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MySQL DBA | Linux'er

Archive for category open source

How to get colored output from ‘ls’ on Solaris10

Apr 26

Posted by admin in Mysql server, Solaris, open source | No Comments

For all of those linux users out there that have moved over to, or tried out, Solaris10 or OpenSolaris because they heard the tales of how MySQL is faster on Solaris… or perhaps you wanted to learn how to use Sol10 for the great features of Zones or the ZFS filesystem? Regardless of why you’re on it you are probably wondering why Linux has colored output of filenames and directories but Solaris does not. The question of ‘why?’ isn’t important, but how to enable colors is. It’s very simple, and here’s how I fixed it. This is a result of digging through multiple semi-related links on Google.

  1. Download all packages from SunFreeware.com
    • dependency: libintl-3.4.0-sol10-x86-local
    • dependency: libiconv-1.13.1-sol10-x86-local
    • dependency: gmp-4.2.1-sol10-x86-local
    • dependency: gcc-3.4.6-sol10-x86-local or libgcc-3.4.6-sol10-x86-local depending on your system needs
    • coreutils-8.4-sol10-x86-local
  2. Install ‘coreutils’ dependency packages using the command “pkgadd -d [package_name]
  3. Install ‘coreutils’ packages using the command “pkgadd -d coreutils-8.4-sol10-x86-local
  4. Enable color aliases in your rc file: “alias ls=’/usr/local/bin/ls –color=auto’”

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Reviewed: Managing Software Development with SVN and Trac

Mar 18

Posted by admin in Programming, Reviews, open source | No Comments

I’ve recently been migrating my wiki/documentation for Kontrollbase to Trac. For those that are not aware, Trac is a web-based documentation/wiki/Subversion tool that is used by countless number of software projects. Subversion, of course, is a software collaboration and code management repository that manages branches/tags/trunk files with revision control. It’s one of the most heavily used open-source code repositories available. Given that I use SVN (subversion) for all of my software applications and am now using Trac, the book “Managing Software Development with Trac and Subversion” by David J Murphy comes as a useful and great resource for integrating these two useful tools.

The book is not a thousand plus pages type of computer manual. It gets the important points out in a very readable and organized method without winding the user through overly extensive examples. What you get with this book is everything you need to know about combining SVN with Trac without the fluff of other manuals.

In regard to the application of this book, it fits several groups of users; managers that need to understand how their software development team is managing code – or wants to implement a more productive system for their software team, the software developers themselves that need to get up to speed on these most important of technologies, as well as up and coming technologists that want to learn about the code development and management process. Its well roundedness is one of the best features.

The content is broken up into several sections: content management basics, Trac and SVN basics, trac and svn setup and integration, documentation creation and management, code management, and then very useful appendixes for the actual install process of apache, SVN, and Trac. Each section has everything you need to get started and finished in quick order. The author is showing that the processes involved in code management do not have to be stressful or difficult to learn.

The author stresses several key ideas before getting into the meat of the content. These being “everything is a task”, “small steps are better”, “communication is key”, “content management is what software development requires for success.” Overall the two main division of labor is between task management and communication between team members.

Overall this is a very useful book on the subject of code management and documentation. I would recommend it to anyone looking to learn about the processes involved as well as anyone that wants a reference manual for growing their technology bookshelf.

I’ve recently been migrating my wiki/documentation for Kontrollbase to Trac. For those that are not aware, Trac is a web-based documentation/wiki/Subversion tool that is used by countless number of software projects. Subversion, of course, is a software collaboration and code management repository that manages branches/tags/trunk files with revision control. It’s one of the most heavily used open-source code repositories available. Given that I use SVN (subversion) for all of my software applications and am now using Trac, the book “Managing Software Development with Trac and Subversion” by David J Murphy comes as a useful and great resource for integrating these two useful tools.

The book is not a thousand plus pages type of computer manual. It gets the important points out in a very readable and organized method without winding the user through overly extensive examples. What you get with this book is everything you need to know about combining SVN with Trac without the fluff of other manuals.

In regard to the application of this book, it fits several groups of users; managers that need to understand how their software development team is managing code – or wants to implement a more productive system for their software team, the software developers themselves that need to get up to speed on these most important of technologies, as well as up and coming technologists that want to learn about the code development and management process. Its well roundedness is one of the best features.

The content is broken up into several sections: content management basics, Trac and SVN basics, trac and svn setup and integration, documentation creation and management, code management, and then very useful appendixes for the actual install process of apache, SVN, and Trac. Each section has everything you need to get started and finished in quick order. The author is showing that the processes involved in code management do not have to be stressful or difficult to learn.

The author stresses several key ideas before getting into the meat of the content. These being “everything is a task”, “small steps are better”, “communication is key”, “content management is what software development requires for success.” Overall the two main division of labor is between task management and communication between team members.

Overall this is a very useful book on the subject of code management and documentation. I would recommend it to anyone looking to learn about the processes involved as well as anyone that wants a reference manual for growing their technology bookshelf. You can find the book at the Packt Publishing website here.

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RESTful PHP Web Services – reviewed

Jan 21

Posted by admin in PHP, Programming, open source | No Comments

I’ve been using a lot of RESTful services these days and have been waiting for a good book that is dedicated to the topic. I recently received a copy of ‘RESTful PHP Web Services’, which does a successful job of outlining proven concepts in current web technology. If you want to learn the methods for creating and consuming RESTful services then you will find many examples in this book. From the architectural plans to well thought out code samples, the book covers a lot of ground in a relatively quick read.

The first chapter gives the reader a quick introduction to RESTful services and the most common PHP frameworks in use at the time of writing. I particularly enjoyed the section on the Zend framework due to the explanation of benefits over the other frameworks. The chapter also covers the very basics which include a detailed look at exactly what RESTful services means and what technologies are required to use and benefit from a RESTful architecture. The second chapter gives a quick run down of the various methods in use for consumption of data; these being Curl, several HTTP methods, processing data with XML, DOM, and SimpleXML. After those are covered there is a simple example of consuming services like Flickr using the previous methods. This transitions into many more examples of consuming real world services that any developer would find interesting and exciting for data mashups.

The real meat of the book starts in chapter four where we get into designing the resource utilization systems and then the resource clients in chapter five. Those topics basically go over the nuts and bolts of gathering data, manipulating it, updating it, as well as creating fresh data. We get more instruction and usage examples on the Zend framework in chapter seven where the author gives us information on the controllers, models, and view (MVC model). This would not be too useful without knowing how to debug the code that we’re using so there is, thankfully, a chapter dedicated to debugging XML building and parsing errors. A couple of short appendixes cover the author’s own WSO2 web service framework as well as REST Client Classes which should prove useful for writing your own reusable classes.

Overall this book covers the majority of topics that a new developer needs to understand in order to start developing and deploying RESTful code and web services in PHP. From frameworks to consumable service samples, and everything in between, RESTful PHP Web Services comes through in a concise and enjoyable style that will not disappoint. I highly recommend this book for developers that are new to this topic or experienced developers that need a quick refresher course.

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IRC is the best support method and Open Source rules

Nov 4

Posted by admin in irc, open source | 6 Comments

I was working on a server today that was not hooked up to our usual monitoring systems for one reason or another and I needed to generate a database tuning report. Typically I use Matthew Montgomery’s ‘tuning-primer.sh’ script for this since it’s command line based, simple to use, and generates a number of useful items for tuning recommendations. It’s a great starting point before delving into the deeper aspects of MySQL and the OS.

I ran into an issue with it on this server that was running the MySQL 5.0.77-percona-highperf-b13-log x86_64 build. The error was:
./tuning-primer.sh.1: line 517: 5.000000: syntax error in expression (error token is ".000000")

There were three options to fix this issue

  1. Dive into the code and modify it cowboy style
  2. Use our typical monitoring against the client’s wishes
  3. Contact the developer to get a fix

I hopped on IRC.freenode.net to the #mysql channel and found Matthew online. Long story short he narrowed it down to the version of MySQL being from Percona that was changing the format of the variable in question vs the typical MySQL variable type. After discussing the matter he released a new build to address this change and I was on my way to generating reports again.That is quality support that you won’t see from the likes of Microsoft or Apple or any big closed-source player.

If there’s on thing to take away from this story it’s the Open Source Software will ALWAYS be better than closed source because of the hands on attitude and direct contact you can get with the developers or, at the minimum, with the large user community that is willing and able to help troubleshoot. Why are people able to help? Because the code is open and free – and people like free software that they can improve and fix themselves – and those people like to help others because we’ve all needed help at some point or another, no matter how much of an expert you are.

If there are two things to take away it’s to remember that IRC is a wealth of useful information and support for Open Source applications. You can find me on the #mysql, ##php, #perl, #extjs, and #codeigniter channels under various usernames – or idling in the #kontrollbase channel for supporting my own application.

Closed source apps are the old way to do business, the rotting steel skeletons from the industrial age of computing… Open Source is the brainy kid down the street that doesn’t want to rip you off for something that some nameless big corporation designed overseas for pennies on the dollar just to turn a profit and sell you something with crappy support and non-auditable code. Long live OSS!

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