Script

Linux & Systems Administration

Building 32-bit Wine on CentOS 7, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux
ByEric Ma Oct 16, 2016Apr 12, 2026

RHEL-based distributions only provide 64-bit Wine packages in their standard repositories. Many Windows applications—especially legacy software—require 32-bit Wine. Building Wine from source is the most reliable approach to get a working 32-bit installation alongside 64-bit support. Prerequisites and Resource Requirements Building Wine requires significant resources: ~2GB temporary disk space, ~500MB installed Compilation takes 20-40 minutes…

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Languages & Frameworks

Client-Side Routing in AngularJS: Managing Route Parameters
Byjameswarner Aug 19, 2016Apr 12, 2026

AngularJS routing enables single-page applications by dynamically switching views based on URL patterns without full page reloads. Unlike server-side routing, AngularJS handles routing on the client, eliminating network round-trips and improving responsiveness—particularly useful when displaying different datasets based on route parameters. Install AngularJS and Dependencies Include AngularJS and the routing module. Using npm: npm install…

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Linux & Systems Administration

How to Enable and Disable Your Laptop Keyboard in Linux
ByEric Ma May 14, 2016Apr 12, 2026

When you dock a laptop with an external USB keyboard, the built-in keyboard becomes a nuisance—it’s too easy to brush keys while typing and trigger unwanted input. Rather than disabling the keyboard at the BIOS level or physically disconnecting it, you can use the xinput tool to disable and re-enable it from within your Linux…

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Scripting & Utilities

Finding Your Bash Script’s Location: $0 vs ${BASH_SOURCE[0]}
ByEric Ma Feb 14, 2016Apr 13, 2026

When a Bash script needs to reference its own location — for sourcing additional files, logging, or managing relative paths — $0 seems like the obvious choice. But it’s a trap: $0 behaves differently depending on whether your script is executed directly or sourced. The Problem with $0 When you execute a script directly: ./script.sh…

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Web Development

Running Commands Across Multiple Linux Servers in Parallel
ByEric Ma Jan 3, 2016Apr 12, 2026

Running commands across multiple servers is fundamental to cluster management and infrastructure automation. While orchestration tools like Ansible and Terraform dominate modern deployments, sometimes you need lightweight solutions that work without dependencies—or you’re already invested in SSH-based infrastructure. When managing clusters, you typically work in two modes: serial execution (one node at a time) and…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Monitor File Changes and Trigger Commands with inotifywait
ByEric Ma Aug 30, 2015Apr 12, 2026

Watching for filesystem changes and triggering actions is essential for development workflows—recompiling after source edits, restarting services when configs update, or running tests during coding. Linux’s inotify subsystem provides kernel-level file monitoring, and inotifywait makes it accessible from the command line. Installation Install inotify-tools on your system: Fedora/RHEL/CentOS: sudo dnf install inotify-tools Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Regenerating GRUB2 Configuration Files on Linux
ByEric Ma Apr 29, 2015Apr 12, 2026

GRUB2 configuration needs to be regenerated when you modify boot parameters, install new kernels, or adjust default boot entries. The process varies slightly between BIOS and UEFI systems, and between distributions, but follows a consistent pattern once you understand your system layout. Check Your System Firmware Type Before regenerating config, identify whether your system uses…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Converting AC3 and DTS Audio to AAC in MKV Files
ByDavid Yang Apr 15, 2015Apr 12, 2026

MKV files encoded with AC3 or DTS audio won’t play sound on most iOS and Android devices. These are proprietary formats with licensing restrictions—mobile players either don’t support them or refuse to decode them by default. The video plays fine, but you get silence. The solution is straightforward: re-encode the audio track to AAC or…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Profiling Vim Startup and Runtime Performance
ByEric Ma Mar 29, 2015Apr 12, 2026

Vim is generally fast, but dozens of plugins can create noticeable slowdowns. Since Vim’s core remains single-threaded, any blocking operation in a loaded plugin will freeze your editor until it completes. Rather than disable plugins randomly, use Vim’s built-in profiling tools to identify the actual culprit. Profile Vim Startup Time The fastest way to find…

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Languages & Frameworks

Block JavaScript on Specific Sites in Chrome
ByEric Ma Mar 28, 2015Apr 13, 2026

Blocking JavaScript per-site in Chrome lets you stop intrusive scripts, malicious content, or resource-heavy trackers without disabling JavaScript globally. This gives you surgical control—some sites work fine without JS, while others need it. Access the JavaScript exceptions page Open Chrome and navigate to this URL in the address bar: chrome://settings/contentExceptions#javascript Alternatively, go through the menu:…

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Languages & Frameworks

Parse RSS Feeds and Display as HTML in PHP
ByEric Ma Mar 8, 2015Apr 12, 2026

Displaying RSS feed items on a webpage is a practical way to aggregate external content. Here’s a production-ready approach using PHP’s SimpleXML to fetch, cache, and render feeds as HTML. Basic Implementation This function handles RSS parsing with built-in caching, error handling, and output escaping: <?php function output_rss_feed($feed_url, $item_count = 10, $show_description = true, $show_pubdate…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Pop-up Terminal Hotkey for GNOME
ByEric Ma Oct 22, 2014Apr 12, 2026

A toggle-on-demand terminal you can summon and hide with a single keystroke is useful for quick commands without cluttering your workspace. This guide walks you through creating one using GNOME Terminal and basic shell scripting. Prerequisites You need xdotool and wmctrl installed to manipulate windows: # Debian/Ubuntu sudo apt install xdotool wmctrl # Fedora sudo…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Importing Self-Signed Certificates into Chrome on Linux
ByEric Ma Oct 8, 2014Apr 12, 2026

Chrome on Linux uses NSS (Network Security Services) for certificate management. Install the certutil utility from your distribution: Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint: sudo apt install libnss3-tools CentOS/Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install nss-tools Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S nss Extract and Import the Certificate The most reliable approach is to extract the certificate directly from the server and import…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Setting Up a Hadoop 2.x Cluster for Development and Legacy Systems
ByEric Ma Sep 14, 2014Apr 12, 2026

Hadoop 2.x reached end-of-life in 2016. This guide covers setup for learning purposes and legacy system maintenance only. For production deployments, use Hadoop 3.x or later, which includes performance improvements, better YARN scheduling, HDFS erasure coding, and improved security. Cloud-managed options like AWS EMR, Google Dataproc, and Azure HDInsight eliminate most operational overhead. This guide…

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Linux & Systems Administration

WordPress Performance Tuning: OPcache, Caching, and Asset Optimization
ByEric Ma Apr 3, 2014Apr 12, 2026

WordPress performance depends on three complementary caching layers: PHP bytecode caching (OPcache), page caching (WP Super Cache), and asset optimization (Autoptimize). Combined properly, they’ll cut your Time to First Byte in half and significantly improve Core Web Vitals. Enable OPcache in PHP OPcache caches compiled PHP bytecode in shared memory, eliminating parse and compile overhead…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Using Emacs Server and Client for Faster Editing Sessions
ByEric Ma Mar 31, 2014Apr 12, 2026

Emacs startup is slow. If you’re using it for quick edits alongside other tools, waiting 2-3 seconds every time becomes friction. Heavy mode configurations, lazy loading chains, and initialization hooks add up fast. The server/client architecture solves this: start an Emacs server once, then spawn lightweight clients that connect almost instantly. Your first edit waits…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Configuring Email Notifications for Git Push Events
ByEric Ma Mar 7, 2014Apr 12, 2026

Sending email notifications when commits are pushed to a central Git repository helps teams stay coordinated and maintains audit trails. This is handled through Git hooks—scripts triggered by repository events. How Post-Receive Hooks Work When a client pushes to your Git server, the post-receive hook executes automatically. This hook lives at GIT_DIR/hooks/post-receive in your bare…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Setting Up Gitolite for SSH-Based Git Repositories
ByEric Ma Mar 7, 2014Apr 12, 2026

Gitolite provides fine-grained access control over Git repositories without the overhead of a full-featured platform. It uses SSH keys for authentication and handles per-user, per-repository, and even per-branch permissions through a simple configuration file. This guide covers a working installation on modern Linux distributions. Prerequisites Server: Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later, Debian 11+, RHEL/Rocky…

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Linux & Systems Administration

Securing VNC Access to Linux Servers Using SSH Tunneling
ByWeiwei Jia Feb 21, 2014Apr 12, 2026

VNC provides graphical remote access to Linux servers. For security, tunnel VNC traffic through SSH rather than expose it directly to the network. This guide covers Windows client setup with SSH tunneling. Prerequisites Windows client: SSH client: Native OpenSSH (built into Windows 10/11) or PuTTY VNC viewer: RealVNC Viewer, TigerVNC Viewer, or TightVNC Viewer Linux…

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Languages & Frameworks

When to Use File-Based Photo Galleries in PHP
ByEric Ma Feb 21, 2014Apr 12, 2026

Self-hosting a photo gallery gives you control over your content. If you want to skip database management entirely, a handful of PHP solutions still work—though most are unmaintained. This post covers what’s still functional, where the limits are, and when you should choose something else instead. Static File-Based Gallery Scripts Single File PHP Gallery Status:…

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