (exists($data{'d_grace'})) {
            # The disk grace time is set, therefore we want $a[8].
            $data{'f_grace'} = $a[8];
        } else {
            $data{'f_grace'} = $a[7];
        }
    }
    my @lines;
    use integer;
    my $fs_pad = (80 - length ($data{'fs'})) / 2;
    no integer;
    # Push the header
    push(@lines, " " x $fs_pad . $data{'fs'} . " " x $fs_pad . "\n");
    push(@lines, " " x 15 . sprintf("%-15s%-15s%-15s%s", "YOUR USAGE",
            "YOUR QUOTA", "YOUR LIMIT", "GRACE TIME") . "\n");
    push(@lines, sprintf("%-15s%-15s%-15s%-15s%s", "DISK USAGE",
            $data{'d_usage'}, $data{'d_quota'}, $data{'d_limit'},
            $data{'d_grace'}) . "\n");
    push(@lines, sprintf("%-15s%-15s%-15s%-15s%s", "FILE COUNT",
            $data{'f_usage'}, $data{'f_quota'}, $data{'f_limit'},
            $data{'f_grace'}) . "\n");
    return @lines;
}
 
# Run fmt_quota on quota's output. Nothing interesting before line 2.
print $quota[0];
for (my $line = 2; $line != @quota; $line++) {
    print fmt_quota($quota[$line]);
}

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release the BAT file and the BASH script into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant any entity the right to use the BAT file and the BASH script work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law. The Perl script (quotacheck.pl) is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

• Create a LUKS partition and copy your GPG homedir to it
• Provide a wrapper for gpg that will automatically mount the partition and then, if the user wishes, automatically call the unmounter in X minutes
• The unmounter would unmount your gpg directory and copy your pubring to the mount target once the LUKS partition was unmounted. This permits you to do things which don’t require your private key without having to mount the encrypted partition
• The LUKS partition could be on a USB flashdrive or LVM lv

I’ve been using a prototype I hacked together for the past few months… I would imagine it useful for those who have multiple laptops and desktops, all under their own control, but who don’t want to have copies of their private key spread out all over the place… therefore they just plug USB key in computer A, and when they need to go work on computer B, they just take their key with them… I would also imagine it useful for those among us who are paranoid and want to backup their key to an encrypted USB stick, etc.

Anyways, the most creative names I’ve come up with are:

• gnuks-utils — (GNupg lUKS) pretty boring, but it reminds be of Canuck
• GLutils — Gnupg Luks… could be confused as something to do with OpenGL … the name is already taken anyways.
• gpg-luks-utils — Has the advantage that the end user automatically knows it has something to do with GnuPG and LUKS

Any ideas?

If you encounter any bugs, please report them here.

Thanks to Matthew “mdke” East for providing the base for our theme and to the Canonical Sysadmins for installing it.

“Remember kids,” he tells them sternly. “Don’t shoot each other. Aim at the fragile, expensive stuff.”

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves

Meme HOWTO:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Notice, there’s a pile of GNOME cruft, namely synaptic, gksu, that we Kubuntu users don’t necessarily need nor want. Since aptitude does not have super cow powers, we can do the following:

sudo aptitude install firefox-3.0 ubufox= gksu=


Lets take a closer look at what is going on here. We are installing firefox-3.0, but we are asking aptitude not to install ubufox nor gksu and to keep it that way on any future upgrades. To learn more about aptitude’s install options, look at aptitude’s manpage, from line 38 onwards.

This command reduced what we had to install to

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
firefox-3.0 firefox-3.0-branding{a}
The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed:
ubufox
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 17 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1086kB of archives. After unpacking 3854kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]


Much better, don’t you think? Two packages to install instead of 40, 1086kB vs 20.9MB to download and 3854kB vs 87.8MB unpacked.

Enjoy,
Ryan