huanix » Apache2

mod_rewrite for Apache2 in Ubuntu Linux Gutsy Gibbon 7.10

huanix — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:30:40 +0000

mod_rewrite is a module for the Apache webserver that allows apache to dynamically change the url of a site using php (or other scripting languages). It seems like a difficult/confusing task at first, but it actually only takes 2 steps in Ubuntu. I initially wrote this quick tutorial for Feisty Fawn 7.04, and I just checked, and it works great in Gutsy Gibbon, 7.10 also. This should also work well for Edgy 6.10 and Dapper 6.06 without any issues. Any code snippets should be typed into a terminal. “sudo” commands require a password, that’s a given.

Enable mod_rewrite in Apache
sudo a2enmod rewrite
Edit the configuration file.
1. sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
2. line 12 says “AllowOverride none” ;
3. change it to “AllowOverride all”
4. save and close
Okay… one last step — you have to manually restart Apache (or restart your computer!)

sudo apache2 -k restart

All done! now Apache and php can create URL’s on the fly – pretty neato!

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Slow nslookup and slow dns hosting?

huanix — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:44:34 +0000

I’m running my server on a “static” dhcp address on my home server, and I’m using the domain name server lookup provided by freedns.org. I am more than appreciative for the FREE service provided by the fellow at freedns, but I’ve noticed that the biggest problem with any of the sites on my server is SLOW name server lookup.

Here’s the deal: I want to improve my nslookup time (not the time derived from my local cache, but my “fresh look” time) and I just can’t seem to figure it out. Turns out most folks who run their own server rely on local-server based dns, but I figure that would be AT LEAST as slow as freedns. I wish I could find some ranking of domain name servers so I could make a more informed choice, but I just don’t know how to attack it.

Oh.. and one more thing.. I don’t pay.. for anything. That is, I don’t pay for anything I can use ingenuity to get for free. That’s why RMS and Linus are my heroes! I’d love to hear your suggestions.

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The best CMS for 2007?

huanix — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:21:43 +0000

I’m very new to the concept of using a CMS to publish a community website, so I’ve been doing some research to find the best and most current free Content Management System.

The first valuable resource I found is wikipedia’s list of CMS’s, which is initially impressive, but I quickly found it overwhelming. To be perfectly honest, I don’t feel like sorting through a list of hundreds of CMS’s, I want a CMS that meets two sets of criteria: One, it has to meet my platform preferences, and two, it has to be in current cutting-edge development.

My platform preferences:

Linux 2.6
Apache 2.2
PHP 5
Mysql 5

My development preferences:

GNU license
In development 2+ years
The most downloads from Sourceforge.
The site with the highest traffic on Alexa.

While I have yet to document my results, which I plan to share later on this blog, the winner appears to be Joomla!. The only drawback to this point is that it does appear to require patience in implementation, something I lack! I spent a couple hours with it recently, and while I was impressed with it’s capability, I realized it would take signifcant experience to make it jump through the hoops I have in mind.

creating web pages in c

huanix — Mon, 21 May 2007 02:10:27 +0000

I wrote my first cgi script today.. it actually sounds pretty juvenile now that i say it out loud.

here it is… ( i really need to read the geshi docs so i can format this properly!)

#include int main(){ std::cout <<"Content-Type: text/html\n\n "; std::cout << "text."; std::cout << ""; return 0; }

Anyway, it compiled pretty easily as a cgi script; getting it to run in apache took me a few minutes, as a matter of fact, i am afraid i hosed some stuff on this test system trying to get it working. I finally added
Options +ExecCGI
to the apache2 config file — in ubuntu, i actually modified the /etc/apache2/sites-available/default file, under the Directory /var/www tag.

This allowed me to run the cgi.. at least.. i tried 84 things, so I -think- that’s what finally worked

tomorrow i’d like to try some post/get forms with c++, i write my forms with so much php that i’m not sure how i’ll do it with c.

btw – thanks to http://www.metalshell.com/view/source/127/ for the idea.

mod_rewrite for Apache2 in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04

huanix — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:29:05 +0000

mod_rewrite is a module for the Apache webserver that allows apache to dynamically change the url of a site using php (or other scripting languages). It seems like a difficult/confusing task at first, but it actually only takes 2 steps in Ubuntu. I’m using Feisty Fawn, 7.04, but this should work well for Edgy and Dapper without any issues. Any code snippets should be typed into a terminal. “sudo” commands require a password, that’s a given.

Enable mod_rewrite in Apache
sudo a2enmod rewrite
Edit the configuration file.
1. sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
2. line 12 says “AllowOverride none” ;
3. change it to “AllowOverride all”
4. save and close
Okay… one last step — you have to manually restart Apache (or restart your computer!)

sudo apache2 -k restart

All done! now Apache and php can create URL’s on the fly – pretty neato!

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Kernel Panic

huanix — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:17:36 +0000

I’ve had a recurring kernel panic in my primary web server, the server that hosts this site. I’ve experienced random kernel panics in the past, but never to the point that I’ve needed to figure out what the problem is. Today is that day. I’ve taken a snapshot of the panic, converted it to a printable format, and now I’m hunting google.. I’ll let you know what I turn up!

Exploit? Viewing unparsed PHP code on a remote server

huanix — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:49:26 +0000

I don’t know how well documented this hack is, but I dreamed it up while I was laying in bed last night, and tried it out this morning and it works. The hack requires that the target php file has been edited locally in the web directory of a linux server. Linux makes a hidden backup copy of the file by appending a tilde (~) to the file name, and leaves it in the directory as a hidden file. If you access a website with this file and append a ~ to the filename, i.e. “index.php~” you will be able to view the uninterpreted php code. This seems so trivial that I’m sure it has to be documented somewhere else, though I couldn’t find it – part of it has to do with the difficulty associated with searching for special characters, and the alternate use of the ~ (home directory).

I have three ideas to prevent the exploit:
1. Edit the Apache config file to allow php to parse “php~” files.
2. Write a cron job to remove temporary backup files from the web directory.
3. Manually delete ~ files from the web directory, or don’t edit files on the server.

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Lazy Saturday with Suse

huanix — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 22:22:50 +0000

Today I pulled out a copy of Suse 10.0 and installed it on one of the desktops I’ve got laying around. I had forgotten how user-friendly and well developed Suse is. I started running the install after reading in several places that the most stable MySQL setups are built from source on Suse machines. I have also been using Ubuntu for so long that I was sort of worried that I was getting out of “Linux” and into “Ubuntu”.
I started hangingout at #planet.mysql – which is odd for me – I am a complete novice there, surrounded by the Gods of MySQL, but I look forward to hearing what they have to say and try to keep my mouth shut!
Still frustrated with apache includes. It’s rare that I give up on a problem, and I haven’t worked on my apache2 include problem in awhile. I’m wondering if the source build that I’m doing on Suse will make things work better? FYI – if you missed it, I kept getting syntax errors when I tried to do server side includes in Apache.
I have discovered the MySQL 5.1 manual (direct link)is actually a great read – I would reccommend it. I’m only through the first couple hundred pages, but it’s a page-turner.. geek style.
As a side note, my wonderful wife, (who is a “Linux rejectionist” ) has been running Vista RC2 on her 3.4GHz, 2GB system (we call it the “pink computer”). I have found a few things I like, and a few things I disliked about the setup – keep in mind that it’s RC2, not the retail release!

Likes:
- The widget panel is nice – I like watching our photos, and the CPU/Memory widget.
- The Windows Experience Rating is a nice tool – As a non-gamer, I was not aware that my NVidia 6200 was such a bottleneck.
- The GUI is intuitive. This may be a result of my being a OS enthusiast, but I generally knew how to get what I wanted without having to search for help.

Dislikes:
- Constantly having to tell Windows what could or couldn’t run. Security should be a system-level function, not a user process.
- The NVidia drivers were difficult to install in Vista. The UI does a lot of hand-holding (which can be good), but the installer didn’t work with the driver files, so they had to be manually inserted (with “have disk”). Vista didn’t like my tinkering with the drivers either- if I removed my device driver, Vista would replace it with its own version. Good for a novice, irritating for a geek.
- The Office 2007 Beta Powerpoint is attractive, and I like the menus, but the type-rate reminds me of a 486. I’m not sure what’s going on with the internals, but typing in powerpoint is laggy and makes me think of typing on a remote system with a bad connection.

New Lamp Group – The CLAMPP

huanix — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 13:22:31 +0000

Good news everyone! There’s a new Linux – type group in Clarksville, Tennessee. Check out the Clarksville Linux Apache MySQL PHP Perl group –CLAMPP

I just wanted to test php highlighting in geshi

Stat Tracker and Learning C with Emacs

huanix — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 05:52:56 +0000

I am sorry that I never resolved the Server Side Include with Apache2 yesterday. I moved on to write a php include that I could add to the header of each file. I initially had trouble because I’m currently hosting 5 sites, and using the $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] element, many of the inserts would appear as “index.php” without telling me which domain they were associated with. I was foolish enough to try some superceding directories, like

“/../” . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']

which would return (predictably) “/../index.php”. So I eventually got the bright idea that there MUST be an array element in PHP to address this – and I lucked out! I used

$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];

and got neat results like “www.sl7pm.com/index.php” which is EXACTLY what I wanted to see! now I can tell the difference between hits to www.sl7pm.com/index.php and www.huanix.com/index.php, which previously looked the same.

I will continue to work on the Server Side Include issue when I get more steam. I hate planting the same repetitive include in every file, especially when I know that I will forget where I placed in in highly-included software like phpBB and WordPress.

I have been thinking about taking a programming class through my local university.. I know a little, but I feel like a formal class would help me build a firm foundation. I’m looking at taking Programming I. Any feedback would be appreciated. I am currently MOST proficient with PHP, which isn’t much, but I am picking up a lot of fundamentals like arrays, switch & case, and loops that I know are ubiquitous in programming.

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