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rrsync: a hidden gem

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I've been using rsync for decades, and had never come across its cousin rrsync, until a google search put it on my map. I was revisiting the inherent security problem in rsync backups: if you've given ssh access to a server, it can typically do a lot more than just rsync. To limit the damage, … Read more

Advanced Bash logging to handle errors.

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So we've all done a quick log from a bash script, which looks like this 

LOGFILE="logs/$(date +%F)_backup.log"
# Append to the file
restic backup /etc/ >> $LOGFILE
find /root/scripts/ -type f -name "restic*.log" -mtime +14 -delete -print >> $LOGFILE

That's great for small scripts. But sometimes you find that its not logging errors, which are also helpful, and you need to add those:

LOGFILE="logs/$(date +%F)_backup.log"
# Append to the file
restic backup /etc/ 2>&1 >> $LOGFILE
find /root/scripts/ -type f -name "restic*.log" -mtime +14 -delete -print 2>&1 >> $LOGFILE

And different commands behave differently, so it all starts to become complicated. But there's an easier way. Two actually. The first is to use curly brackets to contain all the commands you want to log, and then pipe it through tee at the end. Commands after that block won't be logged.

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Bash script for managing htaccess files

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Had to create this for a less technical user to manage htaccess, so thought I'd share. Your mileage may vary. Change the location of the default htpass file in the config. You can supply another location in mid script if you have more than one. #!/bin/bash# ConfigurationHTACCESS_FILE_DEFAULT="htpass_test"# Function to display a list of usersdisplay_users() { … Read more