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- Log Linux services with runit
- In a previous tip, we looked at the runit program and how it can be used to supervise services, such as sshd. Each supervised service is controlled via a run script, similar to an init script for a system service. This run script does one thing: prepares for and starts...
- Tags: Service, Svlogd, Logger Logger, Linux, Open Source, UNIX, Operating Systems, Software, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-05-12
- Use runit to supervise Linux services
- Traditional Linux systems use SysV init for starting the system: running init scripts to start and stop services and also to manage system runlevels and one-time startup scripts. The problem with using a SysV init system is that services are also treated as one-time startup scripts. When init starts the...
- Tags: Service, Linux, Open Source, UNIX, Operating Systems, Software, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-05-05
- Learn to use the openssl command-line program
- OpenSSL is more than just an open source SSL library implementation. It can be used to create, request, sign, and revoke certificates and can also be used to perform other cryptographic operations such as creating hashes for files, testing SSL connections, and more. This week, we'll take a look at...
- Tags: Password, SSL, Ssl/Tls, Authentication/Encryption, Network Security, Security, Networking, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-04-28
- Try IRC with Irssi to communicate via chat
- IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a fantastic method of communication with peers, particularly if you are part of a development group or want to get support with a particular piece of software or project. Many IRC networks, particularly the Freenode network, cater to a lot of open source and...
- Tags: IRC, Server, Irssi, Channel Definition, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Internet, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-04-21
- Using vi key bindings in bash and zsh
- By default, most shells use emacs-style key bindings for command-line editing and modification. For users of vi or vim, however, you can instead configure shells to use vi key bindings instead. This is done by editing ~/.bashrc in the case of bash, or ~/.zshrc in zsh and adding: set...
- Tags: Shell, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-04-14
- Use command-line MySQL for additional flexibility
- The more popular ways of using MySQL are to use GUI front ends, such as phpMyAdmin or the MySQL GUI administration tools. While these tools are fantastic and make managing a MySQL database easier, the mysql command-line program works quite well also, and is more flexible. You...
- Tags: MySQL, Open Source, Databases, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-04-07
- Securely delete files with shred
- There are two utilities on a typical Linux box that can be used to delete files. Most users are familiar with the rm command. Most of the time, this command is sufficient for routine deletion, but for files that contain sensitive data, you might need to scrub them so that...
- Tags: Garbage, File, Linux, Productivity, Open Source, Servers, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-03-31
- Log Linux services with runit
- Vincent Danen explains how to configure logging with the runit program.
- Tags: Program, Vincent Danen, Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software
- Download resources 2008-05-12
- Use runit to supervise Linux services
- Gerrit Pape's runit is similar to djb's daemontools and allows you to run supervised services, like daemontools, and also allows you to replace SysV init completely if you so desire. Vincent Danen tells you how to get started with runit in this tip.
- Tags: Service, Vincent Danen, Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software
- Download resources 2008-05-05
- Using the openssl command-line program
- OpenSSL can be used to create, request, sign, and revoke certificates and can also be used to perform other cryptographic operations such as creating hashes for files, testing SSL connections, and more.
- Tags: OpenSSL, Vincent Danen, Ssl/Tls, Authentication/Encryption, Network Security, Security, Networking
- Download resources 2008-04-30
- Configure Snort to log packets to MySQL
- Last week, we looked at setting up Snort, a Network Intrusion Detection System. Now we will look at configuring Snort to log packets to a remote MySQL server where a graphical Web interface can be used to view captured packets and statistics. To begin with, on the...
- Tags: Snort, MySQL, Open Source, Databases, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-03-21
- Detect intruders on your network with Snort
- Snort is a Network Intrusion Detection System NIDS, which can view and analyze packets on a network to determine whether or not a system is being attacked by remote. Most Linux distributions come with Snort, so it's simply a matter of installing Snort via urpmi, apt-get, or yum. Snort can...
- Tags: Snort, Network, Rule, Community Rule, Linux, Intrusion Detection, Open Source, UNIX, Operating Systems, Security, Software, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-03-17
- Set up ISC's dhcpd server
- Large and small networks alike can take advantage of DHCP and often do. With the dhcpd server from Internet Systems Consortium ISC you can not only provide dynamic IP addresses to hosts on your network, you can also provide static IP addresses based on the host's MAC address. This is...
- Tags: DHCP, Network, DNS, IP, Server, IP Address, Subnet, IP Declaration, Networking, Network Technology, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-03-03
- Encrypting and decrypting files with GnuPG
- GnuPG, the open replacement for PGP, is an excellent tool to manage cryptographic signatures to files or e-mails for validity and integrity, as well as a tool to encrypt and decrypt sensitive files. Previously, we looked into creating an initial GPG public/private keypair and looked at embedding a signature...
- Tags: Passphrase, ASCII, File, GPG, E-mail, Online Communications, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-02-15
- Get started with GnuPG
- GnuPG is an open replacement for PGP Corporation's PGP Pretty Good Privacy encryption tool, and based on the OpenPGP standard. What GnuPG or GPG for short does is allow for the encryption and decryption of files using a public/private keypair. It can be used to encrypt regular files or e-mail,...
- Tags: File, Key, PGP Corp., GnuPG, GPG, Linux, E-mail, UNIX, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Online Communications, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-02-04
- Use tcpdump for network debugging
- Tcpdump is an extremely useful network packet tracing system. While not as feature-rich as programs such as Wireshark, its packet "dump" output can be used as input by other programs to analyze the dump. In a pinch, and for network debugging, tcpdump works wonders. For instance, if...
- Tags: Network, IP, TCP, Tcpdump, Tcp/Ip, Networking, Network Technology, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-01-25
- Auto-reboot Linux after a kernel panic
- Linux is a robust and stable operating system kernel, but there are instances where it can panic, be it due to bad hardware or bad software. It does not happen often, but it can happen. If you're running a server or some other always-on system that you...
- Tags: Kernel, SysRq, Auto-rebooting, Linux, Operating Systems, Software, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-01-18
- Learn to use a serial console on Linux
- Using a serial console on Linux is much like using a modem; the technology is virtually identical, but instead of using a modem to dial into a remote system, a special serial cable, called a null-modem cable, is strung between two computers via their serial ports. Most modern desktops and...
- Tags: Console, Serial Port, Linux, Cable, Network Technology, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Telecommunications, Personal Technology, Networking, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-01-14
- Use OpenNTPD for time synchronization
- Traditionally, the time synchronization application used on Linux systems has been ntpd network time protocol daemon. However, for quite some time now, the developers behind OpenSSH have created a secure, lean, and easy to configure NTP daemon called OpenNTPD. Many Linux distributions provide OpenNTPD, but few use it as the...
- Tags: NTP, OpenNTPD, Servers, Hardware, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2008-01-07
- Filter for unwanted mail and mailing lists with procmail
- Last week, we looked at an initial procmail setup with a very basic ~/.procmail/procmail.rc file. This file configured our variables, filtered out duplicate messages, created a by-month dated mailbox archive of all incoming e-mails, and then began filtering mails by calling two other files of recipes: ~/.procmail/deletes.rc and ~/.procmail/mailinglists.rc. ...
- Tags: Mailbox, Mailing List, E-mail, Online Communications, Vincent Danen
- Blog posts 2007-12-17
