Looking for some advanced uses for the shell? Here is some of my best. The shell is where 70% of my work takes place, and I have at least one terminal open almost 100% of the time, for viewing tailing color-coded logs, and of course for the SSH Tunnels that I use to route various networking through, like my email. So I decided that to standardize and create a bash_profile containing the most time-saving and helpful functions that I could use on all the various hosting environments would really be some sweet sugar, so here is my constant Work-in-progress.
It works for all shells I encounter, including BackTrack, Debian, Knoppix, Arch Linux, etc. Also works for many hosting environments I use including DreamHost, HostGator, WiredTree, and pretty much any linux VPS.
I also rely on this heavily from within shell scripts I write to access all the functions and stuff in this .bash_profile, and to do that I just do like:
#!/bin/bash
source ~/.bash_profile &>/dev/nulll
pm "PM is a function to output nice messages with color"
yn "Are you enjoying the shell" && pm "Thats great!" || pm "Perhaps you're better suited for DOS"
yn "Show Calendar" && aa_calendar
yn "Show Fortune" && aa_fortune
Linux Arch Linux bash linux shell Unix shells
This amazing bash linux prompt does more than meets the eye. If you want to know how to become really good with technology, linux is the secret sauce behind the AskApache articles. Open Source is elixir of the web. Thanks to everyone who helped me for the past 20 years. I use linux/bsd because homey don't play, so this is geared to be as productive a prompt as I can make it.
Don't have much time.. or just don't care? Not a problem, here are the 3 lines to copy and paste - you can just paste them right in your shell to test it, or add to a startup script.
export AA_P="export PVE=\"\\033[m\\033[38;5;2m\"\$(( \`sed -n \"s/MemFree:[\\t ]\\+\\([0-9]\\+\\) kB/\\1/p\" /proc/meminfo\` / 1024 ))\"\\033[38;5;22m/\"\$((\`sed -n \"s/MemTotal:[\\t ]\\+\\([0-9]\\+\\) kB/\\1/p\" /proc/meminfo\`/ 1024 ))MB\"\\t\\033[m\\033[38;5;55m\$(< /proc/loadavg)\\033[m\";echo -en \"\""
export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a;((\$SECONDS % 10==0 ))&&eval \"\$AA_P\";echo -en \"\$PVE\";"
export PS1="\\[\\e[m\\n\\e[1;30m\\][\$\$:\$PPID \\j:\\!\\[\\e[1;30m\\]]\\[\\e[0;36m\\] \\T \\d \\[\\e[1;30m\\][\\[\\e[1;34m\\]\\u@\\H\\[\\e[1;30m\\]:\\[\\e[0;37m\\]\${SSH_TTY} \\[\\e[0;32m\\]+\${SHLVL}\\[\\e[1;30m\\]] \\[\\e[1;37m\\]\\w\\[\\e[0;37m\\] \\n(\$SHLVL:\\!)\\\$ " && eval $AA_P Linux bash Prompt PROMPT_COMMAND PS1 sed ssh
Bash Functions and Aliases for Traps, Kills, and Signals. Useful for translating signal numbers/signal names and getting more info about signals.
Shell Scripting bash kill trap
Webmasters often use SSH to remotely admin web sites and servers, learn how to make your shell colorful and powerful using my sample .bash_profile and you can be up and running in 30 seconds!
Shell Scripting
After many years of using any and all terminal emulators out there, from xterm to the Gnome terminal, to KDE Konsole to xfce4-terminal, lxterminal, vte, yakuake, rote, roxterm, sakura, terminator, and putty I finally I settled in for the long-haul with rxvt (rxvt-unicode).
My BOX: Slim -> Ratpoison -> URxvt -> Tmux -> Bash
Linux .Xdefaults .Xresources bash Gnome terminal GNU Screen ratpoison rxvt rxvt-unicode Terminal multiplexers tmux urxvt Xterm Yakuake
Htaccess AddDescription Apache bash
Before
After trick
I am often logged in to my servers via SSH, and I need to download a file like a WordPress plugin. I've noticed many sites now employ a means of blocking robots like wget from accessing their files. Most of the time they use .htaccess to do this. So a permanent workaround has wget mimick a normal browser.
Linux bash wget
Stop wasting your lives with Mac Terminals.. or Macs. Get a real machine and then get a real shell multiplexer! For many years we all loved GNU Screen, but tmux is by far a better option today. The only time I am in the shell and not using a multiplexer, is when I'm not on one of my machines. My Arch Linux machines all run URxvt and my .bash_profiles all start tmux automataically, whether in X or single-user mode, tmux is where it's at.
Hacking, Linux linux.bash Screen shell tmux
Unix file permissions are one of the more difficult subjects to grasp.. Well, ok maybe "grasp" isn't the word.. Master is the right word.. Unix file permissions is a hard topic to fully master, mainly I think because there aren't many instances when a computer user encounters them seriously, and bitwise is oldschool. This contains a listing of all possible permission masks and bits from a linux, php, and web hosting view.... cuz you guys AskApache Regs Rock!
Security chmod File Permissions umask
.htaccess is a very ancient configuration file for web servers, and is one of the most powerful configuration files most webmasters will ever come across. This htaccess guide shows off the very best of the best htaccess tricks and code snippets from hackers and server administrators.
You've come to the right place if you are looking to acquire mad skills for using .htaccess files!
Apache, Hosting, Htaccess, Optimization, Security, SEO, Web Development, WordPress .htpasswd 301 Redirect Apache Apache HTTP Server Cache Hosting Htaccess Htaccess Software HTTP Headers httpd.conf HyperText Transfer Protocol mod_rewrite Redirect RewriteCond RewriteRule SSL
strace+ is an improved version of strace that collects stack traces associated with each system call. Since system calls require an expensive user-kernel context switch, they are often sources of performance bottlenecks. strace+ allows programmers to do more detailed system call profiling and determine, say, which call sites led to costly syscalls and thus have potential for optimization.
Linux gcc linux strace
Just a quick reference to all those delicious unicode characters and how they render on the web‽‽
Web Development symbols Unicode
The bottom line for this article is that I want to make WordPress as fast, secure, and easy to install, run, and manage because I am using it more and more for client production sites, I will work for days in order to solve an issue so that I never have to spend time on that issue again. Time is money in this industry and that is ultimately (time) what there is to gain by tweaking WordPress.
Note: I spent no time on readability, this is primarily a read the code and figure it out article.. This is for advanced users looking for a reference or discussion and for those of you looking to advance. Feedback would be great if you make it that far..
WordPress wordpress wp-config.php
Ok I just came back up to write the intro.. I'm trying to keep it short to avoid getting bogged down by the coolness of each step. Here is what goes on. When I logon to my XP machine at work, I bring my usb key and plug it in first. On logging a window pops up first and it's a password prompt to mount my encrypted drive leonardo. It also checks a keyfile that is located on my usb key, but all I do now is type in my password. That causes my encrypted folder to be accessible to me like a normal drive, and it autoruns a startup batch file.
The batch file causes Portable versions of Firefox (all my bookmarks, my settings) to load, and launches Portable Mozilla Thunderbird (IMAP makes this work well), which is my favorite program (great GPG features and open-source!). Also Some Adobe CS4 software is loaded from the hard drive, like DreamWeaver. In the background, a service we created executes a PortaPuttY plink command to create forwarded tunnels from various remote servers and accounts, all using key-based encryption. These tunnels are automatically reconnected if they are disconnected, meaning you can use a socks 5 if you want or even better!
Hacking Backup encryption Microsoft Windows Secure Shell ssh TrueCrypt USB USB flash drive windows builtin command-line tools
