Apache IfDefine and startup with sysVinit and systemd

Apache IfDefine and startup with sysVinit and systemd

To define a name for use in directives during Apache startup is an easy way to control the behavior of the webserver depending on your environment specifics.

This way you can have different configurations applied according to the context, facts you have or variables you set. It is possible to distinguish between production and development, detected facts, the hostname or a context string.
And you can have your apache config stored in a git repository which is used on two or more webservers to propagate changes easily between hosts.

These are the two use cases I want to look into:

  • having several web servers (doing the same thing) but with different hardware
  • having a development machine and one or more production machine(s) with a slightly different configuration

How would you do this?

Read More Read More

Create your own Debian mirror with debmirror

Create your own Debian mirror with debmirror

We will walk through these steps to get the local Debian mirror up and running:

  1. make sure you have enough space on your harddrive
  2. install debmirror, configure a cronjob to sync data
  3. make your mirror available to your clients (via apache or nfs)
  4. keep an eye on your cronjob – from time to time your script may have trouble to sync
  5. configure sources.list to use your local mirror

Read More Read More

vim – adjust current line at screen

vim – adjust current line at screen

Here I want to focus on a few keystrokes which help to adjust where your current line appears on your screen in Normal mode.

z[RETURN] redraw screen with current line at top
zz redraw screen with current line at center
z- redraw screen with current line at bottom (as far down as possible)

 

You can display the screen at center even while you are in Insert mode. No need to leave Insert mode, center the screen and reenter Insert mode. That’s especially helpful if you just want to see more context above and beneath your current position.

[ctrl-o]zz run just one command while in Insert mode,
display screen at center and return to Insert mode

 

vim – revisited

vim – revisited

Even though I have been using vim for years now, I realized I should renew and improve what I know about vim in general, especially plugins and stuff. And then there’s a pethora of keyboard shortcuts which can make one’s life a lot easier and more productive.

So there will be a series of blog posts about vim, ranging from the most basic keyboard shortcuts (as a refresher) to more advanced topics like plugins and tuning .vimrc

Read More Read More

What is “Kali Linux Light”?

What is “Kali Linux Light”?

Do you know the difference between “Kali Linux 32 bit” and “Kali Linux 32 bit Light”?

There are several ISO images to choose from when it comes to downloading Kali Linux. Most of them are quite obviously named: “Kali Linux 64 bit XFCE” – no doubt about that.

But theres is no hint or easy way to find documentation about the ingredients of this considerably smaller installation variant “light”.

Read More Read More

Mirror Bitbucket Server to gitolite

Mirror Bitbucket Server to gitolite

This is about how to mirror git repositories from Bitbucket Server to gitolite (read only).

What’s the matter?
This setup can be tremendously helpful if your Bitbucket Server is not reachable from a node where you want to deploy code via git. Or you need some sort of redundancy.
In this case gitolite has several advantages over another Bitbucket Server instance:

  • super light weight
  • therefor, a minimal footprint in terms of hardware resources
  • easy to set up (if you know how)
  • easy to maintain, very stable
  • you don’t need a Bitbucket Data Center license

What’ required for this setup:

  • a node with gitolite3 installed and setup. For this guide we assume the hostname is ‘gitolite’
  • a node with Bitbucket Server installed and setup. We assume the hostname is ‘bitbucket’
  • the Bitbucket Server plugin “External Hooks” (it is free), install as usual
  • Bitbucket must be able to “talk to” gitolite via ssh (check your firewall)

I won’t cover the installation and the basic setup of Bitbucket, just the steps needed to establish the mirror link between Bitbucket and gitolite.

Read More Read More

Why I moved from Dokuwiki to WordPress

Why I moved from Dokuwiki to WordPress

It has happend: a new engine and a new look for Tobanet.de.

After more than 10 years with Dokuwiki, I thought it was high time to move forward and try something new.

A new concept

I used my Wiki to document on the go, write down snippets and some medium sized Howtos (or articles). But a large part of the contents is outdated now and I haven’t been happy with the template for quite some time. Furthermore, I was thinking more and more about this blogging thing.

The template question

Dokuwiki is a great peace of software – but there is one major problem that has been bothering me for a long time: there isn’t a single modern, responsive template I like. I used the Arctic Template from the beginning. It was a pretty cool template back then, with a modern look and all the functionality I needed.

But sadly, the template isn’t really responsive and mobile friendly. Furthermore it is stuck in some sort of “just keep it alive” maintenance mode. I hoped for better templates, but all what is available today can’t really compete with the alternatives. But it is what it is: a wiki. And for a wiki, the templates are pretty good.

Read More Read More