Developer Bits

Recovering Lost Data In Safari

2011-03-03T10:51:00.006-05:00

While trying to recover lost data typed into a web page on Safari, I stumbled across this forum and one response was worth remembering for later:

"If you wish to open cache.db you'd use the sqlite3 command.
It comes with your mac and it's easy to use if you know SQL.
Open Terminal an type in:
"cd ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari;sqlite3 cache.db".
it'll open up the database and you can type ".tables" to show
the table names  then ".output FILENAME" 
then "select * from TABLENAME;" and it'll output to the
desired file you could do "foo.txt" as the file name. I have
3 tables, cfurl_cache_blob_data, cfurl_cache_schema_version,
cfurl_cache_response, in it so i did the steps three times
starting with the .output command for three separate files..."

This is a handy way to search through your old safari data by dumping everything in a file and then grepping the contents. The exact commands I used to accomplish this were:

cd ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari
sqlite3 cache.db
.output temp.txt
select * from cfurl_cache_blob_data;

It's kind of surprising to see what's actually in your cache! I had no idea that the pages I surf were being stored to this extent. Turned out to be very handy.

But scary.

Other useful commands:

.help
.schema cfurl_cache_blob_data
.exit

Clients and Servers on the Terminal: Simple File Transfers

2011-03-02T09:31:00.006-05:00

I just stumbled across an interesting shell command: nc

It's used for simple client/server interactions from the shell. With it, you can do interesting things like take output from one machine, send it over the network to another machine that pipes this input into other commands. Here's an example:

# On the destination machine
nc -l -p 2345 | tar xv
# On the source machine
tar c PATH_TO_FILES > /dev/tcp/IP.OF.DESTINATION/2345

Which will tar PATH_TO_FILES, on the source machine and transmit it over the network on port 2345. The destination will receive the data and pipe it into a command that will extract the tar.

This is so useful, I had to jot it down!

Subclipse / SVN Working copy locked - Solution

2010-09-16T09:08:00.005-04:00

Problem

I could not update or commit a certain folder in my subversion project using subclipse in eclipse.

Symptoms

Both commit and update failed with the error:

svn: Working copy 'path/to/folder/that/was/not/working' locked; try performing 'cleanup'

I also got warnings that the directory was not under version control.

To get this problem, I had copied files from one project to another (in the file system not in subclipse). Although I deleted the .svn directory after copying, I still ran into this issue.

Solution

On the command line, cd to the project directory and run svn cleanup as in:

cd path/to/folder/that/was/not/working
svn cleanup

The problem should go away!

Maven - Sun JAR Issues (javamail, jms, jmx, jdmk, persistence)

2010-07-15T13:55:00.000-04:00

Problem

Compiling fails because of dependencies related to Sun, such as javamail, jms, jmx. These failures have some of the symptoms listed below.

Background. Many of Sun's Java projects do not have licenses that allow for redistribution. Basically, their stuff is somewhat "locked down." To get it, you have to click through a Software License Agreement; meaning, their libraries can, at times, be a pain to download. Historically, their JARs have not been in public Maven Repositories. As such, Maven tends not to automatically download Sun dependencies. Nowadays, they are available in the default repository . . . supposedly. However, over here IN REALITY, that doesn't really work.

If you have "Maven: The Definitive Guide," read page 73 under the section "Adding J2EE Dependencies" for related information.

Symptoms

Some symptoms of this problem I saw while trying to solve it include:

Failed to resolve artifact

Missing:
----------
1) javax.persistence:ejb:jar:3.0-public_review

[INFO] Unable to find resource 'javax.persistence:ejb:jar:3.0-public_review' in repository JBoss Repository (https://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/)

error: error reading /Users/keving/.m2/repository/com/sun/jdmk/jmxtools/1.2.1/jmxtools-1.2.1.jar; cannot read zip file

error: error reading /Users/keving/.m2/repository/javax/mail/mail/1.4.1/mail-1.4.1.jar; cannot read zip file

error: error reading /Users/keving/.m2/repository/com/sun/jmx/jmxri/1.2.1/jmxri-1.2.1.jar; cannot read zip file

[INFO] Unable to find resource 'javax.jms:jms:jar:1.1' in repository central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

[INFO] Unable to find resource 'javax.persistence:ejb:jar:3.0-public_review' in repository maven.springframework.org (http://maven.springframework.org/snapshot)

[INFO] Unable to find resource 'javax.persistence:ejb:jar:3.0-public_review' in repository central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

Failed to resolve artifact. com.sun.jmx:jmxri:jar:1.2.1

Failed to resolve artifact. com.sun.jdmk:jmxtools:jar:1.2.1

Solutions

I recommend solution 4, below. After an hour or two of Googling, reading and learning, my final course of action (Solution 4) was to first delete all the troubled Sun dependencies, then painstakingly download the right JARs directly from Sun/Oracle and install them in the local repository. Below, I have listed all the useful solutions I found and tried during my journey to finding a complete repair.

Solution 1 - Fastest, Easiest Fix

Simplest solution: change just one character in the POM fille... use version 1.2.14 instead of 1.2.15. So the log4j dependency section
changes FROM:

TO:

Solution 2 - Quick Fix

Next simplest solution: exclude Sun jars by adding the following exclusions to the Log4j dependency within the pom.xml file:

Solution 3 - Ideal Fix (didn't work for me)

Best Solution (but doesn't work...or at least I can't get it to work): Use the special repositories provided by Sun: add to POM.xml

Supposedly, this repository is provided by Sun and contains the missing jars. Each one has a "Reference Implementation" of the underlying API. Somehow, this allows for a looser license so the code can be redistributed without clicking through an SLA. When I tried this, it only successfully installed 1 of the JARs--javamail.

Solution 4 - Thorough Repair (my choice)

This is the longer, yet more complete solution--get the actual jars from Sun/Oracle. I kept track of all the little things I did and listed them below, keeping as many things "cut and pasteable" as possible. These are the steps I took and the commands I happened to run along the way:

Delete the jars from the local repository:

  rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/javax/persistence/ejb/
  rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/javax/jms
  rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/javax/mail
  rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/com/sun/jdmk
  rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/com/sun/jmx

run maven again (at least to the compile phase) to see exactly which jars fail.

cd [top-level project directory with pom.xml]
mvn assembly:directory -Dmaven.test.failure.ignore=true

then download any remaining, missing JARs directly from SUN. Here are the detailed steps I took, grouped by each type of jar. The exact links may change over time but the basic steps should be the same. Note that the jdmk and jmx jars both come in one download.

JMS

click here to download the JMS jar from Sun/Oracle, accept the Software License Agreement and download the jar
unpack the zip archive (automatic on my machine to directory ~/Downloads)
cd to the lib directory

cd ~/Downloads/jms1.1/lib/

install the jms jar into the local maven repository, using the following command

JDMK - JMX Tools and/or JMXRI

click here to download the JDMK jar from Sun/Oracle, accept the Software License Agreement and download the jar

Sun's Java SE page for the JDMK/JMX project

Download

This zip will include jars for both jmxtools and jmxri. Unpack the archive(automatic on my machine to directory ~/Downloads)
cd to the lib directory

cd ~/Downloads/jmx-1_2_1-bin/lib/

install both jars into the local repository, using the following commands

Persistence

click here to access the javax.persistence jar from sourceforge
unpack the archive (automatic on my machine to directory ~/Downloads)
cd to the lib directory

cd ~/Downloads/hibernate-annotations-3.1beta5/lib/

install the javax persistence jar into the local maven repository, using the following command

JavaMail

Java mail is now open source so you shold be able to pull it from the default Maven repository. If not, try adding Sun's repository (Solution 3) and seeing if that will pull down the javamail jar. Be sure to completely delete the javamail directory (~/.m2/repository/javax/mail) before running this.

Summary / Tradeoffs

Each solution I found, I didn't quite like for different reasons. Solution 4 was the first satisfying choice. Each of the previous approaches involved tradeoffs. The first one downgrades to an earlier version of Log4j and, clearly, they moved to 1.2.15 for a reason.. Maybe there are security patches. Maybe the difference is negligable. Either way, I don't want to deal with figuring it out. So, Solution 1 would be the quick and dirty fix I'd use a coworker who needed to get their environment working in a hurry but it's not something I'd choose as a long-term fix. Solution falls into a similar boat. I like that it doesn't downgrade, but it cuts out dependences that are probably there for a reason. Most of what I read indicated that those libraries are virtually unused. Still, to me, there their for a reason so although I'd prefer solution 2 over solution 1, I wouldn't use it long-term, either. Solution 3 didn't work for me. The claim was that this repository had all the magic jars required but it didn't turn out that way. Upon download, two of them failed the checksum--I couldn't figure out why--and the other two jars didn't appear to be in the repository at all. In fact, it seemed that the only thing I could get, error-free, was the javamail jar. Not good enough.

Finally, the fourth solution allowed Log4j to remain at the latest version and keep all it's dependencies. Admittedly, it was far more tedious and took me about 20 minutes to complete. Hopefully, this detailed post will greatly reduce that time for at least one person out there. If that person is you, I hope you can have your cake (a complete solution) and eat it too (a quick solution)! Celebrate.

Linux Equivalent of ipconfig renew and ipconfig release on Windows

2010-07-15T09:26:00.004-04:00

I've looked this up 3 times so I finally decided to jot it down so I don't forget it.

Problem

Can't remember the Linux commands equivalent to:

ipconfig renew
ipconfig release

Symptoms

Your IP is assigned via DHCP on a Linux box
You've unplugged from one network and plugged into another and the old IP address hasn't cleared out
Don't want to shutdown/restart the interface you just want to refresh the DHCP settings

Solution

sudo /sbin/dhclient -r is equivalent to ipconfig release
sudo /sbin/dhclient is equivalent to ipconfig renew
sudo /sbin/ifconfig is equivalent to ipconfig

The dhclient command broadcasts a DHCP message to your DHCP server, resulting in a new lease. A slower way to achieve the same result is to shutdown the interface and bring it back up via (assuming your target interface is eth0):

sudo /sbin/ifdown eth0
sudo /sbin/ifup eth0

This same, slower approach can also be done graphically on RedHat by clicking System > Administration > Network, choosing your interface (eth0) and clicking deactivate followed by activate.

Rollback Subclipse - Revert Subversion Changes

2010-06-15T11:09:00.003-04:00

Problem

You need to rollback/revert subversion to a previous version and you're using the Subclipse plugin for Eclipse (or Flash Builder 4, etc.) to do it.

Symptoms

There have been many changes to your project. You want to "undo" all those changes, restoring your project to its former glory.
Choosing "Revert" only blew away your local changes. That's not good enough.
There's a particular point in the past where everything "worked" and you need to reset everything back to that revision.

Solution

Right click your top level project folder and choose "Team" > "Show History"
Find the point in the past where things worked

Highlight all revisions AFTER the target revision
Right click and choose "Revert changes from revision # to revision #"
That's it. Commit your changes

For me, the revision that worked was revision 3690. The revision I was on was 3765. So, I highlighted revisions 3691 to 3765, right clicked and chose "Revert changes from revision 3765 to 3691."

From there, I wanted to keep certain changes so I right clicked my project folder and chose "Compare With..." > "Latest From Repository". This opened a view of every single file in the project that was altered. I double-clicked the files with useful changes, copied the changes I wanted over and saved the compare editor.

After everything looked correct, I committed. Worked great.

Debug BlazeDS Tomcat Server in Eclipse!!!

2010-05-20T23:58:00.004-04:00

Warning: this post is dripping with awesome. Once you're able to get this working, you might go dancing in the street (I know I did!). Consider yourself warned.

Problem

You need to debug java code running on Tomcat as part of BlazeDS. You want to do this in Eclipse.

Symptoms

You're tired of using logs, system outs, or other tom-foolery to debug the server-side code for your Flex application!
You tried to set this up but received the following error:
You'd like to set a breakpoint and have server execution stop and jump to your breakpoint, even while executing RemoteObject code from Flex
Once you hit such a breakpoint, you want to be able to inspect variables and expressions and enjoy similar debugging pleasures

Solution

Note: In this process, I encountered the very common error:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError:

org.eclipse.wst.common.componentcore.internal.resources
.VirtualComponent.clearCache()V

Fixing it simply required updating eclipse.

I'll summarize the steps to getting debugging tomcat in eclipse to work as follows:

Open the Server View, right click and create a New Server
Point it to your /blazeds/tomcat folder (do not add any projects yet)
Right Click the new server and choose "Open"
Make sure your settings match this screenshot

NOTE: if the "Sever Location" section is disabled, that means you added a project in step 2. Delete this sever and start over without adding any projects.

Better yet, just follow this excellent and detailed blog titled Setting up your BlazeDS (tomcat) server on Eclipse ( local ). It worked flawlessly.

I credit the FlashBandit blog with opening my eyes to the fact that Setting Up a Basic BlazeDS Server with Debugging was even possible.

Uninstall MySQL on Mac OS X (Leopard 10.5 or Snow Leopard 10.6)

2010-05-20T13:37:00.003-04:00

Problem

You need to completely remove mysql from your system as easily as possible.

Symptoms

You want to do a clean delete and a fresh install because you don't want to deal with errors such as:

MySQL [your version] for Mac OS X can't be installed in this disk. A newer version of this software already exists on this disk.
[ERROR] Can't open the mysql.plugin table. Please run mysql_upgrade to create it.
[ERROR] Fatal error: Can't open and lock privilege tables: Table 'mysql.host' doesn't exist

Solution

Execute the following commands that I found here and here:

sudo rm /usr/local/mysql
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*
edit /etc/hostconfig and remove the line MYSQLCOM=-YES-
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*
sudo rm -rf /var/db/receipts/com.mysql.*

Maybe one day, if I'm feeling frisky, I'll come back and write a bash script to remove the MYSQLCOM line auto-magically. Maybe some magic involving sid or awk or something.

Fix Pixelbender Shader Compile Errors

2010-05-07T12:17:00.007-04:00

Today, I had a small pixelbender issue that I faced once before and forgot about it until I found the solution. Since this is the second time I've faced this, I decided to record the solution here.

Problem

Flex code, related to PixelBender, isn't compiling.

Symptoms

In Flex Builder / Flash Builder, I get the following errors:

1046: Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: Shader.
1046: Type was not found or was not a compile-time constant: ShaderFilter.
1172: Definition flash.display:Shader could not be found.
1172: Definition flash.filters.ShaderFilter could not be found.
1180: Call to a possibly undefined method Shader.
1180: Call to a possibly undefined method ShaderFilter.

Solution

Clearly, these errors make no sense because both Shader and ShaderFilter are built-in classes distributed with Flash. Luckily, the solution is simple--you have to adjust your target Flash Player version. Make sure it's at least version 10:

Right click your project and choose properties
Go to the Flex Compiler section
At the bottom, in the HTML wrapper section, check the Require Flash Player version box (which requires the Generate HTML wrapper file box to be checked)
Enter at least version 10.0.0
Celebrate!

That's it. Here's a picture!

Install MySQL

2010-05-04T15:33:00.010-04:00

I just referenced this section of a file on my laptop because it has direct links and I was too lazy to think through installing mysql. Then, I decided to post it so I can link to it from another post I'm writing. Enjoy.

Installation of MySQL v5.1

Open the Safari browser then go to http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.1.html
Download the latest version (today it's 5.1.46) either 32 or 64 bit (we use 32)

Note:

Mac OS X ver. 10.6 (x86, 32-bit), DMG Archive

Mac OS X 10.5 (x86, 32-bit), Compressed DMG Archive

On the next screen, you can ignore the login boxes by choosing
"» No thanks, just take me to the downloads!"
and select a mirror
Double click on the mysql-5.1.46-osx10.6-x86.dmg file in the window opened by the download.
Click the mysql-5.1.46-osx10.6-x86.pkg file to install mysql
Optionally, once done, double click the "MySQLStartupItem.pkg" to automatically configure your Mac to launch the mysql server on startup
Start the database by entering, /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql –u root –p (no password needed).

“Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock'”

sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe

List all databases by entering,
```
SHOW DATABASES; 
```
Create a new database,
```
CREATE DATABASE myDatabase
```

where myDatabase is the name of the new database.

Use the database by entering, USE myDatabase

Create a table in the new database by entering

CREATE TABLE example_table (
         id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
         data VARCHAR(100),
         cur_timestamp TIMESTAMP(8)
       );

Display the table by entering
```
SHOW TABLES;
```

Add a value to the table by entering

INSERT INTO example_table (data) VALUES (‘the current time is’)

View the all data in the table by entering
```
SELECT * FROM example_table;
```

In order to create users, enter

CREATE USER ‘userBob’@’localhost’ INDENTIFIED BY ‘s3kr1tP4$$W0RD’;

In order to grant permissions to users for local and remote connections to the database, enter
```
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES on myDatabase.* TO 'userBob'@’%’
```

Eclipse - Run / Debug - The Fast Way

2010-03-16T21:16:00.017-04:00

Ok. This was so awesome, I had to stop everything and blog about it, simply because every Eclipse user on earth should hear about this.

Problem

So, in Eclipse, I got fed up always clicking through a thousand menus to run my application. I'm using maven, so to run our project, I have to mouse over to our POM.xml, right click on it, mouse ALL THE WAY down to "Run As" (of course, I always forgetfully mouse over "Maven," instead), then mouse ALL THE WAY down to "Maven build," then I have 6-8 run configurations to choose from so I have to mouse ALL THE WAY over to the middle of the screen and pick one!

Clearly, I HATE MOUSING. So I hunted down a better way.

Now all I have to do is hit COMMAND + SHIFT + F11 (ctrl + F11 on windows) to run my last-used configuration. This command already works by default on plain Java files but when you start getting fancy with the run configurations . . . and Maven . . . and things . . . it doesn't function the same.

Solution

Hit COMMAND + , to open preferences (without the stinkin' mouse!)
Begin typing. Enter "Launching" in the filter box
Open the Launching preferences
In the bottom section, choose "Always launch the previously launched application"
Click OK. Celebrate victory.

This used to be the default behavior in Eclipse. A while ago, it changed so that it now makes a best guess based on your active resource and editor. That works perfectly . . . until you start doing things more complex. Now the CMD+SHFT+F11 shortcut key runs your last run/debug choice! That alone, will save BOATLOADS of time. Some days, I click "Maven Build" no less than 1 billion times!

Install Bugzilla on Mac Pro or MacBook Pro Running OS X 10.5 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard

2010-03-10T00:04:00.068-05:00

NOTE: I've added a troubleshooting section at the very bottom to address additional problems I encounter. If you have trouble with installation, check there for great tips.

Bugzilla on a Mac? Installing it shouldn't have been so hard. I guess it wasn't "hard," it was just really, really tedious. Almost, a "throw your laptop out the window" kind of tedious. I should know: I did it twice (installation, that is--not PC homicide). It felt like getting in line for the most crowded ride at Disney, waiting for hours to get to the front, only to arrive and realize it's NOT the front AT ALL--it's just a corner!! And once you turn it, 60 more minutes of wait time smack you in the face!

I guess that's why they invented the "FastPass." Well, lucky for us, each time I installed Bugzilla (on a MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro), I took meticulous notes, which I've summarized, below. Enjoy your FastPass to Bugzilla on a mac:

NOTE: I'd like to credit the blog I followed at Circles of Archimedes titled Installing Bugzilla on Mac OS X Server. It was, by far, the clearest, simplest, most accurate blog I could find on this topic. However, it is geared toward OS X Server and I have a Mac Pro running standard Leopard. Thereby, several steps were different. Much different.

Bugzilla on a Mac/MacBook Pro
(Leopard/Snow Leopard)

These are the exact steps I took to get it to work (twice). Basically, I had to:

download Bugzilla
copy it to the proper folder
create symlinks
configure Perl
configure Apache
configure MySQL
configure Bugzilla
troubleshoot problems

then pass out from sleep deprivation. Exact details follow.

Download & Unpack

Download the latest stable release of Bugzilla here http://www.bugzilla.org/download/#stable
Double click the archive file ("bugzilla-3.6.tar.gz" in my case) to unzip/untar it
Move the resulting directory ("bugzilla-3.6" in my case) to /usr/local
Create a symlink in /usr/local
```
sudo ln -s bugzilla-3.6 bugzilla
```
Create symlink in /usr/bin pointing to /usr/local/bugzilla
```
cd /usr/bin; sudo ln -s /usr/local/bugzilla bugzilla
```

Do the same in the Apache document root

cd /Library/WebServer/Documents; sudo ln -s /usr/local/bugzilla bugzilla

Perl

Now it's time to get Perl situated. I'm not a perl guy, so I make no assumptions about your perl knowledge. Just do everything below and it should work.

Identify What's Missing

Run the Bugzilla script to check your Perl setup

cd /Library/WebServer/Documents/bugzilla; sudo ./checksetup.pl --check-modules

Scroll down until you get to a section that looks like this

YOU MUST RUN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING COMMANDS (depending on which database you use): PostgreSQL: /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DBD::Pg MySQL: /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DBD::mysql Oracle: /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DBD::Oracle COMMANDS TO INSTALL REQUIRED MODULES (You *must* run all these commands and then re-run checksetup.pl): /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl DateTime::TimeZone /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Template /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Email::Send /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Email::MIME /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Email::MIME::Encodings /usr/bin/perl install-module.pl Email::MIME::Modifier

Essentially, these are all the problems (dependencies) you must fix before the bugzilla Perl code can function. I used CPAN to get that done. This is MUCH easier than typing the commands listed above because 1) CPAN exists, natively, on the Mac and 2) it takes care of all the stupid dependencies of dependencies for you! I'm not a Perl guy so maybe there are better ways to do this. All I know is, this worked (twice):

Install Missing Modules

Run CPAN (from an administrator account)

sudo CPAN

If this is your first time using CPAN on your machine, walk through all the configuration options.

The defaults work well. So most times, you can just press enter to select the default option. Toward the end, they'll ask you questions and tell you what the "Typical frequently used setting" is. Generally, I went with their suggestion. For example, when it said:

Parameters for the 'make install' command?

Typical frequently used setting:

UNINST=1         to always uninstall potentially conflicting files

Your choice:  []

I typed in "UNINST=1"

When you reach the end, it will prompt the following:

Please enter your CPAN site: []

After some Googling, I chose a few sites from the mirror list at mirrors.cpan.org to accomplish that I...

chose my country and "Show Mirrors" on the side
searched for , -5 to find all instances of my timezone
grabbed a couple mirrors... used the HTTP sites too, for fun

This was my output in that section:

Please enter your CPAN site: [] http://cpan-du.viaverio.com/

Enter another URL or RETURN to quit: [] http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/CPAN/

Enter another URL or RETURN to quit: [] ftp://mirror.cogentco.com/pub/CPAN/

Enter another URL or RETURN to quit: [] ftp://perl.secsup.org/pub/perl/

Enter another URL or RETURN to quit: []

New set of picks:

http://cpan-du.viaverio.com/

http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/CPAN/

ftp://mirror.cogentco.com/pub/CPAN/

ftp://perl.secsup.org/pub/perl/

Once CPAN is ready to go, you can begin installing the Perl modules by executing the commands in the section titled, "COMMANDS TO INSTALL REQUIRED MODULES." For example, my commands were

install DateTime::TimeZone

install Template

install Email::Send

install Email::MIME

Note that the last command took care of the other Email dependencies I needed!

After those commands are done, choose a database (we use MySQL) and install it's module

install DBD::mysql

Exit CPAN and re-run the check setup script(step #7, above) to verify that you addressed all required commands
Rejoice, you're almost done!

Apache

This is the part I was telling you about, where it feels like you're at the end of the line . . . only to realize, you've got a ways to go. Next up, is the Apache & MySQL stuff.

One site I read somewhere mentioned that, briefly, Apache will be vulnerable while modifying some of these settings. Ideally, you should turn off your web server, first (sytem preferences -> sharing -> enable web sharing checkbox)--or better yet, disconnect from the internet entirely.

Admittedly, I did neither. I guess I'm a rebel.

Modify your bugzilla localconfig file *NOTE: it seems this file isn't created until checksetup.pl passes

edit:

/usr/local/bugzilla-3.6/localconfig

- set $webservergoup = '_www'

- set $db_pass = 'yourPassword'

Change the owner on all your bugzilla files and symlinks

sudo chown -R _www:_www /Library/WebServer/Documents/bugzilla

sudo chown -R _www:_www /usr/local/bugzilla-3.6

sudo chown -R _www:_www /usr/local/bugzilla

Edit your Apache config file

edit:

/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

#

# Bugzilla

#

<Directory "Library/WebServer/Documents/bugzilla">

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

Options +Indexes +ExecCGI +FollowSymLinks

DirectoryIndex index.cgi

AllowOverride Limit

</Directory>

Note that the +FollowSymLinks option needs to be set for this to work.
Also, I had to do something funky to get CGI pages to stop loading as text. I don't have that documented but I believe it's just the +ExecCGI Option, above. I may have needed to load this module in the "LoadModule" section near the top:

LoadModule cgi_module libexec/apache2/mod_cgi.so

MySQL

Now comes the fun with MySQL. Basically, all you need to do is create the bugs database, create the bugs user (with the proper password). Of course, I assume you already have MySQL (if not, follow this post to install MySQL on Mac OS X). Then do the following to configure the bugzilla database:

Run the following SQL (or copy it to a file named bugzilla.sql and run: mysql -u root -p < bugzilla.sql)

use mysql;
create database if not exists bugs;

CREATE USER 'bugs'@'localhost' identified by 'yourPassword';

CREATE USER 'bugs'@'127.0.0.1' identified by 'yourPassword';

CREATE USER 'bugs'@'%' identified by 'yourPassword';



GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bugs.* TO 'bugs'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bugs.* TO 'bugs'@'127.0.0.1' WITH GRANT OPTION;

GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE, LOCK TABLES, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, DROP, REFERENCES ON bugs.* TO 'bugs'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Obviously, replace 'yourPassword' with a valid password for the 'bugs' user on the database. Also, granting ALL privileges is, of course, probably NOT the best thing to do . . . feel free to restrict the privilages on localhost if you like. I just wanted to be sure it would work. Plus, our DB is only connected to our intranet. Likewise, you don't need to grant privileges to all domains (i.e. the line containing 'bugs'@'%' could be omitted).

Home Stretch

Now that all this is set, and your bugs database has GRANT privileges, run the checksetup.pl script (as administrator) :

sudo /usr/local/bugzilla/checksetup.pl

Once Perl is completely setup, this script sets up your Database tables & data and applies a few other settings. There will be several prompts to respond to but all the answers are straight-forward. Be sure to TAKE NOTE OF WHAT YOU SET YOUR EMAIL/PASS TO! (I forgot mine and it was a hassle)

Bugzilla Settings

By now, all the difficult things are done. The only thing left is to run Bugzilla. So, fire up Apache (sytem preferences -> sharing -> enable web sharing checkbox) and visit the bugzilla directory on your server (for me it's, http://our.server.address/bugzilla) and celebrate!

From there, login at the top and begin setting the required paramaters (namely, urlbase). Here's a quick list of some of the things I typically change on every installation:

Required Settings > urlbase > http://our.server.address/bugzilla
Bug Fields > usebugaliases > On
Bug Fields > defaultpriority > Normal
Bug Fields > defaultseverity > Normal
Bug Fields > defaultplatform > Macintosh
Bug Fields > defaultopsys > Mac OS
User Matching > confirmuniqueusermatch > Off

Troubleshooting

Ok. So we upgraded our server to Snow Leopard and, somehow, that impacted the Perl environment thereby messing up Bugzilla. In the process of fixing this issue, I hit SO MANY roadblocks that it prompted me to add this Troubleshooting section--just for my own sanity.

Below, I will organize the bugzilla problems I encountered into Problem/Symptom/Solution sections and link each topic below:

Topics:

General Perl Troubles
Installation of Email::MIME module failed
Installing DateTime fails with an error mentioning "Singleton"
General errors that mention "DateTime" or "Locale"
install DBD::mysql fails
How To Re-Run CPAN setup
can't login to bugzilla / Forgotten admin password / reset or add an admin

Problem

Installation of Email::MIME module failed

Symptom

received the following error:

make test had returned bad status, won't install without force

Solution

The suggestion at the bottom of this forum post recommended running
force install Email::MIME
which, in fact, did forcefully install the module. Whether that's good or bad, I can't say. I did continue looking for the root problem (which was, basically, to find and install all missing modules).

Problem

Problem description: Perl. That's it, just Perl. Perl + Bugzilla = headache

Jokes aside, every issue I've had installing Bugzilla always boils down to deducing the missing Perl module and installing it. Installation is easy. It's the "figuring out which module" part that will get you, every time!

Symptom

received errors during Perl configuration such as:

#   Failed test 'use Email::Send;'
#   at t/foreign-mailer.t line 7.
#     Tried to use 'Email::Send'.
#    Error:  Can't locate Email/Simple.pm in @INC ...

or
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ...
or
DIED. FAILED tests
or

#     Error:  Attempt to reload Email/MIME.pm aborted.
#     Error:  Base class package "Email::Simple::Creator" is
empty.

Solution

The best process I've found for solving most bugzilla installation errors is:

Open a fresh terminal window
Attempt to install every module required in the "checksetup.pl" script. (run the commands in step 4, above.)
Copy all output into a file
Grep the file to sift out text related to missing modules

Error:  Can't locate Email/Simple.pm in @INC (@INC contains ...

cat tempFile.txt | grep @INC | awk -F"@" '{ print $1 }'

t/19local-win32......Can't locate Params/Validate.pm in 
t/20local-subclass......Can't locate Params/Validate.pm in 
t/abstract-msg.......Can't locate Email/Simple.pm in 
#     Error:  Can't locate Email/Simple.pm in 
t/classic............Can't locate Email/Simple.pm in 
t/email-send-test....Can't locate Email/Simple.pm in

Identify statements in a form similar to:

Params/Validate.pm
Email/Simple.pm
Email/Date/Format.pm

Install the corresponding modules:

sudo CPAN
install Params::Validate
install Email::Simple
install Email::Date::Format

Rerun the installation commands
Run the checksetup.pl script again to verify that the required modules no longer appear in the list
Celebrate!

Typically, this process fixes the problem. I go over the initial output (the temp file created in step 3) with a fine-toothed comb and install everything that seems to be missing. The list above contains everything I installed this time, except YAML (for that just run: install YAML).

Problem

General errors that mention "DateTime" or "Locale"

Symptom

errors such as:

Attempt to reload DateTime.pm aborted

BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/share/perl/
5.10.0/DateTime/Locale/Base.pm line 8.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/
DateTime/Locale.pm line 10.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/share/perl/
5.10.0/DateTime/Locale.pm line 10.
Compilation failed in require at lib/i486-linux-gnu-thread-
multi/DateTime.pm line 46.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at lib/i486-linux-gnu-thread
-multi/DateTime.pm line 46.

Solution

Many users on this forum found it helpful to run

install DateTime::Locale

Problem

install DBD::mysql fails

Symptom

running the command generates the following error:

Running install for module 'DBD::mysql'
Running make for C/CA/CAPTTOFU/DBD-mysql-4.014.tar.gz
  Has already been unwrapped into directory /Users/svn/.cpan/
  build/DBD-mysql-4.014-jZi5O8
  '/usr/bin/perl Makefile.PL' returned status 512, won't make
Running make test
  Make had some problems, won't test
Running make install
  Make had some problems, won't install

Solution

Verify that the command "mysql" works from the terminal. If not, install mysql. Verify that you can connect to mysql as user "root." If not, grant permissions to your root account.

Problem

You need to re-run the initial CPAN setup wizard, for whatever reason (maybe to reset your URL mirror sites)

Symptom

None the URLs you have seem to work, or maybe there's one that needs deleting (in my setup the first one would fail and take like 3 minutes to timeout).

Perhaps, you don't trust your CPAN installation settings and you want to rule that out during troubleshooting (I wanted to rule this out)

Solution

Re-run the initial CPAN setup with the folowing command (note: the first character is an 'o' -- not a bullet):

o conf init

To choose new URLs (or edit existing ones) run:

o conf init urllist

Be sure to commit your configuration after making changes. I believe the command is:

o conf commit

Problem

Need to reset bugzilla admin password

Symptom

The admin password is lost or forgotten

The admin login credentials are lost or fogotten

Another admin account needs to be added (but you can't login)

Solution

This forum post provides lots of help on recovering a forgotten admin password or account.

There are several ways to address this issue

run checksetup.pl with the --make-admin option:
copy the profiles.cryptpassword for a known user account to the administrator account, OR add your account to the admin group:

SELECT @myusr := userid FROM profiles WHERE login_name="PUT YOUR EMAIL HERE"; 
SELECT @admin := id FROM groups WHERE name="admin"; 
INSERT INTO user_group_map (user_id,group_id,isbless,grant_type) VALUES 
(@myusr,@admin,0,0);

Throw your computer out the window

Problem

Installing DateTime fails with an error mentioning "Singleton"

Symptom

Errors such as:

t/37local-add.t ......... Can't locate Class/Singleton.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /Users/svn/.cpan/build/DateTime-0.55-ilncRa/blib/lib /Users/svn/.cpan/build/DateTime-0.55-ilncRa/blib/arch /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0 /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0 .) at /Library/Perl/5.10.0/DateTime/TimeZone/America/Chicago.pm line 14.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /Library/Perl/5.10.0/DateTime/TimeZone/America/Chicago.pm line 14.
t/38local-subtract.t .... Can't locate Class/Singleton.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /Users/svn/.cpan/build/DateTime-0.55-ilncRa/blib/lib /Users/svn/.cpan/build/DateTime-0.55-ilncRa/blib/arch /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0 /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0 .) at /Library/Perl/5.10.0/DateTime/TimeZone/America/Chicago.pm line 14.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /Library/Perl/5.10.0/DateTime/TimeZone/America/Chicago.pm line 14.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 906) line 3.
t/41cldr_format.t ....... Can't locate Class/Singleton.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /Users/svn/.cpan/build/DateTime-0.55-ilncRa/blib/lib /Users/svn/.cpan/build/DateTime-0.55-ilncRa/blib/arch /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0 /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0 .) at /Library/Perl/5.10.0/DateTime/TimeZone/America/Chicago.pm line 14.
Result: FAIL
Failed 11/43 test programs. 3/2864 subtests failed.

Solution

The Singleton module is missing. For me, this also meant that the DateTime::TimeZone module hadn't been installed (because it depends on Singleton). To solve this, either

execute install DateTime::TimeZone

execute install Class::Singleton

Whichever solution you use, make sure to run install DateTime and install DateTime::TimeZone to ensure that both of these modules are now installed properly.

Blog - Syntax Highlight, Code Formatting - Part2

2010-02-13T11:13:00.010-05:00

So in Part 1, I described how to spruce up code in a blog. It worked well but had a few shortcomings. Largest of which, it didn't automatically wrap lines. So if your code was wider than your blog template, it would get cut off. Another problem was, you needed to find a place to host the javascript and css files.

Since then, I've been pointed to the this blog that shows easy syntax highlighting for blogger. This has several strengths over Google's version that I described. In addition to solving the two problems above, it also offers a great "copy" feature: after hovering over a code section, links appear allowing viewers to copy everything, view the code separately, or even print it!

Here's an example of code highlighted the new way:

<div class="sidebar">
<a href="http://super_long_url_that_makes_this_line_long" target="_blank" name="someName" id="someId">click here for awesome</a>
</div>

The only downside I see is that this version takes a long time to load because it's using javascript files, css files AND a Flash SWF file. I may end up hosting all of these locally (on google's server) to see if that improves speed. Also, it may impact the iphone/ipad (non-flash) view of the site. I'll have to test what happens when a user doesn't have flash (or maybe even javascript) enabled.

All in all, I will keep the previous blog the way it was but, going forward, I'm using the awesome highlighting, instead of Google's! As far as formatting is concerned, I'm still testing different external blog tools. The next part will cover the one I chose and why.

Blog - Syntax Highlight, Code Formatting - Part1

2010-02-11T19:50:00.014-05:00

So, I started this blog and I'm going to be writing a lot of code. I want that code to be readable and I don't feel like formatting it manually.

Syntax Highlighting - Setup
After a little searching, I found that Google has both a CSS file and a JavaScript file you can download that will handle highlighting for you. Here's the direct link:


http://code.google.com/p/google-code-prettify/downloads/list

Download the "small" version. All you need are these two files:
```
prettify.css
prettify.js
```
Place them on a webserver somewhere.
Edit your blog template to link to them (on blogger go to Layout > Edit HTML) place the following code just after the opening <head> tag . . . and you're done!!
```
<link href="[Path_To_Server]prettify.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="[Path_To_Server]prettify.js"></script>
```
Where [Path_To_Server] represents the location on your webhost where you placed those files.

For TESTING PURPOSES ONLY you can use the following code, verbatim, at your own risk (it links directly to Google's hosted version of the files. hehe):

<link href="http://google-code-prettify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/prettify.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://google-code-prettify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/prettify.js"></script>

Seriously, though make sure you host those files yourself.

Syntax Highlighting - Use

Place the code you want highlighted in

    <pre class="prettyprint">...</pre>

    <code class="prettyprint">...</code>

and it will automatically be pretty printed.

Checkout the Readme File for more details.

Syntax Highlighting - Customizing
Of course, you can modify the stylesheet to get the look you prefer. On my site, I also modified the CSS in my template for the code and pre tags. I "borrowed" the css code from the stylesheet at StackOverFlow.com and modified it slightly. This way, I can use plain <code> tags without having to specify the class attribute (like I just did):

pre, code {  
  background-color:#efefef;
  font-family:Consolas,Monaco,Lucida Console,Liberation Mono,DejaVu Sans Mono,Bitstream Vera Sans Mono,Courier New;
  border: 0px;
}

Code Formatting
I'll save this for part 2. My plan is to find an external editor to handle the formatting for me. From there, I will link the editor to my Blogger site and all will be merry. Face it, deep down, I really don't want to keep putting the markup in these blog posts by hand! There's a solution out there, somewhere.

Mac OS X : Open Ports, Network Connections, PIDs

2010-02-11T14:54:00.015-05:00

Yesterday, my MacBook Pro was acting VERY strangely. I was hacked! (or so I thought) I feared that some evildoer hacked my home network and ran amuck.

Quickly, I had to figure out what was happening on my network. I wanted to know what ports were open, what connections were live and which applications were using those connections. Finding Linux info was easy. Mac OS X info? Not so much!

After hunting dozens of Google pages, here's what I've come up with:

Check All Network Connections
Run the following shell command to display all network connections:
netstat -an | grep 'LIS\|WAIT\|Recv-Q'

This will show all ESTABLISHED, LISTEN and TIME_WAIT connections and also displays the header for convenience.
Show Processes On Network
The command above is good but it doesn't show you WHO is on those ports. The following allows us to see the PID and Name of each process using the network!
sudo lsof -Pnl +M -i

Note: the first flag is -PNL (the last character is not a one). The first time I ran the lsof command, I couldn't see the ports that were listening. This was my main concern (evildoers love listening on ports). The key is to run this command as root (via sudo). Also note, with the netstat call, you can use egrep 'LIS|WAIT'. Honestly, I haven't gotten around to learning what egrep does. All I know is you don't have to escape the | symbol with egrep.