Here I will describe how to do scheduled automatic backups to an external hard drive on a Debian/Ubuntu Linux computer with the Back In Time system.
First install the package:
sudo aptitude install backintime-gnome
Plug in your USB/ESATA/FireWire hard drive into your linux computer, then do a:
dmesg | tail
to note the block device, such as /dev/sdd.
Next you will want to partition it. Use cfdisk or gparted.
Make one primary partition of type Linux (83) that
is the size of the
drive.
Next format it with your favorite file system.
Use a command such as:
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdd1
Now let''s mount it. We are going to mount it under /media so that
the
updatedb cron job does not index it and clutter your locate db with
your
backup files. We are also going to mount it by UUID so that the order you plug
in your devices, the presence of hubs, etc. does not affect mounting.
First make the mount point:
sudo mkdir /media/backup
Then get the UUID of the new partition:
sudo blkid /dev/sdd1
Now add the mount point to /etc/fstab using the UUID from the previous step:
UUID=e3b623e7-2049-46cf-89aa-1152c38e08e8 /media/backup ext4 defaults,nofail
Now mount it!
sudo mount /media/backup
Remember to mount it when you plug your hard drive in.
If you know of a way to automount an fstab entry, please email me so I can add it here...
We are going to make the backup directory one level below the mount point so that having the drive disconnected tells Back In Time to not run the backup job, otherwise it would run the backup job on the root file system!
sudo mkdir /media/backup/snapshots
Now you''re ready to run the Back In Time configuration program. Run:
ssh -X root@localhost backintime-gnome
Click the Settings button.
For "Where to save snapshots" select /media/backup/snapshots.
For "Schedule" I use "Every Day" at 03:00. Choose a time your machine is likely to be idle and the hard drive is likely to be plugged in.
Click the Include tab. Add folders such as /home and /etc
and any others
you want to back up.
Press "Ok" and close the program.
Press Ctrl-C to close the ssh session.
And you''re done!
I also highly recommend installing anacron:
sudo aptitude install anacron
especially on a laptop, because Back In Time runs from cron. This way if your laptop is off or asleep when the job is supposed to run, your backup will still run at some future time.
Backups can seriously save your arse. Hard drives and SSDs fail. Alot.
Now Mac OS X and Windows have attractive built-in backup options, Time Machine and Windows Backup, respectively. Time Machine is unmatched in power and simplicity. Windows Backup is not as shiny, but still does the job admirably.
With Back In Time, we now have a nice backup solution for Linux as well.
Enjoy the comfort of knowing that your data is safe.
Here I will go through the steps necessary to set up and use SQL Anywhere on Mac\nOS X.
\nIt is available here: http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1016644.
\nOpen
the package and double click the Install SQL Anywhere icon, select
all\ncomponents.
At the end click the Check for Updates button,
it will take you to the EBF\ndownload. You will need to create a MySybase account
to download the EBF\npackage. Download the package, doubleclick the Install
SQL Anywhere icon and\nselect the update product option.
Add
the following to your ~/.bashrc:
export SQLANYWHERE_HOME=/Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System\nexport DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$SQLANYWHERE_HOME/lib64:$SQLANYWHERE_HOME/lib32:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH\nexport DYLD_BIND_AT_LAUNCH=1\nexport PATH=$PATH:$SQLANYWHERE_HOME/bin64:$SQLANYWHERE_HOME/bin32\n\n
For the next step, open a new terminal session for the environment changes to\ntake effect.
\n\nExecute the following to create a new database:
\ncd\nmkdir sqlanywhere\ncd sqlanywhere\nmkdir logs\ndbinit -t ./logs/hlaghdb.log -p 4096 -dba DBA,SQL hlaghdb.db\n\n\n
Create
a file called ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ianywhere.sqlanywhere.plist,\nput
the following in that file, changing /Users/rkitover to your actual
home\ndirectory and the database file name to your actual database file:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>\n<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"\n"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd" >\n<plist version='1.0'>\n<dict>\n<key>Label</key><string>com.ianywhere.sqlanywhere</string>\n<key>WorkingDirectory</key><string>/Users/rkitover/sqlanywhere</string>\n<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>\n \ <dict>\n <key>DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH</key>\n <string>/Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System/lib64:/Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System/lib32</string>\n \ <key>DYLD_BIND_AT_LAUNCH</key>\n <string>1</string>\n \ </dict>\n<key>ProgramArguments</key>\n<array>\n <string>/Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System/bin32/dbsrv12</string>\n \ <string>-ud</string>\n <string>/Users/rkitover/sqlanywhere/hlaghdb.db</string>\n</array>\n<key>Debug</key><false/>\n<key>Disabled</key><true/>\n<key>KeepAlive</key><true/>\n</dict>\n</plist>\n\n
NOTE:
we do not give the database server a name in this example. This is\nbecause for
some reason when I tried to use -n option to dbsrv12 it\nresponded
with Communication error. Try running dbsrv12 from the
command\nline with the -n option to see if it works for you, if it
does add it to the\nProgramArguments in the .plist file.
E.g.:
dbsrv12 -ud -n SQLANYWHERE hlaghdb.db\n\nIf
this works, add the following to the .plist file after dbsrv12:
<string>-n</string>\n<string>SQLANYWHERE</string>\n\n
The following examples will all assume the database server has no name.
\nNow execute the following to load the service and start the database server:
\nlaunchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ianywhere.sqlanywhere.plist\nlaunchctl start com.ianywhere.sqlanywhere\n\n
You should see the database server in ps:
\n$ ps aux | grep dbsrv\nrkitover 51654 \ 0.3 0.2 1627072 14000 ?? Ss 1:02PM 0:03.07 /Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System/bin32/dbsrv12 -ud /Users/rkitover/sqlanywhere/hlaghdb.db\n\n
It will be started across reboots.
\nlaunchctl stop doesn't work with this plist,
so if you need to restart the\nserver, just kill the process and do a launchctl
stop followed by a\nlaunchctl start.
Open
the SQLAnywhere12 folder under Applications in Finder.
The
applications we're interested in are Sybase Central and Interactive\nSQL.
The
Sybase Central application will allow you to configure all aspects
of\nyour database. To use it, open the application, double click on the SQL\nAnywhere
12 plugin, right click inside the blank window and choose Connect,\nchoose
Connect to a running database on this computer, enter the username
and\npassword you used with the dbinit command, which in this example
is DBA\nand SQL respectively.
The Interactive
SQL application is a handy GUI for testing SQL statements on\nyour database.
To login, open the application, choose Database\nauthentication, choose
Connect to a running database on this computer, enter\nyour username
and password and press Connect. Inside the application, enter\nyour
SQL statements in the SQL statements window and press F5 to execute\nthem;
you will see your results in the results window.
If you would prefer a commandline
utility to Interactive SQL for testing SQL\nstatements, you can use
the sqsh utility from MacPorts\n(http://www.macports.org/.)
The
sqsh utility is an interactive SQL utility for databases using the
TDS\nprotocol, such as Sybase ASE and Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Anywhere also uses\nthe
TDS protocol, so the utility works for these databases as well.
If you do
not yet have an interfaces file, follow these steps to set one up.
In
your .bashrc add the following:
export SYBASE=~/sybase\n\n
In
this directory create a file called interfaces with the following:
SQLANYWHERE\n \ master tcp ether localhost 2638\n \ query tcp ether localhost 2638\n\n
Now you can launch sqsh
like so:
sqsh -S SQLANYWHERE -U DBA -P SQL\n\nTo
use it, type in a SQL statement, it can span multiple lines, then type go\non
a line by itself to execute it. This may take some getting used to if you're\nused
to tools such as sqlplus or dbish, where SQL statements are terminated by a\nsemicolon.
You can use dbish with SQL Anywhere as well, I will describe how to\ndo so further
down.
If you have UnixODBC from MacPorts (http://www.macports.org/,) you can set up\nthe included ODBC drivers with it.
\nIn /opt/local/etc/odbcinst.ini
add the following:
[SQLAnywhere]\nDescription = SQL Anywhere\nDriver = /Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System/lib64/libdbodbc12.dylib\nSetup = /Applications/SQLAnywhere12/System/lib64/libdbodbc12.dylib\nFileUsage = 1\n\n
Now lets test it out (take out the -S flag to cpanm if you use local::lib):
\ncurl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - -S App::cpanminus\ncpanm -n -S DBI\ncpanm -n -S DBD::ODBC\nperl -MDBI -le 'my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:ODBC:driver=SQLAnywhere", "DBA", "SQL"); print for $dbh->selectrow_array("select 42")'\n\n\n
First install DBI:
\ncurl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - -S App::cpanminus\ncpanm -n -S DBI\n\n
Then build and install the Perl library:
\ncp -a /Applications/SQLAnywhere12/sdk/perl /tmp/sqlany\ncd /tmp/sqlany\nperl Makefile.PL\nmake\nsudo make install\ncd\nrm -rf /tmp/sqlany\n\n
Test it out:
\nperl -MDBI -le 'my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:SQLAnywhere:", "DBA", "SQL"); print for $dbh->selectrow_array("select 42")'\n\n\n
If you don't
like Interactive SQL or sqsh, you can try the Perl module\nDBI::Shell
for a commandline SQL utility.
First install it:
\ncurl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - -S App::cpanminus\ncpanm -n -S DBI::Shell\n\n
Then launch it. I would recommend using the ODBC driver, especially if you use\nUUID columns:
\ndbish dbi:ODBC:driver=SQLAnywhere DBA SQL\n\n
To use the Perl binding:
\ndbish dbi:SQLAnywhere: DBA SQL\n\nSQL statements
are terminated by semicolons, type /quit to exit the shell and\n/help
to see what commands are available.
If you would like to save the readline
history of your sessions and use it for\ncompletion, you can wrap it with rlwrap.
To do so add this alias to your\n~/.bashrc:
alias sqlany="rlwrap -a -N -t dumb -i -f ~/.sqlanywhere_dbish_history -H ~/.sqlanywhere_dbish_history -s 30000 dbish dbi:ODBC:driver=SQLAnywhere DBA SQL"\n\n
and initialize the history file:
\ntouch ~/.sqlanywhere_dbish_history\n\n
then you can type
sqlany to launch the shell.
There is complete support for SQL Anywhere in DBIx::Class and\nDBIx::Class::Schema::Loader (the Catalyst create=static helper.)
\n\nHope you found this guide helpful. Feel free to leave comments on the blog or\nemail me if you have questions.
\n\nBy default, Oracle''s SQL*Plus has no support for history, command line editing, etc.
This problem can be solved with the rlwrap utility. There is a Debian
package, or you can easily compile it for any system.
Source is here: http://utopia.knoware.nl/~hlub/rlwrap/.
Once installed, add this alias to your .bashrc:
alias sqlplus="rlwrap -i -f ~/.sqlplus_history -H ~/.sqlplus_history -s 30000 sqlplus"
This defines a history file and uses it as your completion wordlist, and sets the history size to 30000 entries.
Before running it for the first time, do a:
touch ~/.sqlplus_history
That''s all there is to it, and now you have readline support in your SQL*Plus!
Also check out another Oracle utility called yasql. You can find more information on it here: http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/YaSQL.
I wanted to set up a cmd.exe environment similar to my msys .bashrc for msysGit\n(http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/), to set up environment variables and\ndoskey macros (aliases.)
\nThis post will show you some techniques for doing this.
\nAs Larry Wall said, "it's easier to port a shell than a shell script."
\nI use Console2 for my various command prompts (msysgit, powershell, cmd.exe...)\nyou can get it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/console/.
\nFirst,
how do we tell cmd.exe to run a script on startup? There are two ways,\nthe way
I use is with the /K option to run a batch file and continue. Another\noption is
to set a registry key, see cmd /? for what registry key to set.
Make a file called .cmd_profile.cmd in your %HOME%, then configure your cmd.exe\ntabs in Console2 to something like this:
\nc:\\windows\\system32\\cmd.exe /K c:\\Users\\rkitover\\.cmd_profile.cmd\n\n
Or make a shortcut on your desktop with this command line.
\nOr set that registry to the location of your profile script.
\nMy .cmd_profile.cmd looks like this:
\n@echo off\n\nREM Presumably we will only use real consoles with this profile.\nREM And perl readline only works with TERM=dumb .\nREM Set this to 'cygwin' to work with cygwin utilities.\nset TERM=dumb\n\ndoskey use_strawberry64=^\n set PATH=c:\\strawberry\\perl\\site\\bin;c:\\strawberry\\perl\\bin;c:\\strawberry\\c\\bin;%PATH%^\n \ $Tcall remove_path_dups^\n $Tcall strawberry_maint_macros\n\ndoskey use_activeperl64=^\n \ set PATH=C:\\Perl64\\site\\bin;C:\\Perl64\\bin;C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\VC\\bin\\amd64;%PATH%^\n $Tcall remove_path_dups^\n $Tset LIB=C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.1\\Lib\\x64;C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\VC\\lib\\amd64^\n $Tcall activestate_maint_macros\n\ndoskey use_activeperl32=^\n set PATH=C:\\Perl\\site\\bin;C:\\Perl\\bin;c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\Common7\\IDE;c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\VC\\bin;c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\Common7\\Tools;c:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v4.0.30319;c:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v3.5;c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\VC\\VCPackages;c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.0A\\bin\\NETFX 4.0 Tools;c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.0A\\bin;%PATH%^\n \ $Tcall remove_path_dups^\n $Tset LIB=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\VC\\lib;C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.0A\\lib^\n \ $Tset LIBPATH=c:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v4.0.30319;C:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v3.5;C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\\VC\\LIB^\n $Tcall activestate_maint_macros\n\ncall exec_macro use_activeperl32\n\n
Some features to notice here:
\nThe line continuation and escape character for
certain shell metacharacters in\nbatch files is ^.
The command separator in doskey macros is
$T, see doskey /? for more\ninformation.
Environment variables are expanded immediately when the batch file is executed,\nnot when the command using them runs. Here the %PATH% I use is the %PATH% my\ncmd.exe starts with, always. This is not what happens in my .bashrc, but it\nsuits my purposes in this case well enough that I haven't fixed it yet.
\n\tThere are a couple of supporting .cmd utilities to go along with this profile. I\nput them into C:\\Users\\rkitover\\bin and put that directory in my %PATH%.
\n@echo off\n\nfor /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%x in (`doskey /macros ^| perl -ne "next unless s/^%*=//; s/\\s*\\$T/\\n/g; print"`) do %%x\n\n\t
@echo
off\n\nfor /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%x in (`perl -le "for (split /;/,
$ENV{PATH}) { $p{$_} || do { $p{$_}++; push @p, $_ }; } print join q{;}, @p"`)
do set PATH=%%x\n\n\t@echo off\n\ndoskey pclean=perl Makefile.PL$Tdmake realclean$Tdel /F MANIFEST\n\ndoskey pinst=perl Makefile.PL$Tdmake$Tdmake install$Tcall exec_macro pclean\n\ndoskey pprepare=rmdir /S inc $Tdel /F MANIFEST$Tperl Makefile.PL$Tdmake manifest$Tperl Makefile.PL$Tdmake\n\ndoskey pdist=call exec_macro pprepare$Tdmake dist\n\ndoskey pupload=call exec_macro pprepare$Tdmake upload\n\n\t
@echo off\n\ndoskey pclean=perl Makefile.PL$Tnmake realclean$Tdel /F MANIFEST\n\ndoskey pinst=perl Makefile.PL$Tnmake$Tnmake install$Tcall exec_macro pclean\n\ndoskey pprepare=rmdir /S inc $Tdel /F MANIFEST$Tperl Makefile.PL$Tnmake manifest$Tperl Makefile.PL$Tnmake\n\ndoskey pdist=call exec_macro pprepare$Tnmake dist\n\ndoskey pupload=call exec_macro pprepare$Tnmake upload\n\n\t
These use perl, I'll fix them to use something native like powershell or wsh at\nsome point, but I don't know those languages yet.
\n\n\nIf you use msysGit http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/ with Cygwin http://www.cygwin.com/, here are some hacks to make the two environments more interoperable, and to make Cygwin paths more interoperable with native Windows programs.
First, let''s change the /cygdrive mount point in Cygwin so that
drive-qualified
paths are more like they are in msys, e.g. instead of /cygdrive/c/foo
we want
/c/foo.
In the Cygwin shell, do this:
mount -c /
In /etc/fstab change the cygdrive mountpoint as well:
none / cygdrive binary,posix=0,user 0 0
Now, open a cmd.exe window with Administrator privileges, and run
the
following:
mklink /D C:\c C:\
repeat for any other drives you want aliased this way.
The reason for this is so that cygwin paths such as /c/foo/bar work
with
native Windows programs as well.
In Cygwin git, run this command:
git config --global core.autocrlf true
This is necessary if you want to run git commands on your msysGit clones, because msysGit defaults this option to on, otherwise you will make erroneous commits with the wrong line endings.
Occasionally you may need to convert a project to UNIX line endings. To do so use this procedure:
git config core.autocrlf false rm .git/index git checkout -f HEAD
In both Cygwin git and msysGit run the following:
git config --global core.filemode false
To ignore +x bits on files.
You will also need to run:
git config core.filemode false
in every project.