Entries posted in January 2011

It would be really neat if there were some tool which recorded which dotfiles an application read, used, or created.

As an example emacs uses .emacs, but won't create it. However firefox will create and fill ~/.mozilla if it isn't present, and links will create ~/.links2.

What would we do with that data? I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I think it is interesting to collect regardless. Perhaps a simple tool such as apt-file to download the data and let you search:

who-creates ~/.covers
who-creates ~/.dia

Obviously the simple use is to purge user-data when matching packages are removed - e.g. dpkg-posttrigger hook. But that's a potentially dangerous thing to do.

Anyway I'm just pondering - I expect that over time applications will start switching to using "centralised" settings such as ~/.gconf2 etc.

In the menatime I've started cleaning up ~/ on my own machines - things like ~/.spectemurc, ~/.grip, etc.

ObQuote: What a long sword. I like that in a man - Blood of the Samurai (Don't be tempted; awful film.)

Tags: debian, dotfiles, software | 8 comments

I've now gotten around to deploying IPv6 for my personal site(s) and machines. So potentially people visiting this blog are using IPv6 right now!

The Debian Administration website has been IPv6-connected and aware for a year or two now, although over 98% of users continue to connect via by IPv4.

Handling IPv6 & KVM wasn't too difficult at least, although I've done the simplest possible thing I could do, route a /64 to each guest and don't worry too much about it.

(The host machine has a /64 allocation of its own, and we've been granted an /48 allocation so we're not liable to run out. Ever.)

ObQuote: "You're not seriously gonna believe this man, are you? Are you? HE ISN'T EVEN FROM 'ROUND HERE! " - Hot Fuzz

Tags: ipv6, kvm-hosting | 3 comments

This week in brief:

I've rejoined the Debian Security Team

My first (recent) DSA was released earlier today, with assistance from various team members. (My memory of the process was poor, and some things have changed in my absence.)

BlogSpam gains a new user

The BlogSpam API is now available for users of Trac.

Finally, before I go, I've noticed several people on Planet Debian report their photo-challenges; either a picture a day or one a week. I too take pictures, and I'm happy if I get one session a month.

I suspect some of my content might be a bit too racy for publication here. If you're not avoiding friendface-style sites you can follow "highlights" easily enough - or just look at the site.

ObQuote: "Be strong and you will be renewed. Identify. " - Logan's Run (1976)

Tags: blogspam, debian, dsa, stolen-souls, youtube | No comments