After one week of holiday already passed by I finally write a post again. I used the last days to go through a lot of texts I missed in the last weeks as I was preparing for the exams of the semester. Now that I read everything interesting/important I finally started to improve the arch_chroot_packaging.sh yesterday.

So for now I'm finished with that and will use the cool parts of the day to learn for the study, while the rest of each is used for the stuff that comes up. However I'll be at the Arch booth at this year's FrOSCon 2010 I hope some of you will come there and visit us.

Yesterday evening td123 and wonder were so nice to update the shell functions I wrote in order to make work with different packaging-chroots even more comfortable.

alias mktesting="upchr testing64 && mkchr testing64 && upchr testing32 && mkchr testing32"
alias mkstable="upchr stable64 && mkchr stable64 && upchr stable32 && mkchr stable32"

# Update the given chroot/all
function upchr() {
        if [ $1 = "all" ]; then
                echo -e 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mstable32e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                linux32 sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/stable32/root/
                echo -e 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mtesting32e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                linux32 sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/testing32/root/
                echo -e 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mstable64e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/stable64/root/
                echo -e 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mtesting64e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/testing64/root/ 
        elif [ ! $1 = "" ]; then
                echo -e 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31m'$1'e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                if [ $1 = 'stable32' ]; then
                        linux32 sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/$1/root/
                elif [ $1 = 'testing32' ]; then
                        linux32 sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/$1/root/
                else
                        sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/$1/root/
                fi
        fi
}

# Build the package with the given chroot
function mkchr() {
        if [ ! $1 = "" ]; then
                echo -e 'e[1;32mBuilding package using the e[1;31m'$1'e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                if [ $1 = 'stable32' ]; then
                        linux32 sudo makechrootpkg -c -r /var/chroots/$1/
                elif [ $1 = 'testing32' ]; then
                        linux32 sudo makechrootpkg -c -r /var/chroots/$1/
                else
                        sudo makechrootpkg -c -r /var/chroots/$1/
                fi
        fi
}

# Create a set of stable chroots for both architectures
function create_stable_chroots () {
                sudo mkdir -p /var/chroots/stable64 /var/chroots/stable32
                # 64 Bit Chroot
                sudo mkarchroot /var/chroots/stable64/root base base-devel sudo
                sudo $EDITOR /var/chroots/stable64/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
                # 32 Bit Chroot
                sed -e 's@/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist@/tmp/mirrorlist@g' /var/chroots/stable64/root/etc/pacman.conf > /tmp/pacman.conf
                linux32 sudo mkarchroot /var/chroots/stable32/root base base-devel sudo
                echo "Created stable32 and stable64 under ."
}

# Create a set of testing chroots for both architectures
function create_testing_chroots () {
                sudo mkdir -p /var/chroots/testing64 /var/chroots/testing32
                # 64 Bit Chroot
                sudo mkarchroot /var/chroots/testing64/root base base-devel sudo
                sudo $EDITOR /var/chroots/testing64/root/etc/pacman.conf
                sudo $EDITOR /var/chroots/testing64/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
                # 32 Bit Chroot
                sed -e 's@/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist@/tmp/mirrorlist@g' /var/chroots/testing64/root/etc/pacman.conf > /tmp/pacman.conf
                linux32 sudo mkarchroot /var/chroots/testing32/root base base-devel sudo
                sudo $EDITOR /var/chroots/testing32/root/etc/pacman.conf
                sudo $EDITOR /var/chroots/testing32/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
                echo "Created testing32 and testing64 under ."
}
 

Edit 20100706: Thanks to mac_mario for notification about a typo in the text.

As ArchLinux user one has to build his packages in chroots in order to make sure, that everything is fine with them and the package will build on other people's machines. ArchLinux provides several scripts which makes this easier with the devtools package. How they are used is described in the DeveloperWiki. So as you can see this is really simple but if you have a real build machine and want to build your packages with different chroots it helps a lot to have a function in your shell configuration, note that I use a x86_64 system, so the last two functions need small modifications to run on an i686 installation.

alias mktesting="mkchr testing64 && mkchr testing32"
alias mkstable="mkchr stable64 && mkchr stable32"

# Update the given chroot/all
function upchr() {
        if [ $1 = "all" ]; then
                print 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mstable32e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/stable32/root/
                print 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mtesting32e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/testing32/root/
                print 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mstable64e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/stable64/root/
                print 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31mtesting64e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/testing64/root/ 
        elif [ ! $1 = "" ]; then
                print 'e[1;32mUpdating the e[1;31m'$1'e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo mkarchroot -u /var/chroots/$1/root/
        fi
}

# Build the package with the given chroot
function mkchr() {
        if [ ! $1 = "" ]; then
                print 'e[1;32mBuilding package using the e[1;31m'$1'e[1;32m chroot.e[0m'
                sudo makechrootpkg -c -r /var/chroots/$1/
        fi
}

# Create a set of stable chroots for both architectures
function create_stable_chroots () {
                sudo mkdir -p $1/stable64 $1/stable32
                # 64 Bit Chroot
                sudo mkarchroot $1/stable64/root base base-devel sudo
                sudo $EDITOR $1/stable64/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
                # 32 Bit Chroot
                sudo sed -e 's/x86_64/i686/g' $1/stable64/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist > /tmp/mirrorlist
                sed -e 's@/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist@/tmp/mirrorlist@g' $1/stable64/root/etc/pacman.conf > /tmp/pacman.conf
                sudo mkarchroot $1/stable32/root base base-devel sudo
                echo "Created stable32 and stable64 under ."
}

# Create a set of testing chroots for both architectures
function create_testing_chroots () {
                sudo mkdir -p $1/testing64 $1/testing32
                # 64 Bit Chroot
                sudo mkarchroot $1/testing64/root base base-devel sudo
                sudo $EDITOR $1/testing64/root/etc/pacman.conf
                sudo $EDITOR $1/testing64/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
                # 32 Bit Chroot
                sudo sed -e 's/x86_64/i686/g' $1/testing64/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist > /tmp/mirrorlist
                sed -e 's@/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist@/tmp/mirrorlist@g' $1/testing64/root/etc/pacman.conf > /tmp/pacman.conf
                sudo mkarchroot $1/testing32/root base base-devel sudo
                sudo $EDITOR $1/testing32/root/etc/pacman.conf
                sudo $EDITOR $1/testing32/root/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
                echo "Created testing32 and testing64 under ."
}
 

If your shell is not bash compatible, the functions may need small modifications.

As it took me some time yesterday evening, configuring those three to set an urgency hint for the terminal, so that my i3 highlights the workspace the urxvt containing the irssi-screen-session sECuRE told me I shall write a short post in order to help other finding the small glitches in their configuration which might cause problems.

screen: ~/.screenrc
Just turn the visualbell off:

vbell off

urxvt: ~/.Xdefaults
For urxvt you only have to activate the urgentOnBell option:

URxvt*urgentOnBell: true

If you use another terminal, you only have to search the documentation for "urgen" in order to find the option.

irssi: ~/.irssi/config
If you want to do configuration directly using the file, add these lines to the settings part:

settings = {
#...
  "fe-common/core" = {
    bell_beeps = "yes";
    beep_when_away = "yes";
    beep_when_window_active = "yes";
    beep_msg_level = "HILIGHT INVITES MSGS NOTICES CTCPS DCC DCCMSGS"
  }
}

Or using a running instance:

/set bell_beeps on
/set beep_when_away on
/set beep_when_window_active on
/set beep_msg_level HILIGHT INVITES MSGS NOTICES CTCPS DCC DCCMSGS
/save

Da mich mehrere Leute angesprochen haben, warum man mich in den letzten Tagen kaum "gesehen" hat und wenn, dann nichts von mir "gehört" hat: Nunja morgen geht es bei mir mit den Abschlussprüfungen los, dementsprechend lief die Vorbereitung. Dienstag ist dann der erste Block geschafft, dann werde ich auch eher wieder etwas von mir hören lassen, da der zweite Block erst im Juni ansteht.

As some people asked me why I was so quiet in the last few days: I was preparing for my final exams which begin by tomorrow. As of tuesday I'll be back as usual, because the second block of exams will be written in June which grants me a nice break to relax.

Update 1: English wasn't as difficult as I first thought, the only problem was the listening comprehension task as the first speaker spoke very fast and the second one spoke a bit indiscent. All in all it should be a good mark.

Update 2: German also should've ended with a good result, as the text about which we could discuss had a nice social topic- "Authority is not authoritarian" .

Update 3: Business wasn't that good however it's not that much of a problem.

Update 4: And business IT was really neat, I had enough time to relax 5 minutes and then did a complete review but found no mistakes, so it should definetly be a good mark. Now I have three weeks to relax and to prepare for the last two exams which will be written at the beginnig of June.

English:
Well, two weeks ago I read a short description of hacker.org in the c't (a german technology magazine) and registered there. I solved several challenges there and well yeah, once again my interests in cryptology are awakened so I began reading about different cryptographic algorithms. So I grabbed several papers of my digital library and read them, also AVGP gave me a very nice introduction into the different kinds of cryptographic algorithms, the paper's split into four parts. Part three gave me the idea to implement the Vigenère cipher, so I did so. My implementation is not finished, as there are no tests of the key. But I decided to release it now, because it's in a state in what it's functional and easily understandable for people not so good with cryptographic algorithms(Well I'm not that experienced either, but I work on it ). You can get the file here.

Deutsch:
Für diejenigen, die des Englischen nicht sonderlich mächtig sind, fasse ich kurz das wesentliche zusammen:
Ich habe hier eine leichtverständliche, wenn auch nicht wirklich saubere(der Schlüssel wird nicht überprüft) C-Implementierung der Vigenère Verschlüsselung geschrieben, wer sich für Kryptologie interessiert kann sich das ganze ja einfach mal anschauen

Is not much more than a simple commandline todo-list utility

Well this is the first released version, it's not much as you may see and the code's not very optimized yet, but that will change sooner or later as there are new releases. pcu let's you arrange your tasks and orders them by priority (Use your own system, eventually you need to modify the code, so that it will be sorted otherwise.).

Download

Version system: as there is no steady development, I'll release from time to time new versions with bug fixes or new features(though there only a couple I can think of, this is no big program, but a small organization util) and use the day of happening as "version".

Greetings to AVGP, BadBoy_, hanshiro and PSychoPath (even though you're not much using this nick )