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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Vendors boost open source tools support
4 months, 1 week ago
At the OSCON show, Black Duck and Intel are offering better ways for open source developers to accelerate software development and improve their parallel processing capabilities. -
Linux Test Project June 2008 release announcement
5 months ago
The Linux Test Project test suite has been released for the month of June 2008. The latest version of the test-suite contains 3000+ tests for the Linux OS and can be found at ltp.sourceforge.net. -
dwm 4.9 Released
8 months ago
"dwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled and floating layouts. Either layout can be applied dynamically, optimizing the environment for the application in use and the task performed. It is the little brother of wmii." And version 4.9 has been released. -
Setting up Subversion and Trac as virtual hosts on an Ubuntu server
10 months, 3 weeks ago
This howto outlines the process by which one can set up the Subversion version control system, and have it work in tandem with Trac, the project manager for software development projects, on a server running Ubuntu (or possibly Debian). -
Mozilla introduces new Weave online service
11 months, 2 weeks ago
"Mozilla Labs launched a new online service called Weave yesterday. The idea behind Weave is that all your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords and are synced to your Mozilla account via Firefox .... " -
Canonical releases version 1.0 of 'Bazaar' version control tool
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Open-source projects often face the problem of keeping track of a project's code, while avoiding stifling developers' creativity. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, claims it has a solution to that problem: Bazaar 1.0, its new version control system. Unlike most VCSs (version control systems), Bazaar is a distributed, rather than centralized, system. -
Disk based backups with Amanda on Debian Etch
1 year, 2 months ago
"This document describes how to set up Amanda (The Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) on Debian Etch ... The resulting system provides a flexible backup system with many features. It will be able to back up multiple hosts via network to various devices. I chose the disk based backup for this howto .... " -
Central Log Management System
1 year, 2 months ago
"Central Log Management System is a simple web based logging system which allows logging all syslog messages from various Network Devices, Unix, Linux, Solaris and Windows Servers. This allows the visibility of logs from all these devices in one single interface ...." -
BugnuX 2007 released
1 year, 3 months ago
"The BugnuX team is proud to release the final version of BugnuX 2007, after many sleepless/partyless nights. The key features of this version are that the default Window Manager is Enlighenment 0.17. Yes, E17 is still in beta, but it has some very nifty features. Since it is in beta, we have also included the latest stable version of Fluxbox, as an alternative, just in case...The other important feature is that we have our own repository (fully compatible with PCLinuxOS 2007) with all the testing tools(marathon, jacareto, CurlLoader), E17, OPenBox, FluxBox, Rox, idesk, etc. .... '
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Entering a safe mirror when logging in with unionfs and chroot
1 year, 5 months ago
"This environment is a exact copy (mirror) of the system you're working on. Because you're in safe copy of the real system, you can do whatever you like, it will never change the system, everything stays inside the cache (the readwrite branch) ... " -
What Eclipse "Europa" means for Linux device devs
1 year, 5 months ago
"The open source Eclipse tools project will orchestrate a massive, coordinated release on June 29. Among the "Europa" releases' 21 constituent sub-project releases, four are significant to Linux device developers, according to Doug Gaff, leader of Eclipse.org's Device Software Development Project ... " -
Eclipse ships its largest-ever release
1 year, 5 months ago
The Eclipse Foundation today announced the availability of its annual coordinated project release, this year code named Europa. Europa features 21 Eclipse projects for software developers and is more than double the size of last year’s record-setting release.The release consists of more than 17 million lines of code and the contributions of over 310 open source developers located in 19 different countries.
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Display Controls and Linux: Poor Combination
1 year, 5 months ago
"Let's face it; some distributions have better controls for handling display issues than others. Two that do it right out of the box that come to mind include Fedora (Red Hat) and OpenSuSE (Novell). Each includes tools that minimize the need to do what I gleefully refer to as the “Xorg dance.” Basically, these options mean you are going to be spending more time exploring what these distros have to offer, yet less time wondering why your resolution looks completely off ... " -
Open-source remote access technology advances
1 year, 5 months ago
NoMachine has achieved a major new release of its remote access software for thin clients and other devices that run remotely hosted applications over low-bandwidth networks. NX 3.0 adds new connection options, handy per-server and per-user profiles, support for x86_64, and enhanced scriptability, the company said.
Linux.com : Tools & Utilities
Bidirectional filesystem syncing - DirSync Pro vs. Unison
Everyone knows and loves rsync, the command that lets you clone a directory tree to another disk or system with the ability to keep the clone fresh in an incremental and bandwidth-efficient manner. Sometimes, however, you want to sync in the reverse direction. With bidirectional filesystem syncing tools, there is no primary filesystem -- you just tell the tool to make sure both target directories, or clones, are identical. Here's a hands-on look at two tools designed to accomplish that task: DirSync Pro and Unison.
Browse all your source code revisions with ViewVC
For programmers on big projects, a version control system for managing source code is vital, but working on files in a large project from one of these programs' command-line interfaces is cumbersome. Worse, the results of the commands lack highlighting to show the differences between files and revisions. ViewVC is a handy browser-based code viewer that allows users to browse a source code tree managed by either CVS or Subversion, look at changes, compare revisions at the file or line level, and perform other operations -- just about anything except allow users to check out or commit files.
Three graphical mount managers
Mounting and unmounting filesystems used to be straightforward in GNU/Linux. A basic knowledge of the mount command or some editing of /etc/fstab in a text editor and you were done. However, with the addition of udev in the 2.6 kernel for autoplugging, and the demand for hotswapping USB devices, along with the increased use of logical volume managers and other complications, the process is now more complicated -- perhaps too complicated for many among the growing number of desktop users. That is where graphical mount managers such as Forelex Mount Manager, PySDM, and MountManager find their niche.
Gmail notifiers let you know "you've got mail"
If you are into email like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were in the movie You've Got Mail, you probably want to be warned as soon as any message enters your mailbox. If you use Gmail, you can try one of several Gmail-specific applications that let you know when new messages arrive.
Debug your shell scripts with bashdb
The Bash Debugger Project (bashdb) lets you set breakpoints, inspect variables, perform a backtrace, and step through a bash script line by line. In other words, it provides the features you expect in a C/C++ debugger to anyone programming a bash script.
A graphical way to MySQL mastery
MySQL GUI Tools is a suite of graphical desktop applications for working with and administering MySQL servers. The suite consists of three tools: MySQL Query Browser, MySQL Administrator, and MySQL Migration Assistant (available only on Windows). We'll look at the first two to see how well they let us manage MySQL without using the command line.
Doing a diff without touching the command line
With diff-ext, GNOME users can compare and merge files from within Nautilus. If, instead, you use KDE 3, try out kdiff-ext from the same site, which works with Konqueror. Each utility handles paths to files and directories and invokes an external diff tool to perform the grunt work. With diff-ext you can easily compare two files with different names, from different directories, or whole directory trees.
Set Mantis to track your bugs
Mantis is that rare bug-tracking program for small projects that is neither too bloated nor too featureless. It's an excellent choice for developers who need a bug tracker that the average computer user can use. Its clean interface and numerous features make bug tracking fast and easy.
Tidy up your mailboxes with Archivemail
Over time, people tend to accumulate a large number of messages in various email accounts, most of which they never bother with again. The problem is particularly acute for administrator accounts that receive routine notifications of events that are viewed, if at all, no more than once. The archivemail tool lets you easily archive these old messages and thereby free up some disk space and improve your mail client's performance.
Does cb2bib remove drudgery from bibliography creation?
Many academics and students share a dirty secret: They hate the drudgery of assembling bibliographies. The cb2bib utility attempts to remove some of the drudgery, at least so far as online references go. Designed primarily for use with BibTeX, cb2bib can also be used with other formats once you export the results. However, whether the application actually makes bibliographical tasks easier seems questionable.
Automated processing tools for better digital pictures
When you return from a trip and copy your digital pictures over to your file server, you might like to rename the image files or (losslessly) rotate them to their correct orientation to make finding and viewing them simpler. You might even want to embed comments right into the image files in such a way that all image viewing tools should be able to harvest and share this metadata. In this article we'll take a look at some command-line tools to help you with these tasks.
Slow startup? Bootchart reveals all
Ever wondered what takes your Linux box so long to boot up? You can see for certain with the Bootchart package. Bootchart logs the entire startup process and produces a clean, graphical representation of its results suitable for everything from troubleshooting to good old-fashioned bragging rights.
Transparent compression of files on optical media
Support for transparent decompression of files on optical media has been part of the Linux kernel since version 2.4.14. Here's how you can take advantage of this support when you burn your own optical media by using the mkzftree tool and the -z option to genisoimage. These commands compress files using zlib, which uses the same algorithm as gzip. Using the transparent compression Rock Ridge extension can allow you to fit much more data onto a DVD.
Parallel SSH execution and a single shell to control them all
Many people use SSH to log in to remote machines, copy files around, and perform general system administration. If you want to increase your productivity with SSH, you can try a tool that lets you run commands on more than one remote machine at the same time. Parallel ssh, Cluster SSH, and ClusterIt let you specify commands in a single terminal window and send them to a collection of remote machines where they can be executed.
More tricks with BashDiff
Yesterday we took a look at BashDiff, a patch for the bash shell that adds new capabilities. We've already looked at some of the additions that BashDiff makes to bash's commands and string parsing abilities. Today we'll look at modifying positional parameters, parsing XML, talking to ISAM and relational databases, creating GTK+2 GUIs, and a few other tricks and issues.
Manipulating CD/DVD images with AcetoneISO2
Burning discs reliably ceased to be an area of concern for Linux a long time ago, thanks to tools such as K3b and GnomeBaker. Another tool, AcetoneISO2, aims to be the Swiss army knife at managing disc images. This utility can convert many different image formats, such as .nrg, .bin, and .img, to ISO, and can generate, compress, encrypt, extract, and mount ISO images. It can also mount Mac OS *.dmg files as images, rip DVDs to Xvid AVI files, split and merge images, and more.
Teach an old shell new tricks with BashDiff
BashDiff is a patch for the bash shell that can do an amazing number of things. It extends existing bash features, brings a few of awk's tricks into the shell itself, exposes some common C functions to bash shell programming, adds an exception mechanism, provides features of functional programming such as list comprehension and the map function, lets you talk with GTK+2 and databases, and even adds a Web server right into the standard bash shell.
Check your disks' health with GSmartControl
GSmartControl presents your hard drive SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) health information in a graphical display. With GSmartControl you no longer have to fish around in /dev/disk/by-id to find the drive you're interested in and then inspect the output of smartctl trying to figure out which SMART attributes have values that you should care about.
Three to-do list managers for GNU/Linux
Never forget an important task again with these great to-do list managers for Linux.
Quickly move an executable between systems with ELF Statifier
Shared libraries that are dynamically linked make more efficient use of disk space than those that are statically linked, and more importantly allow you to perform security updates in a more efficient manner, but executables compiled against a particular version of a dynamic library expect that version of the shared library to be available on the machine they run on. If you are running machines with both Fedora 9 and openSUSE 11, the versions of some shared libraries are likely to be slightly different, and if you copy an executable between the machines, the file might fail to execute because of these version differences. With ELF Statifier you can create a statically linked version of an executable, so the executable includes the shared libraries instead of seeking them at run time. A staticly linked executable is much more likely to run on a different Linux distribution or a different version of the same distribution.
