It's another Devops(ish) Blog: you know how they work

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Listing files in another directory Feb 19

Problem

The other day I was editing a YAML file and wanted to include a list of filenames from a directory other than the current working directory. A simple ls does not do what I intended as it will recurse the remote directory listing all files...

Whole Disk Encryption for Easier Disposal Aug 22

Problem

One of you server’s disks has developed a fault and needs replacing. Tossing the old disk into the trash risks exposing potentially sensitive data.

One solution is to give that disk to a commercial shredder. These companies will offer to...

Expanding VirtualBox VM Disk Space Aug 9

Problem

You have a Virtualbox VM that you have been using for a while but have now run out of space on the primary drive and you want to get more disk space allocated to that you can continue using the VM.

Solution

This is the simplest method I...

You're Not Making Excuses, You're Making Choices Jun 16

Problem

Procrastination.

Solution

Change your mindset.

Discussion

Procrastination often amounts to making excuses.

‘I’m too busy.’

‘I’ve too much work’

‘I can’t afford it’

‘I just need to … before I …’

You do it. I do it. We do it.

Recognising...

Pace Yourself; Be Forgiving Jun 15

Problem

You attempt something new and it turns out crappy, so you quit. Or perhaps you expect a certain result to come too quickly and get frustrated when it takes much longer.

Solution

Two things; pace yourself and be forgiving.

Discussion

I...

Preparing Our Workshop Jun 14

Problem

Training often falls foul of the ‘it doesn’t work for me’ problem. This is commonly caused by students having subtly different setups to those expected by the course material. We will set up an environment that will eliminate this problem...

First Pass Jun 13

Problem

What are the first things we want to build.

Solution

I want to put two things together initially;

A website
An e-mail server

To do this though we have a few things to think about first.

Discussion

Yes, you’re looking at a website reading...

Ground Zero and Ground Rules Jun 12

Problem

This project needs some general guidelines (and some things to set myself some personal learning challenges).

Solution

Basic ‘rules’

Test driven approach

Not something I’ve tried before (at least not extensively) and I’m rather curious...

Rethink on Approach Jun 11

Problem

Getting started.

Solution

Start from scratch. Start small. Accept that pretty much all projects will remain Work-In-Progress for a long time. Set out to teach-by-doing and show less than perfect examples (just like the real world).

Hope...

Setting up to develop `salt` Mar 12

Problem

You want to investigate salt internals a possible even make some changes to the salt codebase. How to set up a development environment?

Solution

This article is based on following the saltstack hacking page.

As I work on a wide variety...

Get a GitHub pull request to use locally Feb 28

Problem

You have some issue with a project from GitHub and you see that someone has submitted a Pull Request that solves your problem. How do you get that pull request into your local workspace before it is merged into the project?

Solution

First...

Thinking out Loud: Python packaging, build, and development Feb 20

I’m a Python n00b, but an experienced software engineer and Python packaging is a rats nest.

requirements.txt or setup.py? Or one of the myriad packaging tools? It’s hard to see straight off.

The requirements.txt or setup.py really baked my noodle...