Thankfully I have been able to place Cygwin on most of the systems that I support.

I have, however, needed to be able to create a few batch files that would run on a [...]]]> I hate to admit on a Unix admin type Blog that I have been recently forced to work in the Windows OS world.

Thankfully I have been able to place Cygwin on most of the systems that I support.

I have, however, needed to be able to create a few batch files that would run on a scheduled basis for various things and had to learn the tricks of the trade for working in the DOS command prompt.

Personal Cheat Sheet.

: — (followed by a space), alternative for “rem”, starts a comment
^ — line continuation… like a backslash (\) at the end of the line in unix
& — command separator (cmd1& cmd2& cmd3), like “;” in unix
&& — only execute the next statement if the last one succeeded, like unix/perl
|| — only execute the next statement if the last one failed, like unix/perl

• Passing in command line variables/parameters

Batch files can only handle parameters %0 to %9, ie cmd.bat Foo Bar where in the cmd.bat Foo=%1 and Bar = %2

• For Loops
• FOR %A IN (list) DO command [ parameters ]

I did find this web site has tons of useful information on windows scripts.
The menu at the left will expand to show more info on each topic.

Finding system uptime
* net statistics server

Listing all of your systems drivers
* DRIVERQUERY /V /FO CSV > %ComputerName%.csv

Tigerdirect had a great sale on the units so I purchased one and a Gyrus Universal Media Center Remote.

From some message boards I read up on I also purchased the extra 1GB of ram for the Acer, so that 1080p video would [...]]]> My journey on setting up a Media Center PC on a Acer Aspire 1600.

Tigerdirect had a great sale on the units so I purchased one and a Gyrus Universal Media Center Remote.

From some message boards I read up on I also purchased the extra 1GB of ram for the Acer, so that 1080p video would be possible.  Although, I just found out that my TV is 720p/1080i which isn’t 1080p.  Oh, well the system should work just that much better.

I decided to just setup the Acer as is, with all of its standard components before I start adding on things.

My planned addons are:

1. The Gyrus remote
2. Wireless keyboard and mouse.
3. Wireless USB dongle (If this thing doesn’t have wireless internal.
4. The extra GB of RAM.

My software plans for now are

1. I-Tunes
2. XBMC for windows.  ( I know I probably could just install Ubuntu or boot from a USB drive, but all of the other systems in the house are PC, so I will stick with it for now)

First impressions.  Well, it didn’t come with a manual.  WTF! I guess I have to go find one.
I found the manuals online at Acer’s Web site.

I found a nice video on how to open the Acer Aspire on Youtube to add the memory.  Adding the memory was a bit tight.  I found that you need to shove the memory in at an angle then push down and snap into place.

The mouse and keyboard look cute, like small size Mac style and all white.  Good think I have an extra wireless unit available.  When I had the unit open I did see that there was not a wireless card installed.  I’ll have to go with the USB dongle for now.  I do plan on an upgrade for the house to Wireless N and I might just get a new internal card at that time.

I found that my keyboard was no longer responding, so [...]]]> While browsing the web the other day and I was in the midst of entering a search term when an odd little window unexpectedly popped up. It was titled “Ruler”, and offered some options to check, such as “Snap to X/Y axis” and “Hide Tick marks.”

I found that my keyboard was no longer responding, so I clicked the peculiar popup’s close box and continued typing. All was fine until I had occasion to enter an upper case “R,” then suddenly the strange ruler window popped up again. What the hack was going on?
The ruler box is a feature of the Internet Explorer 7 Developer Toolbar add-on and for some reason is in certain versions of the toolbar and not others for various versions of IE.  Go figure?

To make the Shift-R ruler “feature” go away, I typed Ctrl-Shift-J and the Shift-R now works as it should.  You may need to bring up the Developer Tool Bar before hitting the keys strokes to make the change take effect, by selecting View | Explorer Bar

There Word, Excel, and Powerpoint from Micro$soft that are usually very expensive.

There is also money management software, project planning software, and graphic software.

Well there is a solution for small businesses that are [...]]]> There is a ton of software a new business sometimes feels that they must purchase right when they are starting off a new business.

There Word, Excel, and Powerpoint from Micro$soft that are usually very expensive.

There is also money management software, project planning software, and graphic software.

Well there is a solution for small businesses that are starting out is to use Open Source Software.
There is a great web site that lists all of the commercial software along with it’s Open Source Alternative.
Check out Open Source Alternatives web site.

They will show you stuff like
Expensive App             Free Apps
Photoshop                   The GIMP
VISIO                         DIA
MS Office                    Open Office
Illustrator, CorelDraw  Inkscape
Quickbooks                 Postbooks

There are many more and almost every big commercial application now has an Open Source alternative.  It is possible that you may need to be running Linux for some of these, but Ubuntu has become as easy to use as Windows or a Mac.

I found another Blog posting about 50 top applications and their alternatives.
The post was made early in 2008 so the software most likely has gotten even better since then.

Check out http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/

I assume that you already have [...]]]> Apache Tomcat SSL keys created with keytool are, by default, in der format. These keys cannot be used in Apache httpd since httpd, be default, expects the keys in pem(X509) format. Using the below steps you can export the tomcat’s keys to Apache httpd format and use it for Apache.

I assume that you already have a working copy of tomcat with SSL.

If Not follow Verisign’s instructions on requesting an SSL certificate, then:

• Create a keystore:   $JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA
• Import the Intermediate CA Certificate:   keytool -import -alias root -keystore <your_keystore_filename> -trustcacerts -file <filename_of_the_chain_certificate>
• Import your SSL Certificate:  keytool -import -alias <your_alias> -keystore <your_keystore_filename> -trustcacerts -file <your_certificate_filename>

You will need a copy of the tomcat’s keystore file and the keystore password.

Let us start….

First copy the existing tomcat’s keystore file to a new directory so that we don’t break anything that is working.

List the key and verify you know the passphrase.
# keytool -list -keystore your.key

Now we will export the key in DER format
# keytool -export -alias tomcat -keystore tomcat.keystore -file exported-der.crt
Enter keystore password:
Output will be: Certificate stored in file

The certificate will be stored in the file called exported-der.crt

Verify the certificate with this command:
# openssl x509 -noout -text -in exported-der.crt -inform der
Output will be: The whole certificate saying – who issued it  and other info like your company name etc.

Now Convert the key to PEM format so that apache can understand it:
# openssl x509 -out exported-pem.crt -outform pem -in exported-der.crt -inform der

The exported key will be in the file exported-pem.crt.

We have exported the public key and now are going to export the private key.

Download a  file called (ExportPrivateKey.zip) from Anandsekar.com

Extract the key
# java -jar ExportPrivateKey.zip {keystore_path} JKS {keystore_password} {alias} exported-pkcs8.key

The key is in PKCS #8 PEM format. Now run openssl to convert it to the format apache modssl expects the file.
Use a cygwin shell to get a good version of OpenSSL without having to install another application.
# openssl pkcs8 -inform PEM -nocrypt -in exported-pkcs8.key -out exported.key

The Private key is now exported to the file exported.key.

Edit the httpd.conf/httpd-ssl.conf file
SSLCertificateFile /root/SSL_export/exported-pem.crt  -> I used the cert from Verisign instead.
SSLCertificateKeyFile /root/SSL_export/exported.key
SSLCertificateChainFile /root/SSL_export/<intermediate>

Example:
#Verisign Certificate
SSLCertificateFile “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/cmmssl/cert/cert.crt”
# Our new key
SSLCertificateKeyFile “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/cmmssl/private/exported.key”
# The Verisign Intermediary cert file.
SSLCertificateChainFile “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/conf/cmmssl/intermediate/intermediate.crt”

Restart Apache, with fingers crossed, pixie dust in the air, while the rooster crows, on a full moon, and a live sacrificial chicken waiting on standby.

(F)orce Kill running processes for ImageName of java.exe taskkill.exe /F /IM java.exe

NOTE: Wildcard ‘*’ for the /IM switch is accepted only with filters, use /FI taskkill /F /FI “IMAGENAME eq note*”

Find all running Java processes command line tasklist /FI “IMAGENAME eq java.exe”

Example:  I started 2 Calculator programs.

H:\>tasklist /FI [...]]]> Use TASKLIST and TASKKILL :  Good web site on this http://commandwindows.com/taskkill.htm

(F)orce Kill running processes for ImageName of java.exe
taskkill.exe /F /IM java.exe

NOTE: Wildcard ‘*’ for the /IM switch is accepted only with filters, use /FI
taskkill /F /FI “IMAGENAME eq note*”

Find all running Java processes command line
tasklist /FI “IMAGENAME eq java.exe”

Example:  I started 2 Calculator programs.

H:\>tasklist /FI “IMAGENAME eq calc*”

Image Name                   PID Session Name     Session#    Mem Usage
========================= ====== ================ ======== ============
calc.exe                    4652 Console                 0      3,420 K
calc.exe                    1936 Console                 0      3,412 K

H:\>taskkill /F /FI “IMAGENAME eq calc*”
SUCCESS: The process with PID 4652 has been terminated.
SUCCESS: The process with PID 1936 has been terminated.

I needed these commands to script a nightly restart of a java application that had a bad memory leak.  For some reason the normal stop wasn’t working.

Creation date later than modified date (”date modified” less than “date created”) In Word XP the creation date of a document can be later than the modified date when saved elsewhere. Microsoft says “When the document is copied or is saved [...]]]> I needed to do a little research on how timestamps work in Winders, XP and 2003 server.

Creation date later than modified date (”date modified” less than “date created”)
In Word XP the creation date of a document can be later than the modified date when saved elsewhere. Microsoft says
“When the document is copied or is saved to a new location, a new file is created. This file is generated by a parent file that has the earlier “Modified” date. This parent file also has an earlier “Created” date. “

When you copy or re-save a document, the “Created” date is updated in the Statistics tab and in the General tab. However, the “Modified” date is not updated.”

* Turn off Last Modified timestamping
Whenever XP reads a file, it stamps the file with the date and time of the access.

This feature has its place but is not required for normal use unless you rely on the date of last access for backup purposes, which is a rare requirement for most backups. Putting a timestamp on a file that has just been read means that a write access has to be made to disk, so every time a read is executed, a corresponding write is also executed.

At the command prompt, enter the following then reboot:

> FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1

To turn timestamps back on, repeat the command but replace the 1 with 0.

*Update
It appears the FSUTIL is XP Pro and server only.

To Improve Windows XP Home Edition?s NTFS performance
There are two possibilities for the Home Edition: (but only, if you trust yourself to edit the registry)
1. Start, Run and type Regedit:navigate to:
HKEY CURRENT USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/
CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer:
Rightclick in the right column,choose New,
then Dword-value and name it: NoInstrumentation,doubleclick on it and give it a value 1,close and restart.
2. Start, Run and type Regedit: navigate to:
HKEY LOCAL MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/
Control/FileSystem:
Rightclick in the right column, choose New,
then Dword-value and name it:
NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate, doubleclick on it and give it a value 1, close and restart.

In Microsoft Excel

1) View/Toolbars Visual Basic 2) Click the Control Toolbox icon 3) Click on the Command Button icon and then click in your worksheet or drag the icon symbol. 4) Right click [...]]]> I started out with the need to be able to launch a putty SSH window from Excel that had a list of hosts and/or IP addresses.

In Microsoft Excel

1) View/Toolbars Visual Basic
2) Click the Control Toolbox icon
3) Click on the Command Button icon and then click in your worksheet or drag the icon symbol.
4) Right click on the button and choose properties.
5) Change the name to PuttyButton
6) Change the Caption to “Launch Putty”
7) Double click on the button to bring up the Visual Basic Editor
Make the script look like the following (Make sure the paths are correct for you)
Private Sub PuttyButton_Click()
Shell “C:\Program Files\putty\putty.exe ” & ActiveCell, vbNormalFocus
End Sub
9) Go to file and choose close and return.
10) Unselect Control Toolbox and Unselect the Design Mode button.
11) Add an IP or hostname to a cell and Click on the Launch Putty Button.

If you have a different login then make the cell read “-l login 12.9.12.10″ and the button will still work.

Try the following.

perl -pi -e ’s/find/replace/g’ *.txt

or to script it out. Find the TEXT in regular files and replace with NEWTEXT

for file in `find ./ -type f -exec grep -l TEXT {} \;` do perl -pi -e ’s/TEXT/NEWTEXT/g’ $file done

I found out how to pass KSH variables [...]]]> So you want to change some text in many unix files.

Try the following.

perl -pi -e ’s/find/replace/g’ *.txt

or to script it out.
Find the TEXT in regular files and replace with NEWTEXT

for file in `find ./ -type f -exec grep -l TEXT {} \;`
do
perl -pi -e ’s/TEXT/NEWTEXT/g’ $file
done

I found out how to pass KSH variables to awk, just in case this ever comes in handy.

VAR=”some_data”

echo “This is nice” | awk ‘{ print $1, avar, $2, $3 }’ avar=$VAR

> This some_data is nice

Or a better example; Changing file names.

VAR=”.poop”
for x in *.php
do
echo “moving $x to \c” ;echo $x | awk -F. ‘{ print $1 newext }’ newext=$VAR
mv $x `echo $x | awk -F. ‘{ print $1 newext }’ newext=$VAR’`
done

> moving test1.php to test1.poop
> moving test2.php to test2.poop
> moving test3.php to test3.poop

Of course if you had a file called test.this.file.php the awk statement above would mv it to test.poop and drop the other items after the first period.  There is probably a nice way to code around this, but hey, this works. for now.