Ingo Karkat's blogsoftware curiosities in development and engineering2025-03-24T22:21:52+01:00Ingo Karkatingo@karkat.dehttps://ingo-karkat.de/blog/Snaps still cause troubleffb5cd11-08f5-11f0-b991-d41243264e9e2025-03-24T22:21:49+01:002025-03-24T22:21:49+01:00 A short scare during upgrading to Ubuntu 24.04 could have been easily prevented by using proper mechanisms. New Vim plugin release through my custom toolinge67a65be-e873-11ef-a7f5-c9058f9633ec2025-02-11T13:29:55+01:002025-02-11T13:29:55+01:00 I use the 671st publish of a Vim plugin to explain how I'm currently doing that with my custom tooling, and how I arrived at that. Retrofitting variable outputs to Gnuplot graphs60b5f50e-e479-11ef-8b2a-b74241a99bbe2025-02-06T11:59:03+01:002025-02-06T11:59:03+01:00 I've written a small utility that enables me to change graph size and output formats of Gnuplot invocations without touching the Gnuplot script itself. My use of command-line DSLsa4a43944-ba38-11ef-9a9e-3d567bd13b872024-12-14T17:29:51+01:002024-12-14T17:29:51+01:00 An example of how my Git extensions help me maintaining a huge list of projects, especially through custom iterators that apply commands to a group of repositories as if it were one. Good CLIs are composable and extensible4d3dc15e-a8d4-11ef-8efd-27bd43510a572024-11-22T14:18:45+01:002024-11-22T14:18:45+01:00 Customization towards a productive shell environment can be hard. I identify two requirements for that. Git trailers to document project parameters85444016-a738-11ef-8efd-27bd43510a572024-11-20T13:11:06+01:002024-11-20T13:11:06+01:00 I automatically record system and tool version information in Git commit messages for better troubleshooting, leveraging Git trailers. Fat-shaming Linux app stores2330ab94-a59e-11ef-8efd-27bd43510a572024-11-18T12:13:28+01:002024-11-18T12:13:28+01:00 I complain that both Snap and Flatpak require manual cleanup of old package versions, how that is too complex, and showcase my scripting solution. My workflow for signed letters7006a10a-a353-11ef-8efd-27bd43510a572024-11-15T14:13:42+01:002024-11-15T14:13:42+01:00 How my tooling lets me write a letter, add my signature, and produce a PDF that looks as if I had followed a classic analog workflow. Synology updates sucke77fb2a6-9a8b-11ef-952b-771b8387aa442024-11-04T10:05:14+01:002024-11-04T10:05:14+01:00 A rant about updates on the Synology NAS and how it affected my customizations. Nextcloud side-by-side migration3b8f4d70-857e-11ef-9a7e-93b9d298d9682024-10-08T16:04:28+02:002024-10-08T16:04:28+02:00 My Nextcloud instance had to be moved to another server, and this worked very well due to their great admin tooling. Two approaches to file exclusionse7296614-7c0c-11ef-9280-db9fa6e1e1622024-09-26T15:40:33+02:002024-09-26T15:40:33+02:00 A story of confusing backup file exclusion syntaxes in borgmatic, and how my knowledge of rsync's exclusions led me astray. Good documentation is priceless53c12a44-edbc-11ee-b0e0-89f6c103c1712024-03-29T12:06:00+01:002024-03-29T12:06:00+01:00 Good documentation saves time and makes working a breeze; this becomes very apparent when having to work with poor documentation. Often it's the small things, like omissions and inconsistencies. versions-maven-plugin inconsistent interface025d9190-d964-11ee-be3a-ff79be7f8c802024-03-03T14:43:25+01:002024-03-03T14:43:25+01:00 The Versions Maven Plugin is useful to manage dependency versions; unfortunately, its API is inconsistent and poorly discoverable. The power of evolving abstractionsa976aa0a-f330-11ec-b3de-a5620e80ab8b2022-06-23T22:11:26+02:002022-06-23T22:11:26+02:00 A short example of the evolution of my home-grown commands, climbing up the ladder of abstractions for greater reuse. Composing shell scripts637d3290-c580-11ec-ba26-9575130d03712022-04-26T18:46:15+02:002022-04-26T18:46:15+02:00 An example of my style of composing shell scripts via commands that take another command as command-line arguments, and a discussion of the benefits. One tool enables another enables new featuresd7969ea0-c3e1-11ec-b33f-ff02bbaedae12022-04-24T17:18:49+02:002022-04-24T17:18:49+02:00 Turtles all the way down; short story of how one custom tool allowed me to quickly compose new functionality around update notifications, and in the process created yet another reusable tool. The curse of different regexp dialects93c5f042-c024-11ec-b33f-ff02bbaedae12022-04-19T23:06:27+02:002022-04-19T23:06:27+02:00 Lamenting the different regular expression capabilities and syntaxes in common Unix tools like Bash, sed, AWK, Perl, Vim, and how this is holding back an awesome technology. Fortuitous find of a compatibility bug leads to a new tool2aa2928a-b761-11ec-a10a-191af960b0172022-04-08T19:27:29+02:002022-04-08T19:27:29+02:00 Another short story of how a planned tool extension suddenly unearths a compatibility bug in AWK, the investigation of that prompts me to write a Git tool. Excursions in tool writingc5da9b24-b579-11ec-865f-b702152877ed2022-04-06T09:18:35+02:002022-04-06T09:18:35+02:00 Short story how a perceived need of a new shell script led to various small extensions and side quests, until coming full cycle and realizing the script isn't actually needed. Gmail inbox Atom feed with App passwordafe21c58-ad49-11ec-a58a-63f6b61006632022-03-26T22:14:13+01:002022-03-26T22:14:13+01:00 Application tokens now need to be used for third party applications that want to access your Google account; I use that for an Atom feed of my Gmail inbox. ImageMagick multiple clones and compositionse5efb40c-a9c2-11ec-a58a-63f6b61006632022-03-22T10:31:48+01:002022-03-22T10:31:48+01:00 How to do multiple parallel transformations of a source image and combine everything into one target image with both multiple and single ImageMagick invocation(s). The odyssey of unison on a NAS105a0834-aa7a-11ec-a58a-63f6b61006632022-03-23T08:22:57+01:002022-03-23T08:22:57+01:00 Trying to get a recent version of the unison file synchronizer tool running on a Synology DS220j NAS eventually proved futile, and exposed some weaknesses of the community-driven software ecosystem. Longevity of my notebook battery61a3387c-9bf0-11ea-9cf6-c48508de09452020-05-22T07:52:12+02:002020-05-22T07:52:12+02:00 After 7½ years, my original HP EliteBook 2170p battery finally died peacefully through reduced capacity, BIOS warning, and finally physical disintegration. Testing a standalone Perl script5eff3026-3e7c-11e9-af47-101f74778c392019-03-04T13:52:30+01:002019-03-04T13:52:30+01:00 Good test coverage can be achieved without splitting a simple Perl script into separate modules, by masquerading it as a module, and combining two test libraries. JSON is used for web apps because XML is not simple enough96126561-3b19-4e28-9977-f2a9a57f35c92014-03-03T17:12:27+01:002014-03-03T17:12:27+01:00 Despite the stated goal of simplicity, XML and related standards are still too complex for serializing object hierarchies, so JSON is gaining ground here. The Case of the broken mount.cifs in Ubuntu 13.103e335f1a-43b1-43b3-8c2b-ddbbfc98976d2013-12-06T11:20:10+01:002013-12-08T21:31:13+01:00 A sudden mount error(13): Permission denied after upgrading to Ubuntu 13.10, my troubleshooting steps, and how I eventually found and fixed a small syntax issue. Upgrade woes - why does it have to be so uncertaind6c2920e-7aaa-4d2c-89b5-10d864c24a8c2013-12-05T20:00:01+01:002013-12-08T21:30:11+01:00 Recent (bad) experiences with the Ubuntu upgrade to 13.10 make me contemplate the difficulties of software upgrades in general. Updated: Pentadactyl set filetype in external Vim editor based on URL3d6ae95e-5ec5-47b3-8c9a-28b7354924982012-05-23T09:20:09+02:002013-03-14T16:33:41+01:00 Update: Just appending the +setf doesn't work when (like in the default option value) there's already a +cmd. I've extended the code to handle this. Determine the filetype / syntax for known sites (e.g. Wikis) based on the URL and pass that on to Vim when editing a field in the external editor via I_CTRL-I. XML processing still hard in Groovy3abf8057-4d18-4063-a980-663ed627cb762013-02-22T17:35:21+01:002013-02-22T17:35:21+01:00 A tale of woe and struggles with Groovy's XML processing APIs, mostly due to poor documentation. Nasty Android bugs and no updates for old devices67231013-3878-4273-9740-7237fd2a18ef2012-10-01T14:47:34+02:002012-10-01T14:47:34+02:00 A critique of the update policies of Google and Android handset makers in the light of a very annoying SMS problem and the recent USSD vulnerability. The fresh upgrade oxymoron in Linux Minta820938c-1180-4cd3-b6d9-96bc916e64dd2012-07-10T11:29:32+02:002012-07-10T11:29:32+02:00 A critique of the recommended upgrade mechanism of Linux Mint via a fresh OS install and data restore. Better Android app update mechanisms0ad2afbe-ea86-4c56-8f5e-91b14aa23e312012-06-01T11:23:59+02:002012-06-01T11:23:59+02:00 Ideas to improve Android app updates by allowing rollback to previous versions and flagging app crashes on particular platforms. I want rollback for Android apps2e1a2b81-3958-4c9d-b793-1460335c0a7b2012-05-31T18:08:25+02:002012-05-31T18:08:25+02:00 A plea for a more sophisticated app management for Android SmartPhones (especially for phones with older Android versions) in Google Play, because I have been suffering from malfunctioning apps after a updating. No permissions on files created outside Cygwin with UAC active1bd824cf-7b28-4548-864f-006aaf5142c72012-05-09T09:49:56+02:002012-05-09T09:49:56+02:00 Work around a strange Cygwin interaction with file permissions and UAC to get access permissions to files created outside of Cygwin. Put build number into Grails WAR manifesthttp://ingo-karkat.de/blog/2012/03/29/Put%20build%20number%20into%20Grails%20WAR%20manifest.html2012-03-29T16:00:00+02:002012-04-03T15:52:18+02:00 Work around deficiencies in the Grails Maven plugin to get the Maven build version number included in the manifest of a Grail web application. FlexMojos minimized Flash Player runhttp://ingo-karkat.de/blog/2012/03/28/FlexMojos%20minimized%20Flash%20Player%20run.html2012-03-28T16:00:00+02:002012-04-03T15:47:55+02:00 Suppress work-inhibiting pop-ups of the Flash Player window when executing Flex tests through the Maven FlexMojos plugin by injecting a small batch wrapper via Maven configuration.