Linux Gazette, a member of the Linux Documentation Project, is an on-line WWW publication that is dedicated to two simple ideas:
|
|
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TWDT 1 (text)
TWDT 2 (HTML)
are files containing the entire issue: one in text format, one in HTML.
They are provided
strictly as a way to save the contents as one file for later printing in
the format of your choice;
there is no guarantee of working links in the HTML version. Our thanks
go to Tushar Teredesai for pasting together the HTML version.
Got any great ideas for improvements! Send your comments, criticisms, suggestions and ideas.
This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
The Mailbag!
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 20:11:37 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Linux Gazette Issue 11
From: Elliot Lee, sopwith@cuc.edu
Nice job, as always! :-)
-- Elliot, webmaster@redhat.com
(Thanks! --Editor)
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 10:49:21 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Search Engine
From: "Dan Crowson" dcrowson@cms.cmsc.com
Organization: CMS Communications, Inc.
Hello:
what kind of search engine are you using for the Linux Gazette www server? Is this a linux-based engine?
Thanks,
Dan
(Nope. It just builds on Linux --Editor)
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 17:24:30 -0500
Subject: Comments on Issue #11
From: "R. Frank Louden" flouden@fairfield.home.sweet.net
I am always glad to see another issue of LG. Thank you for taking the time to compose it. One comment I'd like to make is the most recent issue (#11) is difficult for me to read on the spiral binding background. For me, the text lies over close enough to the left edge of the page, and it is almost hidden in some parts of the page.
I may be one of a dying breed but I choose to use Mosaic and wish others would consider that MS and Netscape do NOT adhere to the HTML specs and are fragmenting the standards. I note that NCSA is working on a new version that will provide support that is not currently found in the version I use. I am at this moment using an unsupported version 2.7b5 (it's kinda buggy) but when it works it allows me to see the background you have used.
While whirly-gigs and gewgaws are nice, some of us are still not able to upgrade hardware at the whim of the industry and need to have some consideration from those who sponsor WWW HTML documents. I have accessed pages that are completely illegible (with my old Mosaic) and others (with a more up-to-date browser) that take prohibitively long times to download. There IS something to be said for standards.
Thanks again for the Gazette! It is great!!!
(There may be more than one problem here. First off, if you are using a mirror site, the problem is my fault. Somehow, when building the tar file for the mirror sites, a gif that was integral to the notebook motif -- it moved the print away from the spiral -- was left out. I am in the process of notifying the mirror site where the missing file can be downloaded.The notebook spiral was put in using "tables" which is an HTML standard. Here at SSC we too believe in following HTML standards. In fact the program that we use to push things to the web checks that the HTML conforms.
I have worried that by adding more graphics we might be causing problems with download times. However, we also would like to keep LG looking good, so thought we'd add away and see what kind of comments we get. So far it's tied. One who likes the spiral and yours against. BTW, if you are accessing LG through a mirror site, try the main site and see if it does better for you (http://www.ssc.com/lg).
Glad you like LG, I certainly have fun putting it together. --Editor)
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 13:32:44 +1100
Subject: http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/lg/issue11/wkndmech.html
From: Ken Yap ken@syd.dit.csiro.au
Hi, Like your Linux Gazette, but some GIFs on the page are not
displaying. Path problem?
Thanks,
Ken
(John Fisk forwarded your mail to me. In building the tar file for the mirror sites some files got left out. I have furnished and updated file. Sorry about that. --Editor)Date: Mon, 04 Nov 1996 12:09:22 -0700
In Issue 11 there is an incorrect link.
On the page: http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue11/lg_tips11.html#xdm
The link currently is:
http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue11/alienor.fr/~pierre/index_us.html
But should be:
http://alienor.fr/~pierre/index_us.html
Thanks for a great 'zine! :-)
kb
(Got it fixed. Thanks for letting me know. --Editor)
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 22:35:04 +0200 (EET)
Subject: Re: Linux Gazette Issue 11
From: Lialios Dionysios ancient@eexi.gr
Hello, this is Dennis from Greece.
Well this time I managed to download the whole thing so now I have a full mirror. The only problem is that I didn't get (or I don't have) the searchbtn.gif and the htsearch.cgi that are used for the search engine.
Did I make something wrong or should I have something I don't?
Thank you in advance.
Dennis
(No, you did nothing wrong. I was so excited to have the search engine, I forgot that the mirrors wouldn't have the proper data bases. Since these data bases are very big and are for all of the SSC site, we have changed the links for the data base so that it always refers back to the SSC site rather than a relative address pointing to the mirror site. The updated front page file is in the update tar file along with the missing files. Let me know if it works for you. --Editor)
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 09:01:44 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Request
From: ivan.m@ieee.udistrital.edu.co (Ivan Mauricio Montenegro)
It's the first time I hear about Linux Gazette, I'd want to have all the issues, but at the FTP addresses that appear on www.ssc.com have the horrible message "Login Error". What could I do?
Thanks!
Ivan Mauricio Montenegro
IEEE Student Branch, Vice-Chairperson
Distrital University, "Francisco Jos de Caldas", Bogota, Colombia
(Not sure why you are having a problem. I can tell that others are able to download from that address without problem. Are you using your browser to point to that address or logging on with anonymous ftp?I would suggest using a ftp mirror site that is closer to you. Unfortunately, Linux Gazette does not have a mirror site in South America at this time. There is one in Mexico which is somewhat closer to you than Seattle.
At any rate if you go to the Mirror Site page (http://www.ssc.com/lg/mirrors.html) in Linux Gazette, and use the links there to go to one of the ftp sites (ours or one of the mirrors), you shouldn't be asked for a login. (I never have been and that's why I am a little confused by the message you are getting.) Let me know if you continue to have problems, and thanks for writing. --Editor)
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 1996 21:21:59 -0500
Subject: Great new look
From: "Alan L. Waller" alwaller@shore.intercom.net
Classy !!!
Al
(Thanks! Glad you like it. --Editor)
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 11:03:26 -0800
Subject: Thank you
From: Innocent Bystander innocent@dopey.4dcomm.com
Thank you very, very much for providing LG to people such as I, who haven't become Unix gods yet. After reading my first issue, I am now a dedicated reader. What can *I* do to assist LG?
Innocent Bystander, innocent@dopey.4dcomm.com
San Diego, CA
(Send us your favorite tips and tricks. We love new contributors. Other than that tell all your friends about us and promote Linux where ever you are. --Editor)
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 08:08:08 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Re: Great Writing
To: "Lowe, Jimmy, D MSGT LGMPD" LOWEJ@SSG.GUNTER.AF.MIL
From: "John M. Fisk" fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu
Hello Jimmy!
Thanks so much for taking the time to write! I appreciate it. I honestly can't take the credit for this -- the kind folks at SSC (and the Linux Journal) offered to take over the management of the LG when its administrative upkeep just got to be too much. Marjorie Richardson is its capable new Editor.
I've taken the liberty of cc'ing a copy of this to her -- definitely deserves a pat on the back.
Thanks again and Best Wishes,
John
---------------------------
On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Lowe, Jimmy, D MSGT LGMPD wrote:
> Hello John,
>
> I just wanted to say how glad I am to see the LG is being carried on
> in such a fine manner -- during the summer I began to worry a small but
> inspiring story was coming to an end. I think your writing is very
> entertaining and informative! I really appreciate your work and that of
> all the others in the Linux community and others (e.g. FSF).
>
> I hope to give back to this wonderful community of dedicated
> hobbiest/computer wizards once I get a little more up-to-speed.
>
> Hope you and your family are well,
>
> Jim Lowe, Montgomery AL
(I think John was being a little modest on this one. Jim was obviously glad to see John's new Weekend Mechanic column in Linux Gazette. I certainly was. Thanks a lot John. --Editor)
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 11:30:32 -0500
Subject: Bravo!
From: "J.M. Paden" jmpaden@mnsinc.com
"TWDT" is most appreciated. Thanks for the response to your readers requests.
Regards,
(You're welcome. We do aim to please. --Editor.)
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 13:41:36 -0800
Subject: Link to other Linux pages
From: "J. Hunter Heinlen" dracus@third-wave.com
Greetings....
I've gone through your title page for the Linux Gazette, and could not find a link to other Linux pages. Please put a link to page with links to other, commonly used Linux pages just below the Mirror sites link, and ask those that you give links for to provide links to you. This will make finding information much easier. Thank you for your time.
(I'm not sure which are the commonly used Linux pages you'd like to have a link for on the LG front page. I have added a link to SSC's Linux Resources page at http://www.ssc.com/linux/. Why don't you look at that page and see if it has the links you are wanting. Let me know what you think. Thanks for writing. --Editor)
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 08:59:14 -0500br
Subject: LG width
From: Gerr gerr@lag.cts.du.edu
Hi there. Just a suggestion about the page (which looks ... wow ...
compared to before). If you could, however, try to keep it inside of one
page wide, it would be wonderful. I find myself having to use the arrows
to see what's on the end of lines on the right hand side of the page..
--
gerr@weaveworld
(Thank you for writing. I didn't realize it was running over. I use a rather large window for viewing it myself. The problem seems to be a combination of the spiral and the width of the text inside the <PRE> tags. Not sure what can be done, but we'll look into it. --Editor)
![[ TABLE OF
CONTENTS ]](../gx/indexnew.gif)
![[ FRONT
PAGE ]](../gx/homenew.gif)
More 2¢ Tips!
Boot Information Display
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Laurie Lynne Tucker
dmesg | more -- Forget (or couldn't look fast enough) at boot time? This command will display your boot information (a.k.a., the "kernel ring buffer"). For more info, see the man page.
A 2
Cent Console Trick
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 03:42:27 -0800
From: Igor Markov imarkov@math.ucla.edu
Organization: UCLA, Department of Mathematics
Hi,
Here's my 2c console trick:
I put the following line into my ~/.xsession file:
nxterm -ls -geometry 80x5+45+705 -rv -sb -name "System mesages" -fn 5x7
-T "System messages" -e tail -f /var/log/messages &
and this one into my .fvwm:
Style "System messages" NoTitle, Sticky, WindowListSkipWhen I login, I have a small 5-line (but scrollable) window near the left bottom corner (you may need to change numbers in -geometry) where system messages appear in tiny font as soon as they are produced. This lets me see when my dial-up script succeeds, when someone logs into my computer via TCP/IP, when some system error happen etc.
The .fvwm setup strips the title bar and does other useful things, but is not necessary.
Caveat: if you leave this window for long time, a cron job which trims /var/log/messages will change the inode # for the file and tail -f is bound to freeze. In 99% this cron job wakes up 2-3am, so tail freeze may freeze only overnight. Login/logout and everything will be OK. Any other ideas?
Igor
Firewalling / Masquerading
with 2.0.xx
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 10:57:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Preston Brown pbrown@econ.yale.edu
Regarding the recent message about not being able to get IP masquerading working with 2.0.xx kernels:
First, I *believe* that IP forwarding may have to be enabled for firewall support, but I can't say for sure. Suffice to say that I have forwarding, firewalling, and masquerading all compiled into my kernel. I have a PPP link set up to the outside world, and my local ethernet subnet (192.168.2.x) is masquerades so it can talk to the outside world as well.
ipfwadm is used to set up the information (I call it from /etc/rc.d/rc.local at boot time):
# ip forwarding policies ipfwadm -F -p deny ; default policy is to deny ; forwarding to all hosts. ipfwadm -F -a m -S 192.168.2.0/24 ; add an entry for masquerading of ; my local subnet modprobe ip_masq_ftp ; load ftp support modulea 'ipfwadm -F -l' (i.e. list all forwarding policies) yields:
IP firewall forward rules, default policy: deny type prot source destination ports acc/m all 192.168.2.0/24 anywhere n/aIndicating that all is fine. Your local subnet now should be set up to talk to the outside world just fine.
---
-Preston Brown, preston.brown@yale.edu
FTP and /etc/shells
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Laurie Lynne Tucker
A user's shell must be included in the list at /etc/shells for ftp to work!!!!! (by default, you get only /bin/sh and /bin/bash!)
--
laurie
How to Truncate
/var/adm/messages
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Alex
In answer to the question:
What is the proper way to close and reopen a new /var/adm/messages file from a running system?Step one: rename the file. Syslog will still be writing in it after renaming so you don't lose messages. Step two: create a new one. After re-initializing syslogd it will be used. Step three: Make syslog use the new file. Do not restart it, just re-initialize.
This should work on a decent Unix(like) system, and I know Linux is one of them.
HTML, Use of BODY Attributes
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 12:55:15 -0500
From: "Michael O'Keefe",
michael.okeefe@lmc.ericsson.se
Organization: Ericsson Research Canada
G'day,
If you are going to use any of the attributes to the
tag, then you should supply all of the attributes, even if you supply just the default values.The default <BODY> tag for Netscape, Mosaic and MSIE is <BODY BGCOLOR=#C0C0C0 TEXT=#000000 LINK=#0000FF VLINK=#0020F0 ALINK=#FF0000>
If you wish to slip the BACKGROUND attribute in there, by all means continue to do so, but for completeness (and good HTML designing) you should supply the other attributes as well.
The reason? You don't know what colors the user has set, and whether just setting a BACKGROUND image, or just a few of the colors will render the page viewable or not. By supplying all of the values, even at their defaults, you ensure that everything contrasts accordingly
-- Michael O'Keefe |Michael.OKeefe@lmc.ericsson.se_ Lived on and Rode a Honda CBR1000F-H |okeefe@odyssee.net / | "It can't rain all the time" |Work:+1 514 345 7900 X5030 / | - The Crow - R.I.P. Brandon |Fax :+1 514 345 7980 /_p_| My views are MINE ALONE, blah blah, |Home:+1 514 684 8674 \`O'| yackety yack - don't come back |Fax :+1 514 684 8674(PCon?)_/_\|_,
"lowerit" Shell Script
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Phil Hughes, phil@ssc.com
Here is a handy-dandy little shell script. It takes all the plain files (not directories) in the current directory and changes their names to lower case. Very handy when you unzip a bunch of MS-DOS files. If a name change would result in overwriting an existing file the script asks you before doing the overwrite.
--------------------------- cut here -----------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
# lowerit
# convert all file names in the current directory to lower case
# only operates on plain files--does not change the name of directories
# will ask for verification before overwriting an existing file
for x in `ls`
do
if [ ! -f $x ]; then
continue
fi
lc=`echo $x | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
if [ $lc != $x ]; then
mv -i $x $lc
fi
done
Removing Users
Date: 11 Nov 1996 18:54:02 GMT
From: Geoff Short, grs100@york.ac.uk
To remove users do the following:
Simple setups:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ever sit and watch ants? They're always busy with grs100@york.ac.uk something, never stop for a moment. I just geoff@kipper.york.ac.uk can't identify with that kind of work ethic. http://kipper.york.ac.uk/~geoff ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Root and Passwords
Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Steve Mann smann@ultrix.ramapo.edu
Subject: Re: Root and passwords
If you have forgotten your root password:
root::0:0:root,,,:/:/bin/zshinstead of something like this:
wimpy:GoqTFXl3f:0:0:Steve:/root:/bin/zsh
Steve
================================================================== / Steve M Insignificant message goes here \ | CCIS: 529-7500 x7922 \|||/ | | Home: 722-1632 0 * | | Beeper: 1-800-502-2775 or 201-909-1575 oo0 ^ 0oo | | Email: smann@ultrix.ramapo.edu ~~~~~~~~~ | | Ramapo College Apartments (Cypress Q): 934-9357 \ This line left blank for no reason / =================================================================
Talk Daemon and Dynamic Addresses
Date: 11 Nov 1996 16:33:02 GMT
From: Adam Jenkins,
ajenkins@kalgoorlie.cs.umass.edu
Organization: CMPSCI Department, UMass Amherst
Having problems sending a talk request to an IP-address other than your own?
The solution is to reset your host name to your new dynamic address. You need to figure out what dynamic address you've been assigned. Then you can use the "host" command to find the symbolic name for it, and then use the "hostname" command to reset your machine's hostname. Like this:
host 128.119.220.0a
Prints out a name. Use it in:
hostname name.domain.edu
That's it. You need to be root to run the "hostname" command with an argument. If you're using pppd to get your connection, you can put all of this into your /etc/ppp/ip-up script -- read the pppd man page for more info -- so that it will get done automatically when you log in.
The reason you need to do this is because when talk sends a talk request, it also sends along what it thinks is the return address so that the remote talk can respond. So if your local machine has a fake address, the remote talk will get that as the return address and you'll never see the response.
I also saw a patched version of talk on sunsite somewhere, where he made some hack to talk to get it to find your real address. But I like the "hostname" solution better because I've found at least one other program with the same problem, and the "hostname" solution fixes it too.
tar Tricks
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 15:01:58 +0000
From: Dominic Binks dominic.binks@aethos.co.uk
Organization: AEthos Communication Systems Ltd.
A couple of things that interested me about the article on tar. I'm sure that the idea is to introduce pipes, and some of the lesser known unix utilities (tr, cut), but
tar -tfvz file.tar.gz | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' -f8 | lesscan be written more concisely
tar tfz file.tar.gz | lessAlso you can use wild cards so
tar tfz file.tar.gz *README*will list all readmes in the file.
Finally two last pieces of useful Unix magic.
tar cfv - dirwill tar the directory dir and send the output to standard output. One piece of magic liked by Unix gurus is
tar cfv - dir | (cd dir2; tar xf -)which copies one directory hierarchy to another location.
Another piece of tar that might be really useful is that taring up a dos file system and moving it somewhere else will preserve *everything*. This means you can move your main DOS partition around, something that is very difficult to do with DOS.
One final tip for all UNIX newbies: you got a file which unix will not allow you to delete.
rm -- 'file'will get rid of it. In general -- terminates argument processing so that everything following is passed directly to the executable.
Have fun
Dominic Binks
Authors Wanted for Linux Journal
Well, then today is your day! Linux Journal is seeking authors for our upcoming issues. We are particularly interested in authors willing to write about Perl, the Web and Linux. We have some general topics we are soliciting articles for listed on our web site at http://www.linuxjournal.com/wanted.html. Please don't let these ideas limit you - if you have a great article idea we'd love to hear about it.
For additional information:
Gary Moore, Editor Linux Journal, ljeditor@ssc.com
http://www.ssc.com/LJ/
Debian Linux
SSC is also looking for an author to write a chapter on the installation
of Debian Linux for the book Linux Installation and Getting Started by
Matt Welsh. If you are
interested, please send e-mail to ligs@ssc.com.
Cease Fire!
Date: Wed 13 Nov 1996
Bill Machrone, vice president of technology for Ziff-Davis Publishing Co, recently wrote in an article about Linux that Netscape 3.0 and Java were not yet available for Linux. He was wrong. Such things happen. Big deal. Even magazines of the highest quality sometimes print things that are wrong. You tell them about it, and they print a correction in the next issue. That's the way professionals handle things.
That's not what some Linux people did, however. Instead, they flamed him, in private and in public. That's stupid. They urged others to also send flames to Machrone, which is worse.
Things wouldn't be so bad, but now we have the Internet. The Internet allows just a few idiots completely ruin the reputation of Linux.
Please, if you want to advocate Linux, be civil.
Lars Wirzenius, Moderator, comp.os.linux.announce
Bruce Perens, Project Leader, Debian GNU/Linux Distribution
Alan Cox, Linux Networking Project, Linux International Technical Board
Linux in the NewsFor the latest article about Linux by Bill Machrone, see the November 11 issue of PC Week, "Up Periscope". This is a good article in which he requests feedback from Linux users.
"The Linux Software Map": Unix Review, January, 1997, discusses the need for Linux documentation and the Linux Software Map (LSM).
From Martin Michlmayr of Linux International we learn:
According to a survey among a partial readership of iX, a German magazine
devoted to Unix and networking, Linux is used at work by 45% of the
readers. Solaris 1 and 2 taken together come second with 36%, followed
by HP-UX with 27%.
56% of companies with less than 50 employees use Linux whereas it is used
by 38% of firms with more than 1,000 employees.
In addition, 60% of the readers use Linux on their computers at home.
Linux International, bod@li.org
Linux Applications and Utilities ListDate: 30 Oct 1996
The October 22, 1996 edition of the
***** LINUX APPLICATION AND UTILITIES LIST *****
is now available at it's home site and mirrors.
The "Linux Applications and Utilities List" is an organized collection of pointers to the WWW home pages of almost 600 different Linux compatible application programs, system administration tools, utilities, device drivers, games, servers, programming tools, file, disk and desktop managers, Internet applications, and more.
The "Linux Applications and Utilities List" and mirrors can be found at:
Home Site U.S.A. (IL):
URL:http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.shtml
Bill Latura blatura@xnet.com
Runtime Systems
Man Pages to HTMLMarc Perkel, marc@ctyme.com, of Computer Tyme Software Lab, http://www.ctype.com/, has written a program to convert Man pages to HTML. Check out this web site with fully indexed man pages:
http://www.ctyme.com/linuxdoc.htm
This is a popular idea. There is an article coming out in the February issue of Linux Journal by Michael Hamilton, another guy who did this very same type of conversion. Michael's program is called vh-man2html and can be seen at http://www.caldera.com/cgi-bin/man2html. And he tells us of yet another page, http://wsinwp01.win.tue.nl:1234/maninfo.html, where converters can be found.
Mission Critical Linux ProjectThe "Mission Critical Linux Project" was created to document successful existing Linux systems which have a large load and 24 hour a day use. The survey will last until February 1, 1997.
If you could access our web site, please visit one of following:
You can also see brief summary of answers.
For additional information:
Motoharu Kubo, mkubo@st.rim.or.jp
http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~mkubo/
(English page under construction)
New Linux Resource Sites
A couple of new Linux Resources sites:
Russ Spooner, russl@rmplc.co.uk
http://www.pssltd.co.uk/kontagx/linux/index.html
Joe Hohertz, jhohertz@golden.net
http://www.golden.net/~jhohertz
Slovenian HOWTO 1.0
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996
The first ever version of Slovenian HOWTO is released. The document
addresses Linux localization issues specific to Slovenian users and is
written in Slovene.
It can be accessed either on its "locus classicus":
http://sizif.mf.uni-lj.si/linux/cee/Slovenian-HOWTO.html
or the official Linux Documentation Project Site:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/Slovenian-HOWTO.html
or any of the numerous mirrors of the latter.
For additional information:
Primoz Peterlin,
peterlin@biofiz.mf.uni-lj.si
Institut za biofiziko MF, Lipiceva 2, SLO-1105 Ljubljana, Slovenija,
http://sizif.mf.uni-lj.si/~peterlin/
Amiga Development Environment
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996
Tempe, Arizona - Cronus has announced the release of the long
awaited Geek Gadgets CD-ROM. Geek Gadgets contains the Amiga Developers
Environment (ADE) which is a project conceived and managed by Cronus to
produce and support Amiga ports of dozens of the most popular development
tools and utilities from the Free Software Foundation, BSD and other sources.
This CD contains all the tools necessary to get started programming on
the Amiga including advanced C, C++, Fortran and ADA compilers, assembler,
linker, EMACS editor, "make", source code control systems (rcs&cvs), text
and file utilities, GNU debugger, text formatters (groff & TEX) and more.
Geek Gadgets is the perfect companion to the AT Developers CD which contains
documentation and utilities but no development tools. Released quarterly,
Geek Gadgets provides a quick and cost effective way to obtain the latest
ADE for those with slow and/or expensive Internet connections. As a bonus,
all the tools can be run directly from the CD-ROM without the need to install
any files on your hard drive.
Available from your local Amiga dealer or directly from Cronus. SRP $ 24.95
For additional information:
Michelle Fish, mic@ninemoons.com
Objective-C 4.3.4 For Linux
Date: 30 Oct 1996
Release "4.3.4" of the Stepstone Objective C compiler is now available
from System Essentials Limited for Linux versions 1.2.13 and higher.
See: http://www.nai.net/~lerman
Both Linux and OSF/1 Objective C 4.3.4 releases include:
C++ Matrix Math Library
Date: Sun, 03 Nov 1996
MathTools Ltd. is pleased to announce MAT<LIB>, a Matlab Compatible
C++ Matrix Class Library, designed for development of advanced
scientific high-level C++ code. Evaluation version of the MAT<LIB>
can be downloaded from our home page, http://www.mathtools.com.
The library includes over 300 mathematical functions covering Complex math, Binary and unary operators, Powerful indexing capabilities, Signal processing, File I/O, Linear algebra, String operations and Graphics.
For additional information:
MathTools Ltd., http://www.mathtools.com
info@mathtools.com
FIDOGATE 4.1.1 - Fido-Internet Gateway
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 04:30:07 GMT FIDOGATE 4.1.1, an update to version 4 of the FIDOGATE package is available.
FIDOGATE Version 4
-----------------------
* Fido-Internet Gateway
* Fido FTN-FTN Gateway
* Fido Mail Processor
* Fido File Processor
* Fido Areafix/Filefix
-----------------------
Internet:
- ---------
http://www.fido.de/fidogate/
ftp://ftp.fido.de/pub/fidogate/
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Fido/
fidogate-4.1.1.tar.gz 657 Kbyte
For additional information:
fxvolume 0.1, a simple xforms volume control.
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996
Fxvolume is a simple, no frills volume control designed to sit at the side of your screen and not get in the way. You simply run it, and then ignore it until you need to use it.
It controls the level of the master sound device under Linux, using a slider created from the Xforms library.
http://www.ee.mu.oz.au/staff/pbd/linux/fxvolume/
Use at your own risk - it has not been widely tested, but seems to work well enough... ;)
For additional information:
Paul Dwerryhouse,
paul@mura.its.unimelb.edu.au
University of Melbourne, Australia
The JAZZ midi sequencer version 2.6
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996
Announce: The free JAZZ midi sequencer version 2.6
JAZZ is a full size midi sequencer allowing record/play and many edit functions as quantize, copy, transpose ..., multiple undo; two main windows operating on whole tracks and single events; graphic pitch editing, GS sound editing functions and much more ...
JAZZ is copyright (C) by Andreas Voss and Per Sigmond, and is distributed under the terms of the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (Gnu GPL).
Web site: http://rokke.grm.hia.no/per/jazz.html
Linux binary distribution:
ftp://rokke.grm.hia.no/pub/midi/jazz/linux-bin/
Files: jazz-bin-v26b-xview.tar.gz, jazz-help-v26b-xview.tar.gz
Source code distribution:
ftp://rokke.grm.hia.no/pub/midi/jazz/
File: jazz-src-v26b.tar.gz
For additional information:
Andreas Voss.
andreas@avix.rhein-neckar.de
Per Sigmond, Per.Sigmond@hia.no
Ericsson AS, ETO,
etopesi@eto.ericsson.se
util-linux 2.6
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 util-linux-2.6.tar.gz (source only distribution)
Util-linux is a suite of essential utilities for any Linux system. It's primary audience is system integrators (like the people at Red Hat) and DIY Linux hackers. The rest of you will get a digested version of util-linux installed with no risk to your sanity.
Util-linux is attempting to be portable, but the only platform it has been tested much on is Linux/Intel. There have however been integrated several patches for Arm, m68k, and Alpha linux versions. The present version is known to compile on at least Linux 1.2/libc 4.7.5 and Linux 2.0.22/Libc 5.3.12 (the Linux versions I run :-). People are encouraged to make _nice_ patches to util-linux and submit them to util-linux@math.uio.no.
Util-Linux 2.6 is immediately available from
ftp://ftp.math.uio.no/pub/linux/util-linux-2.6/
NOTE: Before installing util-linux. READ the README or risk nuking your system. Thank you.
For additional information:
Nicolai Langfeldt, janl@ifi.uio.no
The popular front against MWM
LyX-0.10.7 - LyX is a WYSIWYG
Date: 30 Oct 1996
LyX-0.10.7 has been uploaded to sunsite. It is also available from
ftp://ftp.via.ecp.fr/pub/lyx and from my home page:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/LyriX.html
LyX is a WYSIWYG front-end to LaTeX. It is used much like a word-processor, but LaTeX produces the final document. Figures, tables, mathematical formulas, fonts, headers, etc., are all drawn on-screen essentially as they appear on the final document. Figures (postscript) are placed in the document using a simple menu, as are tables. General text formatting is accomplished by high-level menu choices that automatically set fonts, indentation, spacing, etc., according to general LaTeX rules, and display (essentially) these settings on the screen.
None of the power of LaTeX is lost, since you can embed any LaTeX command within a LyX document.
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/apps/editors
501577 lyx-0.10.7-ELF-bin.tar.gz (binary release)
612839 lyx-0.10.7.tar.gz (original source)
Copying-policy: GPL
For additional information:
David L. Johnson, dlj0@lehigh.edu
Lehigh University,
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dlj0/dlj0.html
MpegTV Player
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996
Announcing a new release of MpegTV, the real-time software MPEG Player
for Linux (x86 ELF) and FreeBSD.
A free version of the MpegTV player can be downloaded from the MpegTV
web site at:
http://www.mpegtv.com/
Main features:
For additional information:
Tristan Savatier, tristan@mpeg.org
http://www.mpeg.org
SpellCaster ISDN4Linux ISDN Driver Beta
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996
This message is to announce the public Beta release of the ISDN4Linux
driver for SpellCaster ISA ISDN adapters. This beta program is open to
anyone who prefers the bleeding edge and just can't wait for MP support.
The beta driver currently supports the SpellCaster DataCommute/BRI and
TeleCommute/BRI adapters and will also include support for the
DataCommute/PRI adapter before the end of the Beta program.
You can download the beta driver from:
ftp://ftp.spellcast.com/pub/drivers/isdn4linux
You require kernel revision. 2.0. You will also need the isdn4k-utils package also available the above mentioned FTP site or ftp.franken.de
For additional information:
Erik Petersen, erik@spellcast.com
Public availability of the second beta of StarOffice 3.1 for Linux
Date: 30 Oct 1996
Star Division announces the public availability of the second beta
version of its office productivity suite, StarOffice 3.1, for
Linux/x86.
StarOffice 3.1 consists of:
This beta version expires at January, 1st, 1997. We will make newer beta versions available by then. The final version will be free of charge for private use. The price for commercial use is not yet decided.
StarOffice 3.1 can be downloaded from the directory:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/staroffice
For additional information:
Star Division GmbH,
http://www.stardivision.de/
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer,
mda@stardivision.de
Marc Sewtz, mse@stardivision.de
Wget, a Web Mirroring Tool
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996
Wget 1.4.0 [formerly known as Geturl] is an extensive rewrite of
Geturl. Wget should now be easier to debug, maintain and
most importantly, use.
Wget is a freely available network utility to download files from the World Wide Web using HTTP and FTP. It works non-interactively, thus enabling work in the background, after having logged off.
Wget works under almost all modern Unix variants and, unlike many other similar utilities, is written entirely in C, thus requiring no additional software (like Perl). As Wget uses the GNU Autoconf, it is easily built on and ported to other Unix's. Installation procedure is described in the INSTALL file.
You can get the latest version of wget at:
ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/pub/unix/util/wget/wget.tar.gz
For additional information:
Hrvoje Niksic, hniksic@srce.hr
SRCE Zagreb, Croatia
Woven Goods for LINUX Version 1.0
Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996
Woven Goods for LINUX Version 1.0
Version 1.0 of Woven Goods for LINUX is a collection of World-Wide Web (WWW) Applications and Hypertext-based Information about LINUX. It is ready configured for the Slackware Distribution and currently tested with Version 3.1 (ELF). The Power Linux LST Distribution contains this collection as an integral part with some changes.
The five Parts of Woven Goods for LINUX are:
Woven Goods for LINUX is available via anonymous FTP from:
ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/Linux/woven
The HTML Pages of Woven Goods for LINUX are snap shots of the LINUX
Pages at FOKUS - Research Institute of Open Communication Systems
and are available from:
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux
For additional information:
Lutz Henckel, lutz.henckel@fokus.gmd.de
GMD FOKUS,
http://www.fokus.gmd.de/usr/hel/
xldlas v0.30 now available
Date: 30 Oct 1996
Announcing xldlas v0.40 in sunsite's incoming directory:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/incoming/xldlas-0.40-srcbin.tgz
Soon to be moved to:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/math/xldlas-0.40-srcbin.tgz
xldlas is for doing statistics.
Here at Northern Michigan University, we run a Linux lab with 14 workstations. Upgrading from Redhat 3.0 to Redhat 4.0 has been quite an adventure. This article describes the upgrading of one workstation.
The first thing to do when upgrading is to free up a significant block of time. We used a day and a night to upgrade one machine. That included downloading the software, making floppy disks, and fixing our errors along the way. In fact, if you're a busy person, and Redhat 3.0 is working fine for you, then you might choose to delay the upgrade, or even avoid it. However, at the Linux Lab at Northern Michigan, we try and stay near the cutting edge, so the upgrade was a must for us.
The next step is to decide your upgrade method. The choices are the same ones from Redhat 3.0:
The quickest and easiest way is to use the CD-ROM drive. This is the only way if you don't have a direct Internet connection, since you cannot download the necessary amount of data through a modem in any reasonable amount of time Since our workstations don't have CD-ROM drives, and do have an excellent Internet connection, we chose to do an FTP install.
Before an FTP install can begin, two disks named boot.img and supp.img must be downloaded from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/current/i386/images/ . They can be written to the floppy disks with the commands
dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 (switch disks) dd if=supp.img of=/dev/fd0
The second disk is only needed for an FTP install. Redhat 3.0 required three disks for all install types, so this change makes a significant savings in user effort. However, we had used the Redhat 3.0 disks as emergency boot disks to correct problems like forgetting the root password (yes, this does happen). The Redhat 4.0 boot disks are missing several important utilities (i.e. tar and vi) so cannot be used for this purpose.
Also, notice that these two disks work for any supported hardware configuration. The older Redhat 3.0 required that the user search through a list of boot disks for the correct choice based on his hardware. This search often took more time than the download itself. Redhat 4.0 is much improved in this regard (our favorite new feature).
The first thing you'll see after inserting the boot.img disk and rebooting the computer is a LILO prompt. Just the words:
boot:
We would have liked more explanation of our choices here. Redhat 3.0 offered a very nice menu of help text that explained the possible parameters and their effects. However, if you just wait in a perplexed fashion long enough, the system will become impatient and boot Linux for you.
The first difference you'll notice is that Redhat 4.0 prompts you to describe your hardware. It asks about SCSI controllers and network adapters, showing you a list of possible choices. Behind the scenes the Redhat 4.0 install script loads kernel modules to access your hardware.
While this is happening is a good time to switch to virtual console #3 (press <ALT>F3). This console shows what's happening in more technical detail, describing things like the mounting and unmounting of file systems, and the downloading of files. The older Redhat 3.0 did not have this feature, which we often use to debug problems. You can switch back to the main action by pressing <ALT>F1.
The install scripts also query the user for network information. You should know your IP number, netmask, gateway, hostname, domain name, and name server before starting the install. We notice that Redhat 4.0 creates a default gateway and name server entry based upon your IP number and netmask, but that these defaults are rarely right. Better in our opinion would be to have no default at all than a misleading one.
Redhat 4.0 will show you a menu of possible software upgrades and additions. This list is essentially the same as Redhat 3.0, except that most packages have increased in version number.
The biggest problem we had involved the remote login software (rlogin, in.rlogind, in.rshd and in.telnetd). These have been upgraded to use the P.A.M. library and kerberos. However, we often login into our Linux workstations from older Sun Sparcs that do not run this software suite. For some unexplained reason, the SunOS clients could not access the Linux servers. We solved the problem by simply re-installing the older software.
In general, we suggest letting Redhat upgrade everything you might ever use. You should avoid downloading any software you are sure you will not need. Avoiding unneeded software will decreases the total time needed and the probability of network errors during the download.
Step one of the download process is to pick an FTP site. There are many listed here. We started by choosing a site with a fast 'ping time' from us, since ping time is a reasonable approximation of FTP throughput and is quite quick to gather. To find out the ping tome to a site like www.redhat.com, just type:
ping www.redhat.com
After ping runs for several packets, kill it with <CNTL>C. The average ping time will be shown at the bottom. We saw ping times from 80 - 300 milliseconds. Downloads are four times faster from the best site compared to the worst. It is well worth your time to explore sing ping before picking a site at random. The fastest was the aptly named ftp://ftp.real-time.com/pub/redhat . Unfortunately, they were not accepting FTP connections, so we used ftp://uicarhive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/distributions/redhat . We could FTP to that site, but the download failed. It seems that the download scripts also want to know the version and architecture of the packages you are trying to download. Therefore, the correct URL is ftp://uicarhive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/linux/distributions/redhat/current/i386. That was not obvious from the directions. We suggest that the Redhat folks either change their script to add these subdirectories or make their directions more clear.
For us, upgrading required downloading over 300 megabytes. I must say the status screen during the download is quite nice. The biggest problem with it is that it does not show the progress of downloading each package. Since the download was so long, we left it running overnight. Unfortunately, it failed on the download of LILO. The download script then waited for us to press a key acknowledging the error, which meant it stopped downloading some time during the night. Better would be to continue downloading while informing the user of this error.
Once the download is finished, and you answer a few simple questions, you get to reboot your computer into Redhat 4.0 (yea!!).
The first thing we noticed is that the kernel has been upgraded to Linux 2.0.19. Some problems we had before, like our tape drive not working, were fixed with this upgrade. Also, our Adaptec 2740 SCSI controller was accessible for the first time. Java support is included in the upgraded kernel.
We discovered the auto-mounter daemon (amd) was running, and had created a directory named /proc. Inside /proc is every computer mountable by your workstation. For example, /proc/foo is the root directory of the host foo, assuming foo will allow outside access. Nice feature!!
The ps command has been changed. Formerly, we used 'ps -augx' to see all processes on our system. That command will no longer work. The new equivalent is 'ps -ax'.
The passwd command has been changed. In fact, my former password is now considered ill advised, and I've had to pick a new password.
The window manager fvwm95 has been included in the upgraded Redhat. Surprisingly, workman, the musical CD player, was not. See http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/pkglist/rh40_i386/all-packages.html for the complete list.
Happily, the Redhat 4.0 upgrade left much of our custom configuration intact. For example, we run a custom X server that Redhat left in place, and our NFS mounts as described in /etc/fstab were retained, even though the upgrade did change /etc/fstab to add other entries (like the /net file system). We did have to re-edit /etc/rc.d/rc.local to set our NIS domain.
The errata can be found at http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl/rh40-errata-general.html . It is actually quite long. Basically, the errata is a list of package upgrades to Redhat 4.0, along with a description of applicability. We counted up to 40 packages to download and install, depending on your configuration. That just too many!! Why does not Redhat make these improved packages a part of the latest redhat release, possibly called Redhat 4.0.1?
Luckily, the process is quite mechanical, and requires little thought. Just download the needed files, and run rpm -U on them.
Netscape has upgraded since we did our original install. Unfortunately, Redhat does not include Netscape, so Netscape must be updated separately. Perhaps there are legal reasons Redhat does not include Netscape, but Redhat does include other non-free software, such as xv.
During the upgrade, the install scripts creates backup copies of certain files in /etc/rc.d/rc*.d with the extension ".rpmsave". Once everything is set up correctly, you can delete any files in /etc/rc.d/rc*.d/*.rpmsave.
Overall, the Redhat package is well done. The installation is easier for Redhat than any other Unix we know of. Redhat 4.0 is a collection of small upgrades of many packages from Redhat 3.0. There are only a few new packages (i.e.: fvwm95, TheNextLevel). Overall, our system is much as it was before, but with many small improvements. Unless you have some need to upgrade, or just feel like messing around with your system, we suggest the results may not be worth the effort. Even so, we like Redhat 4.0 very much.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at randy@euclid.nmu.edu
Abstract
In this article, I will describe some of the main features of TCSH, which I believe makes it worth using as the primary login shell. This article is not meant to persuade bash users to change! I've never used bash, and by that reason I know very little about it.
As some of you surely know, I've created a configuration tool called The Dotfile Generator, which can configure TCSH. I believe that this tool is very handy when one wants to get the most out of TCSH (without reading the manual page a couple of times.) Because of that I'll refer to this tool several times throughout this article to show how it can be used to set up TCSH.
With a high knowledge of your shell's power, you may decrease the time you need to spend in the shell, and increase the time spent on the original tasks
Basically one can complete on files and directories. This means that you can not complete on host names, process id's, options for a given program etc. Another thing you can not do with this type of completion is to complete on directory names only, when typing the argument for the command cd
In TCSH, the completion mechanism is enhanced so that it is possible to tell TCSH which list to complete from for each command. This means that you can tell TCSH to complete from a list of host names when completing on the commands rlogin and ping. An alternative is to tell it to complete only on directories when the command is cd.
To configure user defined completion with The Dotfile Generator (from now on called TDG) go to the page completion -> userdefined, this will bring up a page which looks like this:
As the command name, you tell TDG which command you wish to define a completion for. In this example it is rm. Next you have to tell TDG which arguments to the command, this completion should apply to. To do this, press the button labeled Position definition. This will bring up a page, which is split in two parts:
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In the first part, you tell TDG, that the position definition, should be
defined from the index of the argument, which is trying to be completed
(the one, where the tab key is pressed.) Here you can tell it that you
wish to complete on the first argument, all the arguments except the first
one etc.
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| The alternative to position dependent completion is pattern dependent completion. This means that you can tell TDG, that this completion should only apply if the current word, the previous word or the word before the previous word conform with a given pattern. |
This solution is a bad idea if the list is used several places (e.g. a list of host names) in that case, one should select the list to be located in a variable, and then set this variable in the .tcshrc file.
To set up such a completion, first develop the command, which return the list to complete from. The command must return the completion list on standard output as a space separated list. When this is done, insert this command in the entry saying Output From Command.
Here's a little Perl command, which find the targets in a makefile:
perl -ne 'if (/^([^.#][^:]+):/) {print "$1 "}' Makefile
If this is inserted in the Entry, one can complete on targets from the file
called Makefile, in the current working directory.If someone should think that its only to promote TDG, that I describe TCSH through it, (s)he should take a look at the following line, which is the generated code for the make completion:
complete make 'p@*@`perl -ne '"'"'if (/^([^.#][^:]+):/) {print "$1"}'"'"'Makefile`@'
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| As has been discussed in issue6 of the Gazette, some of the prompt may be located in the xterm title bar instead of on the command line. To do this, choose font change and select Xterm. |
To see a list of the previously executed commands, type history.
The following table lists the event specifiers:
| !n | This refers to the history event, with index n |
| !-n | This refers to the history event, which was executed, n times ago: !-1 for the previous command, !-2 for the one before the previous command etc. |
| !! | This refers to the previous command |
| !# | This refers to the current command |
| !s | This refers to the most recent command, whose first word begins with the string s |
| !?s? | This refers to the most recent command, which contain the sting s |
With these commands, you can re-execute a command. E.g. just type !!, to re-execute the previous command. This is however often not what you want to do. What you really wants is to re-execute some part of a previous command, with some new elements added. To do this, you can use one of the following word designators, which is appended to the event specifier, with a colon.
| 0 | The first word (i.e. the command name) |
| n | The nth word |
| $ | The last argument |
| % | The word matched by an ?s? search |
| x-y | Argument range from x to y |
| * | All the arguments to the command (equal to ^-$) |
Now it's possible to get the last argument from the previous command, by typing !!:$. You'll however often see that you very often refer to the previous command, so if no event specifier is given, the previous command is used. This means that instead of writing !!:$, you may only write !$.
More words designators exists, and it's even possible to edit the words with different commands. For more information about this and for more examples, please take a look into the tcsh manual
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| It is possible to expand the history references on the command line before you evaluate them by pressing ESC-SPC or ESC-! (This is: first the escape key, and next the space key or the ! key). On some keyboards you may use the meta key instead of the escape key. I.e. M-SPC (One keystroke!) |
| * | Match any number of characters |
| ? | Match a single character |
| [...] | Match any single character in the list |
| [x-y] | Match any character within the range of characters from x to y |
| [^...] | Match elements, which does not match the list |
| {...} | This expands to all the words listed. There's no need that they match. |
| ^... | ^ in the beginning of a pattern negates the pattern. |
An example of this is the program mcopy which copy files from disk. To copy all files, you may wish to use a star as in: mcopy a:* /tmp. This does however not work since the shell will try to expand the star, and since it can not find any files, which starts with a:, it will signal an error. So if you wish to send a star to the program, you have to escape the star: mcopy a:\* .
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muse:
 elcome
to the Graphics Muse! Why a "muse"?
Well, except for the sisters aspect, the above definitions are
pretty much the way I'd describe my own interest in computer graphics:
it keeps me deep in thought and it is a daily source of inspiration.
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 his
column is dedicated to the use, creation, distribution, and discussion of
computer graphics tools for Linux systems. My first column, in
the November issue of Linux Gazette, left something to be desired in
both content and graphics. As one reader pointed out, I didn't even
follow my own guideline for making background images. Well, it looked good
on my system at home. The problem was one of poor time
management on my part. I finished up the chapters of a web server book I'm
co-authoring at the end of September, so I had more time to work on
this months column. Hopefully the format is cleaner and the content more
informative.
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Disclaimer:
Before I get too far into this I should note that any of the news items I
post in this section are just that - news. Either I happened to run across
them via some mailing list I was on, via some Usenet newsgroup, or via
email from someone. I'm not necessarily endorsing these products (some of
which may be commercial), I'm just letting you know I'd heard about them in
the past month.
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New version of Pro MovieStudio driver available on Sunsite archivesWolfgang
Koehler has released the 3.0 version of his PMS-grabber
package to the sunsite archives. This package provides a driver
and X application for grabbing frames from the Pro MovieStudio
(aka PMS) adapter by Mediavision. Depending on when it
is migrated to its final resting place, the package can be obtained
either from
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/incoming
or
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/video. |
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ImageMagick Library updatedA New revision of the
ImageMagick Library, version 3.7.7,
was released this past month. |
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Netscape Tcl Plugin releasedThe
Tcl Plugin 1.0
was also released this past month. This is a Netscape plugin
that allows web page authors to write Tcl based applets for
your web pages. |
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Digigami looking for testers for MovieScreamer toolThere
is now a conversion tool for creating Quicktime videos.
Digigami is looking for Unix Webmasters to be Beta testers for its
MovieScreamer multi-platform, 'Fast-Start' publishing
and conversion tool for QuickTime(tm) movies.
'Fast-Start' QuickTime movies are standard 'flattened' movie
files that have been 're-organized' for playback over the
Internet (or corporate Intranets). |
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Did you know?
There
is a font archive, complete with sample renderings of the
fonts, available at
http://www.ora.com/homepages/comp.fonts/ifa/os2cdrom/index.htm?
The ftp site for the fonts is at
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/fonts/.
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O'Reilly releases The Linux Multimedia Guide.
recently picked up my copy of The Linux Multimedia Guide
by Jeff Tranter. This text covers a wide range of material related
to the creation and use of multimedia files with respect to the
Linux operating system. The text is approximately 350 pages,
including source code listings for a number of sample multimedia
applications which are discussed in one chapter of the book.
As usual, O'Reilly provides copies of the source from their ftp site.
When I first found out about this book I thought "Rats, Jeff beat
me too it." Much of what Jeff covers is listed in my own Linux
Graphics mini-Howto. However, there are quite a number of items
not covered by the LGH (as I call it), such as audio, a bit more
detail about video formats and tools, and programming considerations
for various hardware (CD-ROMs, joysticks, and sound devices), which
make the Linux Multimedia Guide a good addition to the O'Reilly
family of Unix books.
The text is divided into 5 sections:
Section two opens with a discussion on hardware requirements for
doing multimedia on Linux systems. Most of this section centers on either
the CD-ROM driver or the Linux Sound Driver (now known as OSS).
There is also a short chapter on the joystick driver.
The second longest section, A Survey of Multimedia Applications,
covers applications for the
various forms of multimedia. There are chapters on sound and music
applications, graphics and animations applications, hypermedia
applications, and games. The last chapter, on games, seems a bit out of
place. There are games implemented as network applications using Java,
JavaScript and the new Tcl/Tk plug-in for Netscape but this chapter
doesn't cover these. This section is very similar to the LGH in that the
chapters provide the program names and URLs associated with them (if any).
The number of items covered is less than the LGH, but there are better
descriptions of the applications in the book.
Chapter fourteen opens the fourth section, the Multimedia
Programmer's Guide. This section is the longest in the book and
covers all the devices discussed earlier. Other chapters in this section
cover some of the available toolkits available to multimedia developers.
There is one chapter which contains three sample applications.
In general I find the Linux Multimedia Guide a good reference
text with a moderate degree of developer tutorials. Unlike many of the
books available for Linux this text provides detailed explanation on the
various programming interfaces, a useful tool beyond the simple "what
is this and where do I get it" that many of the Howto's provide. The
only drawback that I can see is that, like most of other Linux texts, this
text does not provide a users perspective on any of the tools listed. If
Linux is to ever go beyond a developer's-only platform there will need to be
detailed users guides for the various well known applications.
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Linux Graphics mini-Howto
Unix Graphics Utilities
Linux Multimedia Page
Future Directions
Next month:
More...
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Creating GIF Animations
Recently, while working on a text on Unix web servers, I was tasked with
writing about multimedia applications. During my research on this subject
I discovered a little known fact about the GIF image file format: it supports
multiple images in a single file which can be used to create animations.
Creating GIF images is fairly simple. There a number of tools available
for Linux systems that can either create new GIF images or convert image
files in other formats to the GIF format. Tools such as the Gimp or
XPaint
can be used to create images while xv or the NetPBM
tools can be used to convert images from other formats.
In order to create a GIF animation you must first create a series of GIF
images. These images make up the frames of the animation, much like cell
animations make up a cartoon (although there is no reason why your GIF
files can't be converted from 3D images such as those created with POV-Ray or
BMRT). The animation only plays as fast the the host machines ability to
read, decode and display the individual frames. On older 486 systems this
might be a problem so its wise to keep your images small. For GIF images
this means keeping the dimensions (height and width) of the animation small.
You should also consider how jumpy you want the animation to be. Small
amounts of movement of objects from frame to frame will reduce the
jumpiness of the overall animation, but it also can significantly increase
the overall size of the GIF file. Since Netscape (the only browser that
I know of that currently supports this type of animation) tries to load the
entire GIF file before it begins playing the animation it would be wise to
consider keeping the file size small.
Once you have the individual frames created, you'll need to put them all
into a single GIF file. You can use a nifty little tool called
WhirlGIF
to do this. WhirlGIF is a command line tool (no GUI) that concatenates the
series of GIF images into a single GIF image and configures the GIF header
so that Netscape will know how to play the animation. The GIF header
allows for a number of options, including some that are Netscape specific
(Netscape didn't create their own format - the GIF format allows for
application specific extensions). You can provide the number of times to
loop the animation and the delay time to use between frames (which can be
used to slow down and animation if so desired).
There is a terrific page devoted to GIF animations at
http://members.aol.com/royalef/gifanim.htm. This page is not Linux (or
Unix) specific, but it does include pointers to WhirlGIF and the
information in a number of the pages there are very applicable to creating
GIF animations on Linux systems.
I'm a big fan of utilities. When I saw that CND/RHS were distributed with older versions of the InfoZIP zip/unzip suite of archive utilities, I made upgrading them my first Linux project. It turned out to be a little bit more complicated than I thought it would be.
I especially wanted to add in the DES encryption modules to zip/unzip so they would be 100% file compatible with PKWare's archivers for MS-DOS. U.S. State Department rules make it difficult to implement this as an RPM, so I decided to do it as a classic shell script. The end user will have to ftp the source code (especially the DES code module) from the site specified in the script.
Script #1:
#!/bin/sh # # undatezip reverses updatezip and restores a Caldera Network Desktop v1.0 or # Red Hat Software v2.1/v3.0.3 InfoZIP suite installation to its original zip # v2.01 and unzip v5.12 configuration. This should only be necessary if you # need to upgrade from a pristine as-installed configuration. # # original versions >>updatezip >>> new versions # without encryption <<< undatezip <<< with encryption # # Copyright (C) 1996 by Robert G. "Doc" Savage. Permission is granted to # distribute this document by electronic means and on CDs provided that it # is kept entirely in its original format. Permission is also granted to # print and execute this document for personal use. The republishing of # this document in part or in whole without the permission of the copyright # holder by any means other than as noted above is prohibited. # # First, the executables # cd /usr/bin rm -f *.encrypt rm -f funzip unzip unzipsfx zip zipcloak zipgrep zipinfo zipnote zipsplit mv funzip383.export funzip mv unzip512.export unzip mv unzipsfx512.export unzipsfx mv zip201.export zip mv zipcloak201.export zipcloak mv zipinfo202.export zipinfo mv zipnote201.export zipnote mv zipsplit201.export zipsplit # cd /usr/man/man1 rm -f funzip.1 funzip39.1 unzip.1 unzip52.1 unzipsfx.1 unzipsfx52.1 zip.1 \ zip21.1 zipinfo.1 zipinfo21.1 zipgrep.1 zipgrep21.1 zipcloak.1 zipnote.1 \ zipsplit.1 mv funzip383.1 funzip.1 mv unzip512.1 unzip.1 mv unzipsfx512.1 unzipsfx.1 mv zip201.1 zip.1 mv zipinfo202.1 zipinfo.1 # cd hash -r # # That's it...
Script #2:
ot
long ago I got email from a reader of my Unix Graphics Utilities
page asking this: