Posted by: Ben Chambers
on May 12, 2010
Apologies for the delay in bringing you Part 4! Too much to do...too little time.
For those joining late or who have troubles (like me) remembering what they did yesterday, let's do a quick recap.
In Part 1, our focus was to find a solution to the problem "Where has all my disk space gone". We settled on some code written by a software-engineer in the Netherlands who wrote Philesight - a web-based graphical chart of disk usage on a Linux server.
The goal in Part 2 was to get Philesight installed in our environment (ClearOS's webconfig), with a bit of an introduction to packages and RPM dependencies.
We then graduated to embedding the output Philesight provides (i.e. the graph) right into webconfig. Also in Part 3, we created the necessary localization files and took a quick peek into cron jobs and scripts.
In Part 4, we're going to package our work. Ugh....packaging. Gotta do it though, otherwise, we'll have everyone becoming experts in the command line environment and see hourly wages for Linux admins/developers plummet...can't have that on my conscience! Grab a Red Bull...we could be in for a long haul.
Posted by: Ben Chambers
on Apr 22, 2010
In Part 2 of "Princess and the ClearOS", we managed to drink our way into oblivion after getting Philesight installed and displaying the disk usage graph for our ClearOS server.
Before we move on, let's make sure we give credit where credit is due and extend the customary "I'll buy you a beer if I'm ever in..." traditions.
Zevv...thank you for your contribution to ClearOS and OSS in general!
Today's goal is relatively straightforward...we're going to create all the necessary files to have Philesight update the summary database once per day and display as a menu item in ClearOS's webconfig interface.
Posted by: Ben Chambers
on Apr 10, 2010
In Part 1, we found an ideal solution in Philesight for determining where our disk space usage is being consumed. In part 2, we'll get this software installed on our ClearOS server and functioning.
Put on your developer hat (no, not that kind of developer), and let's get started. Unfortunately, due to this being a 4 part blog, at some point, I'm going to have to assume a base level of technical knowledge. Accessing the Unix command line, basic shell commands and using a text editor falls into that 'required knowledge' category. If you're really new to Linux and have yet to jump into to the command line, you'll find some useful resources here, here and here.
Most software for Linux will have dependencies. A dependency means the software you are intent on installing requires (or is dependent on) other software having been installed correctly, and of a compatible version. Rather than re-writing a library to perform some task that's already been written, developers are naturally lazy beings and will jump through hoops not to create work for themselves. Hence, they rely on other software libraries, applications or even languages to be installed, in order for their 'widget' to function properly.
Installing software on a Linux distribution can really be a quick turn-off to a new user coming from the Windows world when one gets into dependency hell. In part 4 of this series, our goal will be to make installing this module simple (i.e. one click on a page in Webconfig). For now, because we're breaking new ground on this module, we need to follow the installation requirements listed on the Philesight website so that it will function correctly.
Posted by: Ben Chambers
on Mar 29, 2010
Ever have the feeling "ClearOS is good piece of software...maybe even great. I just wish it had __________". All around the world, in 22 different languages, I'm sure the ending to that sentence has been completed with an equally broad range of functions - from running a media server used for streaming music and movies to your TV to cooking up a corn-beef on rye.
For those that are interested, the former is coming soon while the latter...well, maybe never and definitely not from me...I'm not a big fan of the salted beef.
At any rate, I had this exact feeling over the weekend when I started wondering how I managed to fill up a 140 GB hard disk drive on my ClearOS server at home. Seems the combination of having two girls under the age of 5 has a rather exponential effect of disk space usage with:
a) the number of digital photos of the two of them growing up (Doh! I had to buy the 15.1 megapixel model)
b) the astounding number of princess movies one can downlo....ahem, collect
But I digress, and I'm only going to get myself into copyright trouble. I know about Bash's "du" using a wack of parameters and possibly having to resort to piping the output to yet more cryptic bash commands...
