find . -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; This finds and deletes files with a modified time exceeding 7 days… Every once in a while this becomes hugely necessary in pruning older logfiles, Since it has an “rm” command in it, I always look for the exact syntax and test. –doug
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I found this code on the web a year or so ago – I ran into a situation where I needed to look through change on a file kept in version control in subversion, in detail. I needed what change was made, by whom, and the sequence in which the changes were made to trace…
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I had a perl script code snippet I wanted to put in a post. I tried the <pre> tag, the <code> tag, nothing would work, so I gave up and moved it into a separate file with an <a href= > tag. But the webserver refused to allow the file to be accessed even once…
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I’ve had many environments where we get alerts or strange behavior at or about 4 AM – the time that linux’s cron.daily runs by default. You can change that 4 AM time – perhaps stagger it among groups of servers. You can change it through puppet if you bring /etc/crontab under puppet control, then a…
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I switched from Moin Moin wiki to Mediawiki for system admin notes. Moin Moin is file-based and the search function failed to return results after I got up into the thousands of entries. Originally in the long ago dark ages this was an Access database, then for a while it was mysql and then postgres…
Continue ReadingI worked for a startup from 2000 to 2006. The company started out very very casual. Our first security system had blank badges, and then we had badges with our post title and a picture on them. I set up the badge system, and realized at one point that the other side of the badge…
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Nine years ago I was trying to find which RPM contained the executable “cluconfig” for configuring clustering – I made these notes on looking for a file in rpms SUMMARY: needed cluconfig for Cluster Manager – searched for cluconfig in install disks for RHAS NOTES: mount the disk, cd to RPMS directory, run: for i…
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Troubleshooting an application that wouldn’t come up. I found that apache refused to start… In the log I found: [emerg] (28)No space left on device: Couldn’t create accept lock Disk space was fine, and we are not using quotas on the application filesystem. That leaves semaphores… I always have to go find the commands to…
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This is a practical use of searching for strings and finding and setting a missing puppet variable. Error from a puppet run: err: Could not retrieve catalog from remote server: Error 400 on SERVER: sysloghost variable must be defined in app_site module at /etc/puppet/environments/directory/modules/dstributed/app/manifests/log4j.pp:11 on node servernamed warning: Not using cache on failed catalog err:…
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Much of the puppet infrastructure I work with is unmapped – it is the result of tickets submitted and variables asked for by developers or placed as solutions. This exists above the structure we designed and created intentionally. To discover where a variable is set in puppet, often I search through the entire puppet working…
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