useful bash shell

useful bash shell with colors to hint at importance

• user@host
  (helpful when logged to several hosts simultaneously)
• PWD above prompt
  (so as not to make the prompt appear at a variable column)
• 24 hour time and date
  (helpful to know when you last used the shell, rough timer of statements)
• History and jobs
  (a bit more context, shaded to denote less importance)
• sectioned with '[' and ']' characters

On a Unix command line, input the following:

$ cat <<HEREDOC1

# .bashrc
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bashrc
fi

# User specific aliases and functions
# set a useful login prompt
PS1="\n\[\033[1;37m\][\u@\h:\w]\[\033[0m\] \[\033[1;35m\][\t on \d]\[\033[0m\] [history \!] [jobs \j]\n\[\033[1;37m\]$\[\033[0m\] "

# Add other directorys
PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/bin"
export PATH

my_nano="$(which nano)"
my_clear="$(which clear)"
my_ps="$(which ps)"
my_ls="$(which ls)"
my_rm="$(which rm)"

alias l="${my_ls} -laspF"
alias lr="${my_ls} -lasFR"
alias lt="${my_ls} -lastF"
alias cls="${my_clear}"
alias clr="${my_clear}"
alias delete="${my_rm} --verbose --recursive --preserve-root --force"
alias psA="${my_ps} -aAdeflc"
alias psa="${my_ps} -ef"
alias e="${my_nano}"
HEREDOC1 > ~/.bashrc

$ cat <<HEREDOC2. .bashrc
HEREDOC2 > ~/.bash_profile

using putty, logged to an Amazon EC2 instance

In two paragraphs, an interesting description of the moral purpose of Libertarian (old Liberal) politics. 
From the essay Liberty, Dignity, and Responsibility: The Moral Triad of a Good Society by Daniel B. Klein

The Interdependence of Dignity and Liberty

If the individual consists of multiple selves, the question arises: Should the government protect  Dr. Jekyll from Mr. Hyde, just as it protects the innocent citizen from the criminal? If the individual is multiple, then in a way his actions are not so personal after all. One self imposes an externality on other selves, and externalities raise the issue of whether the government ought to intervene. Americans commonly make the assumption that intervention is called for with regard to opium use, gambling, Social Security, safety issues, suicide, and many other matters. But the support for paternalism rests not only on the notion of the multiple self, but on the presumption that the conflict among the selves represents a sort of moral collapse. It is rather analogous to butting into a domestic dispute. A married couple needs to learn how to respect and tolerate one another, their dispute belonging to the drama of their marriage. In the case of the multiple self, the paternalist solution can make sense only once the hope for self-respect is lost. The paternalist presumes that the crew has taken over the ship, that all respect for the captain is lost and the crew no longer responsive to him. Dignity is gone. It is time, reasons the paternalist, to sacrifice liberty, too.

Thus, low societal dignity leads to coercion.  The less the citizen preserves his own dignity, the less it makes sense to say that he acts in keeping with the captain’s mission. Such doubt about individuals’ mastery over their own behavior is manifest in the war on smoking waged by U.S. Commissioner of Food and Drugs David Kessler. He views the decision to smoke as resting in the hands of tobacco companies. Owing to their practices, he says, “Most smokers are in effect deprived of the choice to stop smoking.” Part of the reason Kessler is prepared to doubt the dignity of the people is that, in fact, their dignity is not as high as it might be. For example, John Gravett (1993) wrote a magazine column titled “Life-Long Smokers Should Welcome Hillary’s ‘Nico-Tax.’” Gravett declares that the First Lady’s tax hike of two dollars per pack “will surely bolster my resolve to quit.”  “I, like so many other life-long smokers, am only waiting for a good enough reason to quit once and for all”. Rather than searching as an adult to come to terms with his habit, Gravett glibly asks that he (and all other smokers) be treated as a helpless child. Citizens such as Gravett lend truth and legitimacy to Kessler’s presumptions.

A short thought.

• The use of the multiple-selves psychological paradigm is for the purpose of explaining the indignity of government parenting.  Refutations should not focus on this. 
• This quote is a very good explanation of the indignity of government parenting that is easy to understand and read.

abyss webserver (abyssws) -- RH Linux integration

abyss webserver by Aprelium
A nice commercial web server. 
The only free (as in money) web server that has great user and group account control (when I searched about 2 years ago).
Stable, simple, seems to work well.

Here are the pre-setup steps for integrating this into a Red Hat-type Linux setup (I'm using CentOS 5.1)
if you want a safe read-only http-based file server with user and group password permissions.


Specifically,

• integrate with init.d service interface (the command line script service, common to Red Hat distro's)
• use new isolated user for abyss process security

Shell Steps

1. # unloading package
   cd /tmp
   
   wget http://www.aprelium.com/data/abwsx1.tgz
   
   tar -xvcf abwsx1.tgz
   
   mkdir /var/www-abyssws
   
   mv abyssws /var/www-abyssws
   
2. # system interaction
   useradd -c "a user for the abyssws webserver" -d /var/www-abyssws/ -M -r -s /sbin/nologin user_abyssws
   
   chown -R user_abyssws /var/www-abyssws/
3. # service interaction
   echo '\# if you need to start other stuff before abyss, then do that here
   sudo -u user_abyssws /var/www-abyssws/abyssws &' > /root/bin/abyss-start.sh
   
   chmod 755 /root/bin/abyss-start.sh
   
   touch /etc/init.d/rc.d/abyssws
   # copy the following grayed text to the just touched file /etc/init.d/rc.d/abyssws
   #!/bin/sh
   #
   # abyssws
   #
   # chkconfig: - 85 15
   # description: abyss ws
   #
   # processname: abyssws
   
   ### BEGIN INIT INFO
   # Provides: abyssws
   # Required-Start: $local_fs $network
   # Required-Stop: $local_fs $network
   # Short-Description: start and stop abyss web server
   ### END INIT INFO
   
   # Source function library
   . /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
   
   progname=abyssws
   abysswsprog="/var/www-abyssws/abyssws"
   abysswsstart="/root/bin/abyss-start.sh"
   RETVAL=0
   
   start() {
   echo -n $"Starting $progname: "
   $abysswsstart
   RETVAL=$?
   echo
   [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/$progname
   return $RETVAL
   }
   
   stop() {
   echo -n $"Stopping $progname: "
   $abysswsprog --stop
   RETVAL=$?
   echo
   [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/$progname
   return $RETVAL
   }
   
   reload() {
   echo -n $"Reloading $progname: "
   $abysswsprog --restart
   RETVAL=$?
   echo
   return $RETVAL
   }
   
   case "$1" in
   start)
   start
   ;;
   stop)
   stop
   ;;
   restart)
   stop
   start
   ;;
   condrestart)
   if [ -f /var/lock/subsys/$progname ]; then
   stop
   start
   fi
   ;;
   reload)
   reload
   ;;
   status)
   status $progname
   RETVAL=$?
   ;;
   *)
   echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|condrestart|reload|status}"
   RETVAL=1
   esac
   
   exit $RETVAL
4. ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc0.d/K15abyssws
   ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc1.d/K15abyssws
   ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc2.d/K15abyssws
   ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc3.d/S85abyssws
   ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc4.d/K15abyssws
   ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc5.d/S85abyssws
   ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/abyssws /etc/rc6.d/K15abyssws 

Now you're done with the Linux integration.

Other things to do:

1. # this many not work, since no file /var/www-abyssws/abyss.conf exists
   start-abyss.sh
   
2. with a browser go to
      http://hostname:9999
   complete the web-based setup
3. # now you can use the service interface
   service abyssws restart
   

Other things to consider:

• Directories for access with abyssws should have read and execute priviledge for user user_abyss
  For me, this means adding user_abyss to my web_friends group.
  This means using the command
   chmod g+rx $directory_for_abyss
  
• This exact sequence of instructions was not tested. You get the idea.