Customizing Unix Shell

A few tools that really make working in a unix shell more enjoyable.

Byobu - Replaces "screen" for a screen with a more useful display

Change .bashrc file to include the following

# Shell colors
export LS_OPTIONS='--color=auto'
eval "`dircolors`"
alias ls='ls $LS_OPTIONS'

alias screen='byobu'

Create .vimrc file to make working in VIM easier

" URL: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Example_vimrc
" Authors: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Vim_on_Freenode
" Description: A minimal, but feature rich, example .vimrc. If you are a
"              newbie, basing your first .vimrc on this file is a good choice.
"              If you're a more advanced user, building your own .vimrc based
"              on this file is still a good idea.

"------------------------------------------------------------
" Features {{{1
"
" These options and commands enable some very useful features in Vim, that
" no user should have to live without.

" Set 'nocompatible' to ward off unexpected things that your distro might
" have made, as well as sanely reset options when re-sourcing .vimrc
set nocompatible

" Attempt to determine the type of a file based on its name and possibly its
" contents.  Use this to allow intelligent auto-indenting for each filetype,
" and for plugins that are filetype specific.
filetype indent plugin on

" Enable syntax highlighting
syntax on

" Set font according to system
set gfn=Monospace\ 10
set shell=/bin/bash

if has("gui_running")
  set guioptions-=T
  set t_Co=256
  set background=dark
  colorscheme peaksea
  set nonu
else
  colorscheme zellner
  set background=dark

  set nonu
endif

set encoding=utf8
try
    lang en_US
catch
endtry

set ffs=unix,dos,mac "Default file types

"------------------------------------------------------------
" Must have options {{{1
"
" These are highly recommended options.

" One of the most important options to activate. Allows you to switch from an
" unsaved buffer without saving it first. Also allows you to keep an undo
" history for multiple files. Vim will complain if you try to quit without
" saving, and swap files will keep you safe if your computer crashes.
set hidden

" Better command-line completion
set wildmenu

" Show partial commands in the last line of the screen
set showcmd

" Highlight searches (use <C-L> to temporarily turn off highlighting; see the
" mapping of <C-L> below)
set hlsearch

" Modelines have historically been a source of security vulnerabilities.  As
" such, it may be a good idea to disable them and use the securemodelines
" script, <http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1876>.
" set nomodeline


"------------------------------------------------------------
" Usability options {{{1
"
" These are options that users frequently set in their .vimrc. Some of them
" change Vim's behaviour in ways which deviate from the true Vi way, but
" which are considered to add usability. Which, if any, of these options to
" use is very much a personal preference, but they are harmless.

" Use case insensitive search, except when using capital letters
set ignorecase
set smartcase

" Allow backspacing over autoindent, line breaks and start of insert action
set backspace=indent,eol,start

" When opening a new line and no filetype-specific indenting is enabled, keep
" the same indent as the line you're currently on. Useful for READMEs, etc.
set autoindent

" Stop certain movements from always going to the first character of a line.
" While this behaviour deviates from that of Vi, it does what most users
" coming from other editors would expect.
set nostartofline

" Display the cursor position on the last line of the screen or in the status
" line of a window
set ruler

" Always display the status line, even if only one window is displayed
set laststatus=2

" Instead of failing a command because of unsaved changes, instead raise a
" dialogue asking if you wish to save changed files.
set confirm

" No sound on errors
set novisualbell
set noerrorbells
set t_vb=
set tm=500

" Enable use of the mouse for all modes
set mouse=v

" Set the command window height to 2 lines, to avoid many cases of having to
" "press <Enter> to continue"
set cmdheight=2

" Display line numbers on the left
" set number

" Quickly time out on keycodes, but never time out on mappings
set notimeout ttimeout ttimeoutlen=200

" Use <F11> to toggle between 'paste' and 'nopaste'
set pastetoggle=<F11>


"------------------------------------------------------------
" Indentation options {{{1
"
" Indentation settings according to personal preference.

" Indentation settings for using 2 spaces instead of tabs.
" Do not change 'tabstop' from its default value of 8 with this setup.
set shiftwidth=2
set softtabstop=2
set expandtab

" Indentation settings for using hard tabs for indent. Display tabs as
" two characters wide.
"set shiftwidth=2
"set tabstop=2


"------------------------------------------------------------
" Mappings {{{1
"
" Useful mappings

" Map Y to act like D and C, i.e. to yank until EOL, rather than act as yy,
" which is the default
map Y y$

" Map <C-L> (redraw screen) to also turn off search highlighting until the
" next search
nnoremap <C-L> :nohl<CR><C-L>


"------------------------------------------------------------

SQL to Search All Tables for Column Name

declare @search_string  varchar(50)

set @search_string = ''

SELECT table_name=sysobjects.name,
column_name=syscolumns.name,
datatype=systypes.name,
length=syscolumns.length
FROM sysobjects
JOIN syscolumns ON sysobjects.id = syscolumns.id
JOIN systypes ON syscolumns.xtype=systypes.xtype
WHERE sysobjects.xtype='U'
and syscolumns.name LIKE '%' + @search_string + '%'
ORDER BY sysobjects.name,syscolumns.colid

Credit to: http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/337

SQL Query to Search All Tables for an INT

Here is a really good query I want to remember for searching all tables in a database for a specific integer.

declare  @sql varchar(8000), @tbl varchar(255), @col varchar(255), @data  varchar(50)

set @data = '249753'

declare cur_tbl cursor for
     select a.name, b.name from sysobjects a, syscolumns b, systypes c where a.id = b.id and a.type = 'U' and c.xtype = b.xtype and c.name in ( 'int' )
open cur_tbl
fetch next from cur_tbl into @tbl, @col
while @@fetch_status = 0
begin
     set @sql = '
                       if exists (select * from [' + @tbl + '] where convert( varchar(255), [' + @col + '] ) = ''' + @data + ''')
                             select tbl=''' + @tbl + ''', col=''' + @col + ''', [' + @col + '], * from [' + @tbl + '] where convert( varchar(255), [' + @col + '] ) = ''' + @data + '''
                       '
     exec(@sql)

     fetch next from cur_tbl into @tbl, @col
end
close cur_tbl
deallocate cur_tbl

Or to search for a string

declare  @sql varchar(8000), @tbl varchar(255), @col varchar(255), @data  varchar(50)

set @data = 'string you are looking for'

declare cur_tbl cursor for
      select a.name, b.name from sysobjects a, syscolumns b, systypes c where a.id = b.id and a.type = 'U' and c.xtype = b.xtype and c.name in ( 'varchar', 'nvarchar', 'text', 'ntext' )
open cur_tbl
fetch next from cur_tbl into @tbl, @col
while @@fetch_status = 0
begin
      set @sql = '
                        if exists (select * from [' + @tbl + '] where convert( varchar(255), [' + @col + '] ) like ''%' + @data + '%'')
                              select tbl=''' + @tbl + ''', col=''' + @col + ''', [' + @col + '], * from [' + @tbl + '] where convert( varchar(255), [' + @col + '] ) like ''%' + @data + '%''
                        '
      exec(@sql)

      fetch next from cur_tbl into @tbl, @col
end
close cur_tbl
deallocate cur_tbl

Credit to: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/Q_24142162.html

AV2010 has gotten worse!

It was preventing me from installing Malwarebytes, and everytime I would run any program the virus would be started. I had to use the following registry fix:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.exe]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\secfile]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\secfile]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe\shell\open\command]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.exe]
@=”exefile”
“Content Type”=”application/x-msdownload”

Then save as fix.reg and run it. After restarting the PC I was able to install Malwarebytes Anti-malware and remove the viruses.

Thanks to Kwisatz - http://www.virusremovalguru.com/?p=5528#comment-34676

Steps to creating a EBS image from an AMI (Windows)

Download Amazon's EC2 API Tools to C:\ec2-api-tools

# Run the following on a remote machine with Amazon's EC2 API Tools installed
# Adjust these variables to match your own system
set EC2_HOME=c:\ec2-api-tools
set JAVA_HOME=c:\Program Files\Java\jre6

# Update PATH
set PATH=%PATH%:c:\ec2-api-tools\bin

#Test by running
ec2-version
# Output: 1.3-46266 2009-11-30

# Add keys
set EC2_PRIVATE_KEY=c:\aws-keys\pk-XXXXXXX.pem
set EC2_CERT=c:\aws-keys\cert-XXXXXXX.pem

# Use AWS Management Console
# Create new instance based on existing AMI
# Once instance is launch and running create a volume, make sure that the availability zone is the same as the instance, set device to /dev/sdh
# Attach the volume to the instance
# Connect to the instance using Putty
# Create the following script
vi instance-to-ebs-ami.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Run this script on the instance to be bundled
# tested with Canonical Ubuntu 9.10 base ami

EBS_DEVICE=${1:-'/dev/sdh'}
IMAGE_DIR=${2:-'/mnt/tmp'}
EBS_MOUNT_POINT=${3:-'/mnt/ebs'}

mkdir -p $EBS_MOUNT_POINT
mkfs.ext3 ${EBS_DEVICE}
mount ${EBS_DEVICE} $EBS_MOUNT_POINT

#make a local working copy
mkdir /mnt/tmp
rsync --stats -av --exclude /root/.bash_history --exclude /home/*/.bash_history --exclude /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* --exclude /etc/ssh/moduli --exclude /etc/udev/rules.d/*persistent-net.rules --exclude /var/lib/ec2/* --exclude=/mnt/* --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/tmp/* / $IMAGE_DIR

#ensure that ami init scripts will be run
chmod u+x $IMAGE_DIR/etc/init.d/ec2-init-user-data

#clear out log files
cd $IMAGE_DIR/var/log
for i in `ls ./**/*`; do
echo $i && echo -n> $i
done

cd $IMAGE_DIR
tar -cSf - -C ./ . | tar xvf - -C $EBS_MOUNT_POINT
#NOTE, You could rsync / directly to EBS_MOUNT_POINT, but this tar trickery saves some space in the snapshot

umount $EBS_MOUNT_POINT

chmod +x instance-to-ebs-ami.sh
./instance-to-ebs-ami.sh
exit

# Go back to AWS Management Console
# Detach the volume
# Create a snapshot of the volume

# Now, we register the snapshot to be able to create an EBS image
# Run this command from your remote machine with Amazon's EC2 API Tools installed
# Fill in the required variables

ec2-register --snapshot snap-xxxxxx --kernel aki-xxxxxxx --ramdisk ari-xxxxxxxx --description="" --name="debian-5.0-lenny-base-20091011" --architecture i386 --root-device-name /dev/sda1
#sample output => IMAGE ami-xxxxxxx

References/Credits:
http://www.capsunlock.net/2009/12/create-ebs-boot-ami.html
http://gist.github.com/249915

Try this script for creating automated snapshots:
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?categoryID=100&externalID=1663
or
http://johnwoconnor.blogspot.com/2009/06/automatic-volume-snapshots-using-amazon.html

Creating a Remote Git Repo

Here are some steps I used to create a remote Git repo based on my local files.

Create the folder for the new application and change to that directory.
> mkdir /var/www/html/newapp
> cd /var/www/html/newapp

Make sure git is installed, if not install it
> sudo apt-get install git-core git-doc

Initialize the folder to become a git directory
> git init

********* Now switch to your local files ***********
> cd ~/myapp

Initialize git with the local folder as well
>git init

Tell git about yourself
>git config user.name "Your Name"
>git config user.email "Your Email"

Now, tell git which server to talk too
>git remote add origin username@yourdomain.com:/var/www/html/newapp/.git
Make sure that this user has SSH access to the box.

>git config branch.master.remote origin
>git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master

Make your initial commit and push it to the remote server.
>git commit -a -m "Initial commit"
>git push origin master

And viola! Your files will be pushed to the remote server. Now, I was wondering why when I went to access the server, the files didn't seem to be in the working directory, even though I could see the log showed my Initial commit. It turns out that when things are pushed to master, they enter a limbo state. You have to do a git checkout -f, to actual have the commit become live. Note that doing a git checkout -f, will throw away any changes that have been made on the remote server.

To make the updating of the server easier, you can do the following:
> vi /var/www/html/newapp/.git/hooks/post-receive
Add - git checkout -f
Save the file
>chmod +x /var/www/html/newapp/.git/hooks/post-receive

2 Good articles for programmers

5 Tips for creating good code every day; or how to become a good software developer
http://www.makinggoodsoftware.com/2009/05/15/5-tips-for-creating-good-code-every-day-how-to-become-a-good-software-developer/

5 Top non-technical mistakes made by programmers
http://www.makinggoodsoftware.com/2009/07/07/5-top-non-technical-mistakes-made-by-programmers/