Frank yearns for just-in-time computing:
With each year that goes by, it feels like less and less is happening on the device itself. And the longer our work maintains its current form (writing documents, updating spreadsheets, using web apps, responding to emails, monitoring chat, drawing rectangles), the more unnecessary high-end computing seems. Who needs multiple computers when I only need half of one?
Okay, I knew about the Python shortcut—I mentioned it in Going Offline—but I had no idea it was so easy to do the same thing for PHP. This is a bit of a revelation for me!
Once in the desired directory, run:
php -S localhost:2222Now you can go to “localhost:2222” in your browser, and if you have an index.html or .php file in your root directory, you’re in business.
An online training course that will banish all fear of the command line, expertly delivered by the one and only Remy Sharp.
For designers, new developers, UX, UI, product owners and anyone who’s been asked to “just open the terminal”.
Take advantage of the special launch price—there are some serious price reductions there.
The (literally) hidden dangers of copying code snippets from the web and pasting them into the command line.
This cautionary tale backs up a small tip I heard for getting to understand how found code works: deliberately type it out instead of copying and pasting.
I wrote a while back about switching to HTTPS on Apache 2.4.7 on Ubuntu 14.04 on Digital Ocean. In that post, I pointed to an example .conf file.
I’ve been having a few issues with my certificate renewals with Certbot (the artist formerly known as Let’s Encrypt). If I did a dry-run for renewing my certificates…
/etc/certbot-auto renew --dry-run
… I kept getting this message:
Encountered vhost ambiguity but unable to ask for user guidance in non-interactive mode. Currently Certbot needs each vhost to be in its own conf file, and may need vhosts to be explicitly labelled with ServerName or ServerAlias directories. Falling back to default vhost *:443…
It turns out that Certbot doesn’t like HTTP and HTTPS configurations being lumped into one .conf file. Instead it expects to see all the port 80 stuff in a domain.com.conf file, and the port 443 stuff in a domain.com-ssl.conf file.
So I’ve taken that original .conf file and split it up into two.
First I SSH’d into my server and went to the Apache directory where all these .conf files live:
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
Then I copied the current (single) file to make the SSL version:
cp yourdomain.com.conf yourdomain.com-ssl.conf
Time to fire up one of those weird text editors to edit that newly-created file:
nano yourdomain.com-ssl.conf
I deleted everything related to port 80—all the stuff between (and including) the VirtualHost *:80 tags:
<VirtualHost *:80>
...
</VirtualHost>
Hit ctrl and o, press enter in response to the prompt, and then hit ctrl and x.
Now I do the opposite for the original file:
nano yourdomain.com.conf
Delete everything related to VirtualHost *:443:
<VirtualHost *:443>
...
</VirtualHost>
Once again, I hit ctrl and o, press enter in response to the prompt, and then hit ctrl and x.
Now I need to tell Apache about the new .conf file:
a2ensite yourdomain.com-ssl.conf
I’m told that’s cool and all, but that I need to restart Apache for the changes to take effect:
service apache2 restart
Now when I test the certificate renewing process…
/etc/certbot-auto renew --dry-run
…everything goes according to plan.
Remy’s excellent digital book is now available for your purchasing pleasure. I wrote a cheeky foreword for it.
The foreword to the brief book published by A Book Apart.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
You’ve just followed a link to a cool-sounding new resource that one of your friends has recommended. Now you’re reading about how this could help you in your day-to-day work on the web. You excitedly click through to the documentation where the installation instructions are laid out before you. That’s when your heart sinks. “This is moon language!” you cry.
You are not alone. I don’t just mean that there are many of us who feel the same way. I mean you are literally not alone. You have Remy with you. He will be your guide.
I’ll be keeping this book close to hand when I’m navigating the intimidating dark depths of the Command Line Interface. But this isn’t a reference book. It’s more like a self-help book. This book will help me—and you—become a more efficient developer, better equipped to battle moon language. “It’s a UNIX system”, you’ll whisper. “I know this!”
Having read this book, I now have one question I ask myself before I confront an inevitable task on the command line: What Would Remy Do?
When it comes to the command line, WWRD will serve you in good stead (Warning: when it comes to just about any other aspect of your daily life, WWRD will almost certainly be disastrous).
What Would Remy Do? The answers lie within these pages…
What a wonderful way to go online!
Note to self: this is how to recursively remove .svn files from a directory (y'know, just in case your host screws up your svn repository).