Comments on: Handy bash script

By: Stuart Cuthbertson (via Facebook)

Stuart Cuthbertson (via Facebook) — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:09:00 +0000

@David – I separate ~/bin (for actual binaries that I can't get from a repository) from ~/.scripts (for self-written scripts that do minor helpful things). Both are in my path. I still debate installing binaries in /usr/local/bin, though, which is arguably "better". Also, since when did you have a CCTV rig?@Tom: :p Hey, we're allowed to talk geek if we want… Nice to know you notice their existence, though!

By: Tom Cleaver (via Facebook)

Tom Cleaver (via Facebook) — Sun, 18 May 2008 22:21:00 +0000

I love these notes, just letting them wash over me.

By: David Laban (via Facebook)

David Laban (via Facebook) — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Yeah, I suppose. That's why most people have ~/bin in their path (though that's mainly for installing stuffs that the system admin is too lazy to do globally).To be honest though, I only have a few things in my private bin, and only the last two are ever used from the console. most of the time, I just rely on ^R to help me with complicated one-liners.away # stop music, lock, and start cctvbed n # play music for n more minutes, then pausecctv # start motion, and bleep whenever anything movesintruder #helper function for cctv: just makes a soundmooddump.sh # for dumping moodbar files onto my eeepcserverup.sh # creates ls-lR.gz and ls-alR.gz on my server.quickfix file:n # opens file in vim at line n (file:n is a common form for error messages)dgrep # grep for dcop services, for helping me script kde

By: Stuart Cuthbertson (via Facebook)

Stuart Cuthbertson (via Facebook) — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:48:00 +0000

"As a general rule, if you find yourself doing some task more than once a month in unix, there will either be a command for it, or a 1-liner."…Or they expect you to script it yourself. Really, *nix kernel-and-core-utils developers can't and don't anticipate everything you might need to frequently do on the system. That's why bash has a half-decent scripting language in the first place.

By: Stuart Cuthbertson (via Facebook)

Stuart Cuthbertson (via Facebook) — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Asking in #ubuntu would probably still have taken as long as making the shell script, and I've learnt a lot more this way. Googling had already failed. I don't own Unix in a nutshell, only "Linux Pocket Guide". Which and whereis are in there, now I look, but I didn't know what I was looking for beforehand. As I made the command into a script in ~/.scripts (in my PATH) it became basically identical to whereis.The actual problem was in /sbin/get-iana, which was needed by firehol. wget had the –proxy=off option set, which is silly. I also had to alter the IANA_RESERVED variable to match what (I think) is what should be matched in the target text. I shall now try to submit a bug…

By: David Laban (via Facebook)

David Laban (via Facebook) — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:18:00 +0000

So in summary:"You're doing it wrong" As a general rule, if you find yourself doing some task more than once a month in unix, there will either be a command for it, or a 1-liner. Try asking in #ubuntu on freenode or something if google (add unix pr posix to your query).:D(*can't believe that which wasn't in unix in a nutshell*)

By: David Laban (via Facebook)

David Laban (via Facebook) — Sun, 18 May 2008 17:57:00 +0000

or alternatively:$ man which$ vim $(which MISSING_FILE)or even (assuming that the script is using wget)export http_proxy="http://wwwcache.cam.ac.uk:8080"export ftp_proxy=http_proxyIf not, send a bug report to the packagers.What are you trying to use, anyway? (for the record, I've never had that problem)