OS X Java Versions

To see what Java versions are installed in OS X

ls -al /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions

Your Java executable – usually ‘/usr/bin/java’ is linked to the instance in the ‘Current’.

ls -al /usr/bin/java

To switch, ‘simply’ point ‘Current’ and ‘CurrentJDK’ to the appropriate version.

bash documentation

A great version of Bash documentation.

Lauchpad & Bazaar mini-primer

Brief notes from my first attempt to use Bazaar and Launchpad.

Launchpad

After creating account, do yourself a favor and do the following:

• In Profile > Personal, specify a short, unique name – it keeps the URLs sane
• In Profile > SSH Keys, upload a public key – that allows you to push changes to your Launchpad

Bazaar

The User Guide is a good place to find answers.

In your local Bazaar setup, do the following:

Specify your default commit information

  bzr whoami "Your Name <email@example.com>"

Specify a launchpad login

  bzr launchpad-login some_launchpad_login_name

Using Bazaar – A branch per feature

1) Create a mirror trunk from somewhere

bzr init-repo PROJECT
cd PROJECT
bzr branch SOME_URL trunk

2) Create a local branch for a feature

bzr branch trunk some_feature_or_fix
cd some_feature_or_fix
...do something...
bzr commit ...

3) Refresh the (local) trunk mirror

cd trunk
bzr pull

4) Merge changes from local trunk into feature branch

cd some_feature_or_fix
bzr merge
(resolve conflicts)
bzr commit ...

5) Merge branch changes into local trunk

cd trunk
bzr pull
brz merge ../some_branch_or_fix
(resolve conflicts)
bzr commit ...

6) Merge local trunk changes into master trunk

cd trunk
bzr pull
bzr push

Installing Tomcat 5.5 and Magnolia 3.6 CE

Notes on installing Tomcat 5.5 and Magnolia 3.6 CE.

1) Tomcat 5.5

Download the ‘core’ Tomcat 5.5 distribution from the Apache site.

Move zip file to the location where you want to install Tomcat.

Unzip the file

In your (bash) shell, define the two environment variables as appropriate to your system:

export CATALINA_HOME=/Users/tracy/Everything/Downloads/installed/apache-tomcat-5.5.27
export JAVA_HOME=/usr

To start and stop Tomcat

$CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh

That’s it for Tomcat.

2) Magnolia 3.6.4 CE

The copy of Magnolia 3.6.4 CE I downloaded, contrary to the documentation, is missing the full Tomcat package. So:

cp $MAGNOLIA_HOME/apache-tomcat-5.5.25/bin $CATALINA_HOME/bin
rsync -a $MAGNOLIA_HOME/apache-tomcat-5.5.25/webapps/magnoliaAuthor $CATALINA_HOME/webapps
rsync -a $MAGNOLIA_HOME/apache-tomcat-5.5.25/webapps/magnoliaPublic $CATALINA_HOME/webapps

Textmate – where to find help

Textmate – where to find help.

Start with the Textmate Wiki

Leopard – Changing advanced user options

To change advanced user options in Leopard, control-click on the use name in System Preferences > Accounts.

Leopard - Advanced User Options

Leopard – dscl replaces NetInfo

In Leopard and SnowLeopard, netinfo is gone. It is replaced by the ‘dscl’ (Directory Services Command Line) suite of utilities:

• dscl – main command-line interface
• dscacheutil - lookupd replacement
• dseditgroup
• dsmemberutil
• dserr
• dsexport
• dsimport
• dsmemberutil
• dsperfmonitor

dscl command examples

Interactive mode – defaults to ‘localhost’
dscl
list /

Specifying a datasource – by default the datasource is ‘localhost’. Other datasources require DS proxy support on the remote host.
dscl localhost list /

When specifying a command, you appear to be able to drop the leading ‘-’. You must execute these as root.

List a specific group.
dscl localhost list /Local/Default

List a specific setting for a specific group or set of entries.
dscl localhost list /Local/Default/Users UniqueID

Create a new entry in the local (/) domain under the category /users.
dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/USER

Create and set the user’s ID.
dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/USER UniqueID UNIQUEID

Create and set the shell property to bash.
dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/USER UserShell /bin/bash

Create and set the user’s full name.
dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/USER RealName "USER REAL NAME"

Create and set the user’s group ID property.
dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/USER PrimaryGroupID GROUPID

Create and set the user home directory.
dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/USER NFSHomeDirectory /Local/Users/USER

Set the password.
dscl localhost -passwd /Local/Default/Users/USER PASSWORD

To disable the password, set it to the two characters ‘\*’.

To create a group

dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Groups GROUP
dscl localhost -append /Local/Default/Groups GROUP PrimaryGroupID GID
dscl localhost -append /Local/Default/Groups GROUP Password \*

PostgreSQL on OS X

For PostgreSQL,  if you’re trying to create a reproducible, almost production-capable installation on OS X there are a couple of things you need to do.

Step 1 – Configure your kernel.

Create or edit the ‘/etc/sysctl.conf’ file to include settings similar to:

kern.sysv.shmmax=134217728
kern.sysv.shmmin=1
kern.sysv.shmmni=32
kern.sysv.shmseg=8
kern.sysv.shmall=32768

Reboot!

Step 2 – Download and build PostgreSQL from source

Download from PostgreSQL site.

Unpack and build (standard GNU-style build). Note the location specified for PostgreSQL. This has now become the default.

tar xzf postgresql-8.3.4.tar.gz
cd postgresql-8.3.r
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/pgsql
make
sudo make install

Step 3 – Create a postgres user and initialize the database

All you really need is a non-login account for the postgres user. Do it whatever is your favority OS X way – System Preferences > Accounts works fine.

Create a data directory

sudo mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data

Change ownership of all the postgresql directories

sudo chown -R postgres /usr/local/pgsql

Initialize the PostgreSQL database (as postgres user)

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -E UTF8 -D /usr/local/pgsql/data

Start the PostgreSQL database server (as postgres user)

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pgsql/data -l logfile start

Do yourself a favor and add these two optional steps:

• Automate the starting and stopping of the PostgreSQL database
• Install a GUI admin tool. pgAdmin is free and works well.

SpiderOak – Automated OS X backups with Lingon

SpiderOak - an elegant, versioned on-line backup utility. Currently free for up to 2GB of backup space.

I went on the search for something that gives better resolution that OS X Time machine (every hour). Found this elegant tool. Then of course I wanted to automate it.

That turns out to be very simple, and only require two elements.

Part 1

The command to execute a SpiderOAK backup from the commant line:

/Applications/SpiderOak.app/Contents/MacOS/SpiderOak --backup=<somedir> --batchmode

That’s it!

Part 2

This is the newer, ‘approved’ process for creating a scheduled task in OS X. This supercedes crontab.

Create a launchd configuration.  Taming launchd provides a good jumping-off place to understand launchd.

I dug around a little, and found by far the easiest way to write launchd configurations is Lingon, a very well-done donateware front-end to launchd.

Screen shots of the GUI setup, followed by the plist file generated.

Lingon - SpiderOAK setup

Lingon - SpiderOAK plist

Well-known ports

The official IANA Port Numbers Reference

The table of Well Known Ports at Wikepedia looks to be more extensive.

Well-known ports for Apple Products

Glossary of TCP and UDP Port numbers has associated RFC numbers