[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: Tips, News And Rants] Followup On My Dell Inspiron 530N

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

Had a problem with the monitor that came with my recently purchased
Dell 530N with Ubuntu. After a couple of hours, the monitor would get
brighter and brighter until it reached maximum brightness and then
after a few minutes of that, the lamp in the monitor would go out
leaving me with a black screen. I could turn the monitor off for a few
minutes (and presumably, let it cool) and it would work for another
couple of hours.I got tired of that (Hey! I'm trying to write a book
here!) so I called Dell's Ubuntu support number (1-866-622-1947) and
got connected to an overseas call center. The representative had me
perform a simple test, reboot the computer and press F2 to get to the
setup screen, then just let it sit and see if the monitor would fail
again. This test would eliminate the possibility of a video driver
issue. Sure enough, after about 30 minutes, it went out again. I called
back and talked to another representative who was able to see what had
transpired during the first call. She arranged for a replacement to be
shipped overnight to me. A refurbished monitor arrived the next
afternoon.I'm pleased with the service. Their support staff was polite
and professional, but I didn't have a chance to test their Linux
skills.Maybe next time.

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: Tips, News And Rants at
2/13/2009 12:07:00 PM

[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants] Adding Ubuntu-style sudo To Fedora 10

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

One of the neat things about Ubuntu is the absence of a discreet user
account for root. This was an unusual idea when it was introduced a
couple of years ago, and I myself, had some initial doubts about it.
But that was then and this is now. I have come to really enjoy this
feature.I recently installed Fedora 10 on one of my test systems and
decided to see what was involved in getting a similar feature in
Fedora.The sudo command is governed by a configuration file
named /etc/sudoers. This file defines the users who are allowed to use
sudo and precisely what commands they are allowed to execute with
elevated privileges. I have written definitions for this before, so I
took a look at the Fedora 10 sudoers files to see how to add myself to
the list of users that can execute any command as root.What I
discovered was that the Fedora 10 sudoers thoughtfully provides the
following lines:## Allows people in group wheel to run all
commands# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALLThis definition states that any user
belonging to the group wheel will have full access to all commands.
Just what the doctor ordered!So this leaves me with two things to do:
- Uncomment the line in the sudoers file to enable the definition.
- Add myself to the wheel group.The first task is pretty easy. I just
fire up vi (as root) and edit /etc/sudoers. I only need to remove the
leading pound symbol to make the change:## Allows people in group wheel
to run all commands%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALLThe second task is not very hard
either. I bring up the graphical (yes, I'm cheating) user configuration
tool and select my user account and press the "Properties" button, then
select the "Groups" tab on the properties dialog. Scrolling to the
bottom of the list, check the box labeled "wheel":Press OK and we're
done!Here are a couple of questions for all you geniuses out there:
- How would you add yourself to a group using only the command line
tools?
- What is the history and meaning the "wheel" group?Have fun!

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants at
1/29/2009 08:41:00 PM

[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants] A "Command Line To The Rescue" Story

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

As you may recall from my earlier review of my new Dell desktop, I
bought it to replace my previous Dell desktop, a Dimension 2400. Over
the last couple of weeks I have installed a couple of distributions on
my old system. First the Windows 7 Beta (the first installation of
Windows in my house since 1996), a sad story that I hope to write about
soon, and over the weekend I formatted over that horror and installed
Fedora 10.I've used a lot of Red Hat products over the years and I
favor it for administration, however, I have a growing fondness for
Ubuntu because it seems to deliver the best desktop user experience.
When it comes to Red Hat stuff though, I'm pretty expert at installing
it.Now I have to digress a bit and talk about a phenomenon I have
discovered about Linux. It is often useful to think about Linux as
though it were a living thing. It's been said that Linux is based on
evolution, not "intelligent design." This means that Linux evolves
naturally in a series of fits and starts, rather than being the result
of some grand plan. This is the opposite of proprietary software, which
(if done properly) is the result of careful planning.What this means is
that sometimes a subsystem in Linux goes away and is replaced by
another re-written replacement that addresses a need. And, of course,
programmers prefer to re-write code rather than maintain old code.
Anyway, this periodic "churn" of code is natural to the process.The
problem is that sometimes things that worked in previous versions stop
working in the new versions. This is fairly common Linux, and it's
perhaps its most off putting characteristic.One case in point is the
display driver for Intel integrated graphics chips. Admittedly, some of
these chips really suck, especially the earlier ones. The new ones are
better and also get official driver support from Intel. Over the last
year or so, Linux distributions have been deploying the new "intel"
driver replacing the previous "i810" driver. The new driver is in every
way much better than the old driver, except it doesn't like the older
chips very much.This brings us back to my Dimension 2400, which, as you
may have guessed by now, uses one of the old chips.So I pop the Fedora
10 install DVD into the drive and reboot the machine. The installer
starts and gets to the first graphical install screen and completely
hangs. Dead, inert. It doesn't look like I'll be doing a graphical
install this time.I power-cycle the machine and just as the DVD starts
to boot, i press the escape key and get:boot:Wonderful! A boot prompt.
Now I know what to do. I enter:boot: linux textwhich instructs the boot
loader to boot the kernel called "linux" and pass the argument "text"
to the system. On a Red Hat style systems this will invoke the text
mode installer. I answer all the prompts and the install gets underway.
While I have some time to kill, I Google for a way to get the graphics
working again. From my search, I determine that the problem isn't so
much the new driver but rather that, by default, the new driver uses a
new "acceleration method" called "EXA" rather than the previous method
called "XAA". Making a one line change to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
will cause X to revert to the old method and solve the problem.After
the installation is complete, I reboot the machine and it comes up in
text mode. This is caused by a configuration file called /etc/inittab
which contains a setting for the default run level, which is 3 for text
mode and 5 for graphical mode on Red Hat style systems. In text mode
you get a login screen:Login:I log in as root and create a personal
account for myself:useradd bshottspasswd bshottsAfter I create the
account and set the password, I press Alt-F2 to get to the second
virtual console. There I log in as bshotts and try to launch X. I do
this by entering the command:startxThe X server starts and almost gets
to the desktop before it chokes again. Looks like it's time to fix that
xorg.conf file. I restart the machine and and log in as root again. I
go looking around in the /etc/X11 directory and notice that there is no
xorg.conf file. This is because with modern X servers, the file is no
longer required, as all the configuration is done dynamically at
runtime which, in concept, is great when it works.Bummer.I think to
myself, "there must be some kind of configuration program for X," so I
start digging around in the man pages. I discover that the Xorg program
has an option called -configure that will create an xorg.conf file
based on the server's best guess of what the correct configuration
should be. You must be root to use this option so I give it a try:Xorg
-configureand it creates a file named xorg.conf.new in root's home
directory. I copy this file to /etc/X11 which is where X expects to
find it:cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.confNext, a little editing
with vi and I add one line to the "Device" section of the
file:Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"After saving the edited file, I login in
as bshotts and try the startx command again and low and behold, I have
a working desktop! I confirm that the graphics seem correct and log out
of GNOME. This returns me to the text console. Since I want the system
to work in graphical mode by default, I need to change the default run
level. I do this by returning to my root console session and editing
the /etc/inittab file. I change the last line to
read:id:5:initdefault:changing the "3" to a "5" to set the run level to
graphical. After saving the file I reboot the machine and everything
works. New installation successful.So what does all this teach us? It
teaches us that sometimes there is no substitute for a good command
line. A command line can work wonders. It teaches us that, with enough
digging around, most problems are solvable. And most of all, it teaches
us you should keep learning and never give up.Hope you had a good
weekend too!

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants at
1/26/2009 05:43:00 AM

[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants] Interesting Story In The NYT

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

In my earlier post about the effect of the Asus Eee PC, I explained
that it showed how Linux can be used to create "disruptive
technologies." The New York Times seems to agree.

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants at
1/26/2009 05:28:00 AM

[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants] Why use Linux?

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

I recently received this thoughtful question from a concerned
reader:Hi, My name is Allan. I´m from Costa Rica. First of all, let me
congratulate you because it´s a little bit hard to find a good Linux
site that explains everything about the shell (and how to start using
commands) and how Linux works in a friendly clean way. I have always
been interested in Linux (since I was 12 years old more or less, now
I´m 25). But I´m still a rookie using it. Unfortunately most of us have
been some kind of forced to depend (exclusively) on Windows because of
all the software available, the GUI and the easiness of using it. We
all complain about how bad Windows works, that´s why I´m trying to be
more involved on Linux. Yesterday, I just installed Ubuntu 8.10
Intrepid. Great OS so far. I do not want to bother you, you should be
very busy, but I have one big question. How can I stop using Windows if
I need it for work and personal use (software like CS3, Paint Shop Pro,
Ulead Video Studio, among many others). Maybe any Linux tech would tell
me to look for an alternative GPL software. For example for Office, the
option would be Openoffice (very nice soft!) but its not perfect or
good enough recognizing many characters or text formats. For CS3 or
Paint Shop, the option would be Gimp (nice one too) but it lacks of
better user friendly funcionality or editing options. Maybe you can do
almost the same thing with it but it´s going to take you a lot of time
work. I could give you many examples like those, but I think you
already got the point good enough. Please do not think that I´m saying
that Linux sucks, that´s not it at all, what I´m trying to say is that
I realize that you all are working to make it better and better each
day, more user friendly, more attractive for other branded companies
(like Nero, Skype, Kaspersky, etc) but what does it take to let Linux
runs everything what Windows runs. I have heard about Wine, but I also
heard that only works fine on some specific softwares. I just wanted to
share my point of view. Maybe you can share yours with me so that I can
understand better Linux. First off, thank you Allen for taking the time
to write. You raise an interesting issue that I'm sure confronts many
people looking to migrate from Windows to Linux.Changing computer
platforms is a challenaging problem for anyone, not just those seeking
to move from Windows to Linux. It really boils down to a question of
cost versus benefit.So what are the costs of switching? Obviously they
are having to learn new applications and perhaps worse, migrating your
data to work with your new applications. We all experience this when
switching an application even if no platform change is involved. Using
an application involves a certain amount of investment on the part of
the user. An investment in time needed learn the application and the
time to reshape his or her "world" of data to fit the confines of the
application's needs. If you have been using a particular platform and
its applications for a long time, you probably have a lot of investment
in it. So for many people the costs are high.But what about the
benefits? Those are a little harder to quantify. First, there is the
economics which should be rather cut and dry, but, for many personal
computer users (as opposed to business users), it is not. If you
actually paid for Photoshop, Office, and the other software you
mention, you're talking about a lot of money (potentially thousands of
dollars) spent on your application set. However, many personal computer
users, don't bother with the formality of license compliance and simply
use unauthorized copies which can be had to no cost. Therefore, for
many people, Linux offers no economic advantage.The second benefit is
this nebulous thing called "freedom." Some people express this in
somewhat abstract terms, saying that it is a virtue in its own right. I
tend to be a bit more pragmatic. I think that free software offers
distinct practical advantages over proprietary software. I like the
fact, for example, that I can install Linux distributions all day long
and never worry about having to call a vendor and ask for permission to
do so. I like that fact that since the source code is freely available,
many people can offer technical support. I like the fact that I never
encounter, timed demos, "crippleware", and "lite" versions of products.
Any time I want to install something, I can just install the full
version, no strings attached.Then there are the technical benefits of
using a Unix-like operating system. Things like virus and malware
resistance, file systems that don't require periodic defragmentation, a
powerful command line interface, and the potential for almost limitless
customization.While these benefits are clear, many people do not have a
clear picture of what a migration means. For many people who want to
move from Windows to another platform, what they really seem to want is
a "Windows" that does not have the problems that they have been
experiencing. So many times you hear, "I'd change to Linux but I tried
it once and it was different from what I'm used to."Yes, Linux is
different. Linux is very different and to successfully move to it (or
any other platform for that matter) you have to be willing to accept
change. Some people really cannot do this. Their minds are not built
that way. They learn just enough about "the computer" to do their jobs
by rote. Platforms just don't matter to them.Platforms matter to people
who enjoy and care about computing. I use Linux as opposed to Windows
because I really like computers. I enjoy using them and learning about
them. I find that Linux helps me enjoy my computer much more than any
version of Windows ever did.As to your concerns about OpenOffice.org
and GIMP versus Office and Photoshop, yes, they are different too. I'm
currently writing a book with OpenOffice.org and I have found it very
satisfactory. I used to write a lot with Word and it was fine too. I
don't see a lot of practical differences in what each program does, but
there certainly are surface differences which may be difficult for some
people. I suppose that the same may be true with GIMP and Photoshop.
I've never used Photoshop so I can't really comment, but from reading
the comments of others, I sense that many people reject GIMP
out-of-hand because it's not just like Photoshop. Both are very capable
programs and the field of digital image processing is an extremely
technical one which makes any truly capable application dauntingly
complex. But with the exception of of deep color support, and some
pre-press functions, GIMP is very comparable to Photoshop for many
tasks. I use it routinely in my photographic work.To sum up, change
requires, well, change. Forward progress sometimes means giving up old
ways of doing things and learning some new ones. For anyone attempting
it, the question remains, "is it worth it?" and only you can know the
answer to that.Hope this helps.

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants at
1/04/2009 04:39:00 PM

[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants] Review: Dell Inspiron 530N With Ubuntu 8.0...

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

A couple of months ago I purchased a new desktop system for my office,
a Dell Inspiron 530N with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS pre-installed by Dell. For
those of you unfamiliar with the "N" series, these systems are sold
without Microsoft Windows installed. They are available with either
Ubuntu Linux pre-installed or with no operating system installed and a
copy of FreeDOS (an open source MS-DOS work-alike) installation media
in the box.My previous computer, another Dell N Series (a Dimension
2400 from 2004) still works but since it's Celeron powered, it's a bit
slow for my contemporary tastes.Ordering from the Dell website was very
straightforward and I configured my system with the optional Intel
Core2 Duo E4600 processor, 2GB RAM, Integrated Intel 3100 Graphics (I'm
not a gamer), and a 22 -inch E228WFP wide-screen flat panel monitor.
The total system price was $703 including $35 shipping charge.After it
arrived (it only took about three days even with ground shipping), I
got it out of the box and set it up. The only interesting thing of note
was that no manual for the computer was included in the box. I don't
know if this was a shipping mistake or if Dell omits it because the
manual is Windows specific. I later went to the Dell support site and
downloaded a PDF version.Physically, the machine is a pretty typical
desktop computer. It features an attractive silver and white case with
front audio and USB sockets behind a sliding cover and it has a glowing
blue power button. When the system powers up, all of its fans turn on
(loudly) for about three seconds and then turn off. Besides that, I
would rate the system as very quiet. The standard keyboard is on the
smallish side, with no excess around the keys themselves and I had
concerns at first about using a keyboard that had no wrist rest, but
after having used it for a while, I like the small size. It leaves
plenty of room on my desk for even more junk.The Ubuntu installation on
the system is pretty good. Dell adds two icons to the desktop, one
linked to a folder named "Dell" which contains a single PDF file of
technical support contact information, and a second icon that links to
a program that generates a DVD recovery image for performing a full
system restore to original factory condition. A recovery partition is
also included on the hard disk which can be selected at boot up. What
is missing is a document that describes how Dell integrated the OS.
Such a document is useful if you later decide to switch to another
Linux distribution and need to know if any special tweaks are required
to support the hardware.After the system was attached to the Internet,
it set about updating itself from the Ubuntu and Dell repositories.
Amazingly, there were over 900 updates available, virtually all of them
from Ubuntu. One thing to note about the Dell repositories, packages
from there will always display "not authenticated" warnings when you
attempt to update them. I looked into this (as the warning you receive
is pretty dire) and it seems to be an Ubuntu problem in that only
packages from the official Ubuntu repositories can be authenticated.All
of the hardware on the machine appears well-supported by Ubuntu. Dell
also includes the closed-source LinDVD program from Corel for DVD (and
other multimedia) playback. While the program could be said to work, it
has two annoying features, first it always sets the volume level
(system-wide) to maximum each time it's started. Second, its user
interface is visually ugly, looking like a 1998 version of XMMS. This
is the inevitable result of it being closed-source. No one in the GNOME
or Ubuntu communities is able to properly integrate it into the
desktop. Since receiving the system, I have installed all of the usual
multimedia packages from the Ubuntu repositories and reserve LinDVD for
DVD watching only and use totem for everything else. The integrated
Intel graphics system is fast enough to display 720p video playback
without problems. This system is also the first system that I have
owned that can run compiz-based visual effects on the desktop and it
works pretty well.Overall, I am very pleased with the system. Dell did
a good (though not perfect) job with the Ubuntu setup and the hardware
performs well. The 22-inch monitor combined with the compiz visual
effects is a delight. For the money, I think this is a very good
system. I've enjoyed it every day so far.You can find out more about
Dell's Ubuntu systems at:http://www.dell.com/ubuntuAlso check out
Dell's other Linux
resources:http://linux.dell.comhttp://www.dell.com/linux

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants at
11/24/2008 03:08:00 PM

[Linuxcommand-announce] [LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants] New Blog

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

For the last couple of years, I have been using nanoblogger, a
bash-based blogging engine to manage the site news portion of this
site. While I like the concept of nanoblogger in that it is bash-based
(so it seems an appropriate choice for a Linux scripting site like
LinuxCommand.org), it's kind of cumbersome to use. So starting now I'm
trying out blogger.com.If you had been subscribed to the RSS feed from
the old blog, you will need to update it to the new feed address. See
the Who,What,Where,Why page for details.

--
Posted By William Shotts to LinuxCommand.org: News And Rants at
11/22/2008 11:36:00 AM

[Linuxcommand-announce] SuperMan pages updated

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

Hi All,

I have just updated the SuperMan pages on LinuxCommand.org to Fedora
Core 4.  The collection now contains just under three thousand man pages
for for educational enjoyment!

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org
|||||  See My Photography! http://www.williamshottsphotography.com

[Linuxcommand-announce] Another new lesson!

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

I have just posted the second part of Errors and Signals and Traps:

<http://linuxcommand.org/wss0160.php>;

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] New lesson!

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

I have just posted a new lesson, "Errors, signals and traps (Oh my!) -
Part 1"

<http://linuxcommand.org/wss0150.php>;

Enjoy!

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] LinuxCommand.org for Off-Line Viewing and improved printing support

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

In response to many requests, I have created a downloadable version of
LinuxCommand.org.  You can find it on the Script Library page.  Download
the tar file and expand it with the following command:

tar xzvf linuxcommand.org-20050121.tar.gz

then point your web browser at the index.html file within the
linuxcommand.org directory.

I have also made some improvements to the site's style sheet to make
printing better.

Enjoy!

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] LinuxCommand.org update

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

Massive update to the site today including a conversion of the site to PHP
and new stylesheets. This should make the site more readable for most
people but web browsers with broken CSS Level 1 support (i.e. Netscape
4.x) will no longer render the site properly. Sorry. All modern browsers
(Mozilla, IE, Konqueror, etc.) will display the new pages correctly.

I am doing this to make the site easier to maintain and make writing new
lessons less tedious. Enjoy!

|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] New lesson posted: Flow Control - Part 3

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

I have posted the third and final part of the flow control lessons:

http://www.linuxcommand.org/wss0140.html

Enjoy!
-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] New lesson! Positional Parameters.

[William Shotts <weshotts@co...>]

New lesson now available at http://linuxcommand.org/wss0130.html.

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] rh-errata 1.2.4 released

[<bshotts@pa...>]

rh-errata version 1.2.4 has been released.

rh-errata
=========
This program is used to get update and errata files from an ftp site
(presumably a mirror of Red Hat's own site).  The program has a number
of useful features including:

	* Only downloads files that you have not already downloaded
	* Verifies the integrity of each downloaded file
	* Will optionally produce a report that indicates the
	  status of each downloaded file:
		- needs installation
		- already installed
		- not needed
		- obsolete
		- corrupt

While this program was designed to support Red Hat Linux, it will
probably work on any system that is RPM based.  Note that this
program requires rpm version 3.0 or later.

CHANGELOG for rh-errata
=======================

Version 1.2.4 -- Sun, Jul 28, 2002 08:48:22 AM
----------------------------------------------
Added -n option to support multiple download attempts.  This option
is useful downloading from busy FTP sites.

Version 1.2.3 -- Sat, Feb 09, 2002 08:47:53 PM
----------------------------------------------
Updated default FTP site (again) and made various documentation
improvements.

Version 1.2.0 -- Sun, Apr 01, 2001 12:23:28 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added new "-c" option to delete obsolete and corrupt packages from the
repository.  Fixed path name on default mirror site to reflect new
directory naming scheme used on Red Hat mirrors.  Various documentation
clean-ups.

11/24/00 10:09:17 ver. 1.1.0
----------------------------
Added new intelligent mode that only attempts to download packages
installed on the system running rh-errata.  Also added feature that
attempts to re-download files that appear corrupt in the repository
(perhaps as the result of a previous failed download attempt).

07/22/00 18:04:48 ver. 1.0.1
----------------------------
Added support for kernel architecture option (-k) and noarch.  Improved
temp file handling.  Changed default ftp site to ftp.valinux.com which
seems more up-to-date.


$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.5 2002/07/28 12:50:07 bshotts Exp $

[Linuxcommand-announce] sf-tools 1.0.0 released

[<bshotts@pa...>]

sf-tools version 1.0.0 has been released.

sf-tools - Tools for SourceForge users
======================================

The sf-tools package contains several scripts designed to assist
SourceForge users perform routine project maintenance tasks.  The package
contains the following tools:

* sft_run_webalizer - This program is intended for installation on the
SourceForge shell server and can be used to automatically perform web
server log analysis using webalizer.

* sft_upload_website - This program uploads the contents of your web site
to your project directory.  By default, it only uploads files more recent
than the previous upload.

* sft_new_cvs_module - This program imports a new software product into
your CVS repository.

* sft_release_module - This program releases a software module.  It
updates your CVS, tags the CVS tree with the release version number,
prompts you to update your CHANGELOG file, constructs and mails a release
announcement to your project's announcement mailing list (if any), and
uploads the module tarball to SourceForge.

CHANGELOG for sf-tools
======================

Version 1.0.0 -- Sat, Mar 09, 2002 11:47:51 AM
----------------------------------------------
Removed sft_run_webalizer as it is no longer useful.
Corrected problem in sft_upload_website where determination of updated
files would fail on 2.4 Linux kernels.
Various cosmetic updates to all files.

Version 0.4.3 -- Thu, May 31, 2001 08:16:57 PM
----------------------------------------------
Corrected stupid bug in sft_upload_website that prevented it from 
installing uploaded tarball. 

Version 0.4.2 -- Sun, Apr 01, 2001 12:41:59 PM
----------------------------------------------
Modified sft_upload_website to comply with new project directory naming
scheme on the shell server.

Version 0.4.1 -- Sun, Mar 18, 2001 02:27:59 PM
----------------------------------------------
Changed name of ftp upload site in sft_release_module.  Note that 
SourceForge has recently unmounted the /home/logs filesystem making it
impossible to process your own web logs, thus sft_run_webalizer is no
longer useful.  If SF comes up with another log parsing scheme, I will
try to support it.

Version 0.4.0 -- Sun, Feb 11, 2001 02:31:31 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added sft_new_cvs_module script.  This addition completes the initial set 
of tools for this package.

Version 0.3.0 -- Sat, Feb 03, 2001 06:26:55 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added sft_release_module script.  Other scripts have minor (mostly 
cosmetic) changes.

01/28/01 12:39:57 ver. 0.2.2
----------------------------
Changed sft_upload_website to support automatic installation of web site 
tarball on shell server.

01/27/01 21:04:06 ver. 0.2.1
----------------------------
Fixed a bug in sft_upload_website with the directory layout in the 
uploaded archive.

01/27/01 20:21:03 ver. 0.2.0
----------------------------
Added sft_upload_website, a script to upload your SourceForge web site.

01/22/01 19:58:13 ver. 0.1.0
----------------------------
Initial release.  Contains the sft_run_webalizer script.  More scripts to 
follow.

$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.10 2002/03/09 16:50:43 bshotts Exp $

[Linuxcommand-announce] misc 1.1.0 released

[William Shotts <bshotts@pa...>]

misc version 1.1.0 has been released.

misc
====

This is a package containing a variety of utility scripts.

Changelog for misc


Version 1.1.0 -- Mon, Feb 18, 2002 09:13:09 AM
----------------------------------------------
A variety of changes to the scripts:

alarm -         cosmetic improvements
compare_cds -   cosmetic updates, improved method of whole disk
                comparisons, and temp file security improvements
format_floppy - extensive modernizations
set_clock     - rewritten
sizeof        - cosmetic updates

Version 1.0.5 -- Thu, May 31, 2001 08:11:49 PM
----------------------------------------------
Implemented improvements to device support in the compare_cds script.

10/29/00 11:51:01 ver. 1.0.4
----------------------------
Removed diskcopy from the misc package.  Diskcopy now has its own package.

08/27/00 19:44:57 ver. 1.0.3
----------------------------
Added two new scripts: diskcopy by Jogeir Lindseth and sizeof by William
Shotts.

$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.4 2002/02/18 14:18:38 bshotts Exp $

|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] new_script 1.1.0 released

[William Shotts <weshotts@ho...>]

new_script version 1.1.0 has been released.

new_script
==========

new_script is a program that creates shell script templates.  It was
developed to facilitate rapid creation of well-formed shell scripts
containing the features expected in a production quality script.

Changelog for new_script
========================

Version 1.1.0 -- Sun, Feb 10, 2002 07:16:50 PM
----------------------------------------------
Revised versions of new_script and new_function to "restyle" the output 
and improve the user interfaces.  Modernized the documentation.

08/03/00 20:12:31 ver. 1.0.4
----------------------------
More temporary file improvements and cosmetic fixes.

06/30/00 20:17:19 ver. 1.0.3
----------------------------
Changed template to add clean_up call if invalid command line option is given.
Added root user detection and improved temp file handling.

06/17/00 20:46:55 ver. 1.0.2
----------------------------
Fixed a subtle problem where if a template was edited with a text editor
that replaces tabs with spaces, an error would occur in the resulting
script.

Also added a security warning regarding tmp files.


$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.4 2002/02/11 00:18:15 bshotts Exp $

[Linuxcommand-announce] rh-errata 1.2.3 released

[William Shotts <weshotts@ho...>]

rh-errata version 1.2.3 has been released.

rh-errata
=========
This program is used to get update and errata files from an ftp site
(presumably a mirror of Red Hat's own site).  The program has a number
of useful features including:

        * Only downloads files that you have not already downloaded
        * Verifies the integrity of each downloaded file
        * Will optionally produce a report that indicates the
          status of each downloaded file:
                - needs installation
                - already installed
                - not needed
                - obsolete
                - corrupt

While this program was designed to support Red Hat Linux, it will
probably work on any system that is RPM based.  Note that this
program requires rpm version 3.0 or later.

CHANGELOG for rh-errata
=======================

Version 1.2.3 -- Sat, Feb 09, 2002 08:47:53 PM
----------------------------------------------
Updated default FTP site (again) and made various documentation
improvements.

Version 1.2.0 -- Sun, Apr 01, 2001 12:23:28 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added new "-c" option to delete obsolete and corrupt packages from the
repository.  Fixed path name on default mirror site to reflect new
directory naming scheme used on Red Hat mirrors.  Various documentation
clean-ups.

11/24/00 10:09:17 ver. 1.1.0
----------------------------
Added new intelligent mode that only attempts to download packages
installed on the system running rh-errata.  Also added feature that
attempts to re-download files that appear corrupt in the repository
(perhaps as the result of a previous failed download attempt).

07/22/00 18:04:48 ver. 1.0.1
----------------------------
Added support for kernel architecture option (-k) and noarch.  Improved
temp file handling.  Changed default ftp site to ftp.valinux.com which
seems more up-to-date.


$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.4 2002/02/10 01:50:43 bshotts Exp $

[Linuxcommand-announce] linuxcommand 0.9.6 released

[William Shotts <weshotts@ho...>]

linuxcommand version 0.9.6 has been released.

linuxcommand
============

The Contributor's Kit is a collection of files designed for persons
wishing to contribute to the LinuxCommand.org project.

Changelog for linuxcommand
==========================

Version 0.9.6 -- Sat, Feb 09, 2002 06:53:18 PM
----------------------------------------------
Applied various cosmetic updates to the scripts.

08/24/00 20:25:00 ver. 0.9.5
----------------------------
Updated lc_new_script to match current version of new_script

06/03/00 13:54:45 ver. 0.9.4
----------------------------
Fixed problem in build to exclude CVS directory

06/03/00 12:48:30 ver. 0.9.3
----------------------------
Corrected various errors in the README files.

$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.4 2002/02/09 23:54:24 bshotts Exp $
-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] Updated SuperMan pages

[William Shotts <weshotts@ho...>]

I have just uploaded an updated version of the SuperMan Pages.  It now 
contains all ~2300 man pages for Red Hat 7.2!  Enjoy.

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] New lessons

[William Shotts <bshotts2@ho...>]

I have written two new lessons in the "Writing Shell Scripts" series:

http://linuxsommand.org/wss0070.html
http://linuxcommand.org/wss0080.html

Enjoy!

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts@...)
|||||  http://www.clark.net/pub/bshotts/ (Updated 04/13/2000)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] misc 1.0.5 released

[William Shotts <bshotts@cl...>]

misc version 1.0.5 has been released.

misc
====

This is a package containing a variety of utility scripts.

Changelog for misc

$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.3 2001/06/01 00:15:19 bshotts Exp $

Version 1.0.5 -- Thu, May 31, 2001 08:11:49 PM
----------------------------------------------
Implemented improvements to device support in the compare_cds script.

10/29/00 11:51:01 ver. 1.0.4
Removed diskcopy from the misc package.  Diskcopy now has its own package.

08/27/00 19:44:57 ver. 1.0.3
Added two new scripts: diskcopy by Jogeir Lindseth and sizeof by William
Shotts.

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts@...)
|||||  http://www.clark.net/pub/bshotts/ (Updated 04/13/2000)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] sf-tools 0.4.3 released

[William Shotts <bshotts@cl...>]

sf-tools version 0.4.3 has been released.

sf-tools - Tools for SourceForge users
======================================

The sf-tools package contains several scripts designed to assist
SourceForge users perform routine project maintenance tasks.  The package
contains the following tools:

* sft_run_webalizer - This program is intended for installation on the
SourceForge shell server and can be used to automatically perform web
server log analysis using webalizer.

* sft_upload_website - This program uploads the contents of your web site
to your project directory.  By default, it only uploads files more recent
than the previous upload.

* sft_new_cvs_module - This program imports a new software product into
your CVS repository.

* sft_release_module - This program releases a software module.  It
updates your CVS, tags the CVS tree with the release version number,
prompts you to update your CHANGELOG file, constructs and mails a release
announcement to your project's announcement mailing list (if any), and
uploads the module tarball to SourceForge.

CHANGELOG for sf-tools
======================

Version 0.4.3 -- Thu, May 31, 2001 08:16:57 PM
----------------------------------------------
Corrected stupid bug in sft_upload_website that prevented it from 
installing uploaded tarball. 

Version 0.4.2 -- Sun, Apr 01, 2001 12:41:59 PM
----------------------------------------------
Modified sft_upload_website to comply with new project directory naming
scheme on the shell server.

Version 0.4.1 -- Sun, Mar 18, 2001 02:27:59 PM
----------------------------------------------
Changed name of ftp upload site in sft_release_module.  Note that 
SourceForge has recently unmounted the /home/logs filesystem making it
impossible to process your own web logs, thus sft_run_webalizer is no
longer useful.  If SF comes up with another log parsing scheme, I will
try to support it.

Version 0.4.0 -- Sun, Feb 11, 2001 02:31:31 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added sft_new_cvs_module script.  This addition completes the initial set 
of tools for this package.

Version 0.3.0 -- Sat, Feb 03, 2001 06:26:55 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added sft_release_module script.  Other scripts have minor (mostly 
cosmetic) changes.

01/28/01 12:39:57 ver. 0.2.2
----------------------------
Changed sft_upload_website to support automatic installation of web site 
tarball on shell server.

01/27/01 21:04:06 ver. 0.2.1
----------------------------
Fixed a bug in sft_upload_website with the directory layout in the 
uploaded archive.

01/27/01 20:21:03 ver. 0.2.0
----------------------------
Added sft_upload_website, a script to upload your SourceForge web site.

01/22/01 19:58:13 ver. 0.1.0
----------------------------
Initial release.  Contains the sft_run_webalizer script.  More scripts to 
follow.

$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.9 2001/06/01 00:18:22 bshotts Exp $
-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts@...)
|||||  http://www.clark.net/pub/bshotts/ (Updated 04/13/2000)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org

[Linuxcommand-announce] rh-errata 1.2.0 released

[William Shotts <bshotts@cl...>]

rh-errata version 1.2.0 has been released.

rh-errata
=========
This program is used to get update and errata files from an ftp site
(presumably a mirror of Red Hat's own site).  The program has a number
of useful features including:

         * Only downloads files that you have not already downloaded
         * Verifies the integrity of each downloaded file
         * Will optionally produce a report that indicates the
          status of each downloaded file:
                 - needs installation
                 - already installed
                 - not needed
                 - obsolete
                 - corrupt

While this program was designed to support Red Hat Linux, it will
probably work on any system that is RPM based.  Note that this
program requires rpm version 3.0 or later.

Changelog for rh-errata

$Id: CHANGELOG,v 1.3 2001/04/01 16:26:17 bshotts Exp $

Version 1.2.0 -- Sun, Apr 01, 2001 12:23:28 PM
----------------------------------------------
Added new "-c" option to delete obsolete and corrupt packages from the
repository.  Fixed path name on default mirror site to reflect new
directory naming scheme used on Red Hat mirrors.  Various documentation
clean-ups.

11/24/00 10:09:17 ver. 1.1.0
----------------------------
Added new intelligent mode that only attempts to download packages
installed on the system running rh-errata.  Also added feature that
attempts to re-download files that appear corrupt in the repository
(perhaps as the result of a previous failed download attempt).

07/22/00 18:04:48 ver. 1.0.1
----------------------------
Added support for kernel architecture option (-k) and noarch.  Improved
temp file handling.  Changed default ftp site to ftp.valinux.com which
seems more up-to-date.

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts@...)
|||||  http://www.clark.net/pub/bshotts/ (Updated 04/13/2000)
|||||  Be a Linux Commander!  Follow me to http://linuxcommand.org