Devlog :: And Wizardry

Mon, 24 Apr 2006

Subversion for Perl module development on Geo-ReadGRIB

I'd been doing my development on Geo-ReadGRIB without using source control. The main reason was that, in the MakeMaker environment the .svn/ directories is problematic. The big problem is that the generated makefile will try to do something reasonable with the .svn/ stuff as a part of the distribution. Reasonable in this case means not ignoring them. I should have realized that I wasn't the first one to have this problem. A few minutes searching turned up a solution at [use.perl.org http://use.perl.org/~rafael/journal/9262]. Basically, I need to create a MANIFEST.SKIP file and add my own version of libscan() to Makefile.PL ... Works like a charm. [/items/Subversion] permanent link


Wed, 11 Jan 2006

Subversion for Firefox Bookmarks - Saves my Butt

*Maybe it was just my toenail...* I wouldn't have lost my butt, but my Firefox preferences did get messed up somehow. For some reason all the search sites disappeared in the search bar on the right top side of my Firefox window. All that was left was "Add engines..." but I couldn't add any and I use the search bar all the time. I tried to reinstall over my current version but it didn't help. *svn co -r 30 svn://pwizardry.com/foo strange_name.default* Using Subversion for my Preferences is better than a backup. I committed at least one update before I noticed the problem. If it was a simple backup I would have saved a corrupted copy or two and a restore may not have helped. As it was, I could just blow away my Preferences and check out an earlier version. My toenail is fine. [/items/Subversion] permanent link


Sun, 08 Jan 2006

Subversion for Firefox Bookmarks - Security fix!

*Update:* I had a security concern with one part of the Subversion solution I described [Friday http://www.pwizardry.com/devlog/blosxom.cgi/2006/01/06#svn_for_bookmarks]. I put my whole Firefox Profile under my htdocs/ directory. It was down two directory levels and both of them have a blank index.html files in them. This means no one can list the contents and they would have to guess the two directory names and include the name of one of the files there to have it served. I gave the example "http://pwizarcry.com/x/y/bookmarks.html" on Friday, but it wasn't in really x/y/. I was practicing /security by obscurity/ by not disclosing the real path. *So, what's the problem?* The problem is with the other things in a Firefox Profile other than bookmarks. For example: somewhere in there are cashed cached passwords and other form data that Firefox will conveniently autofill for me. You need a password to get at these files on my Workstation but now I had them !*/potentially/* available on the internet. *Who would care? Seems easy to fix anyway...* Not that anyone would care to look at my profile but... There's a simple fix. I moved the working copy of my profile out of htdocs/. Then I just added one line to the post-commit hook script. Now it will copy just the bookmarks.html file to htdocs/ after it updates the working copy. The rest of the solution is unchanged. [/items/Subversion] permanent link


Fri, 06 Jan 2006

Subversion for Firefox Bookmarks - What a concept!

I've been trying to think up a better way to manage my internet bookmarks for a while now. I've been keeping the current version of a bookmarks.html on my site. I have it set as the home page on any browser I use. To update it I have to edit a local copy and upload it as a replacement. This works OK but I've been wishing for a few more features. *what I wanted* - I want to be able to drop bookmarks in easily (no more hand edit and /scp/), and use a Firefox bookmark editor. Then I wanted to see the changes everywhere right away. My old bookmarks were something I did in HTML way back when, and they won't open in the Firefox editor. - I also wanted to backup my whole Firefox profile, including my bookmarks. This might have been another project, but instead, got both at once. *so...* So, I was thinking all sorts of things. Maybe a XML solution or some sort of weblog software plugin... Then today I just made a new repository on pwizardry.com and imported my workstation's Firefox Profile to it. Then I checked it back out into the webserver's htdocs/ directory. Then, I can just set http://pwizarcry.com/x/y/bookmarks.html as my home page on my browsers, and I'm almost there. I'll also check a working copy out into my Profiles directory on the computer I want to make my changes on. That will just be my home workstation for now. Then I can update my bookmarks in Firefox. When I check in the changes the new version is on the server. The next part of the solution is to add a /post-commit/ script to the hooks/ directory of the repository that will /*svn update*/ the htdocs/ working copy every time I make a commit. That's sweet! The last part is a little script on my workstation to do a /*svn commit*/ and a icon on the buttonbar to set it off. Works like a charm. ---- [/items/Subversion] permanent link


Wed, 14 Dec 2005

*Using the svn:// URL*

ahh... it looks like I can use the svn// URL too. Because of my configuration it adds the base path I gave it in frount of the path I use in the URL. So... I need to use this to get to the reposotory foo: [= svn co svn://pwizardry.com/foo ] [/items/Subversion] permanent link


*Next Miracle - Install Subversion on pwizardry.com*

I've been wanting to install subversion on an internet server for a while. Inertia held me back. That and wondering it would work on a shared server environment like Verio's. I decided today that I wanted to find out. Grabbed the tarball and opened it on my server. Discovered the options in configure that let me install into another location: [= --prefix and --exec-prefix ]. Everything built and installed fine although not fast. True to form, it took three or four passes to get it the way I wanted it. I then started svnservr in -d, daemon mode: [= /usr/home/lyon/local/svn/bin/svnserve -d -r /usr/home/lyon/local/svn ] That -r sets the base location for the repository so you just have to put the last part of the path in the URL. This seems to work with a svn:// type URL but not with my preferred svn+ssh:// one using ssh. I'll be looking at the -t tunnel options later. The URL I'm using is something like: [= svn co svn+ssh://lyon@pwizardry.com/usr/home/lyon/local/svn/www ] ---- [/items/Subversion] permanent link