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Showing posts from January, 2009

Linux Security

I would like to share this post on Linux Security. I would place it in my shared items but I thought that if I left it there it would go largely unnoticed. The author has written a fantastic entry about the User effect on security within a Linux environment. He makes points about users running arbitrary code as root, installing unsigned packages and a lot more. It is well worth a read! http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/01/20/on-linux-security/ I would like to note that I am merely trying to introduce a great piece of writing by another blogger.

Bash Progress Bar

Ever wanted to show a progress bar on your bash scripts? I am talking specifically about the progress of file transfer or raw read scripts. It might be easier to explain with an example: I have a script that reads raw data from a CD or DVD ROM disk and pipes that data to md5sum or sha1sum to find if the data on the disk matches the published md5sum or sha1sum checksums published by the vendor. I download ISOs and verify them before I send them to my customers. I wanted to have the script show a progress bar so I started searching... Here is how I have implemented clpbar Installation instructions ( Fedora 10 x86_64 ) Download and install clpbar ( bar-1.10.9.tar.gz ) -- See references at the end of this script. tar xvfz bar-1.10.9.tar.gz cd bar-1.10.9 ./configure make su -c "make install" Usage example #!/bin/sh # # Start with verifying CDs # device="/dev/cdrom" # pass the type of checksum into the script. (md5sum|sha1sum) checksumtype=$1 #Find details of the devi

The New Paymex

I had a crack at installing Paymex on my osCommerce website this evening. I will try to summarise the experience: INSTALLATION Paymex provide an osCommerce module for download from their website. It is mind numbingly simple to install. A simple upload of files is all that is required. There is absolutely no php editing required. This is always a plus for me. osCommerce code is painful enough and in a production environment any update that does not require php code editing is very useful. 5 out of 5 for installation. CONFIGURATION There is only one item of identification required by the Paymex module config. A business id. This looks remarkably like a windows uid. I just copy pasted it from the Paymex website while logged in there. There is the option to have the paymex module enabled or disabled, Test mode or Production mode, set the acknowledged order status and the sort order. So not much to configure really and very simple to understand. 4 out of 5 for configuration. Not