Aah, the free world. It's beautiful, you have frequent releases, the code is there for you, everything's wondeful. But for web apps like Wordpress the maintenance cycle is less convenient than with desktop applications. There's no package manager to handle updates for you. Yes, that's the downside.

I've upgraded Wordpress now 3-4 times and I'm already sick of it. It's so mechanical. I've also rehearsed the cycle a bunch of times with vBulletin. Well, compared to the tidy and elegant Wordpress, vBulletin is a monster. But the upgrade issues are the same, albeit less painful now. I should have done this years ago, but now at least I have an organized way of handling these upgrades.

Here's the rationale. You download some Wordpress version from wordpress.org and install it. This we call the reference version. Then you hack on it a bit. You install plugins, maybe you hack the source a little. You change the theme a bit. And in the course of using Wordpress you also upload files with posts sometimes, for instance to include pictures with your posts.

So now the state of your Wordpress tree has changed a bit, you've added some files, maybe you've changed some files. Basically, it's different from the vanilla version. This we call mine. And now you've decided that the next Wordpress version has some nice features and bug fixes you want. This version we call latest.

You want to upgrade, but there is no upgrade path from mine to latest, because the Wordpress people can't know what you did with your local version. Upgrading from mine to latest may not be safe, it hasn't been tried.

Of course, this sort of problem is nothing new. Coders have faced it forever. And that's why we have things like diff and patch, standard Unix tools. So here's how to upgrade safely.

• First roll back the local changes so that we return to the reference version.
• Save the local modifications.
• Do a standard Wordpress upgrade going from ref to latest.
• Re-apply, if possible, the local modifications.

And this replicates exactly what you would do manually if you wanted to be sure that the upgrade doesn't break anything. Just that it's a lot of hassle to do by hand. The upgrade is done offsite, so your blog continues to run in the meantime. And once you've upgraded, you can just move it into the right location.

In the event that merging diff and latest does not succeed, you have a list of the patches and files so that you know exactly which ones didn't succeed.

So far I've used it to do two updates, 2.2.1->2.2.2, 2.2.2->2.2.3, without any hiccups.

#!/bin/bash

# >> 0.3
# added file/dir permission tracking
# added hint for failed file merges
# added hint for failed patches

echo<<header "
################################################################################
#                                                                              #
#                      Wordpress Updater / version 0.3                         #
#                   Martin Matusiak ~ numerodix@gmail.com                      #
#                                                                              #
#  Description: A script to automate [part of] the Wordpress update cycle, by  #
#  finding my modifications to the codebase (mine), diffing them against the   #
#  official codebase (ref), and migrating files and patches to the latest      #
#  version (latest).                                                           #
#                                                                              #
#  Warning: Upgrading to a new version will probably not always work           #
#  seamlessly, depending on what changes have occurred. Do not use this as a   #
#  substitute for following the official upgrade instructions. Furthermore, if #
#  you don't understand what this script does, you probably shouldn't use it.  #
#  Also, it's always a good idea to backup your files before you begin.        #
#                                                                              #
#  Licensed under the GNU Public License, version 3.                           #
#                                                                              #
################################################################################
"
header

### <Configutation>

wpmine="/home/user/www/numerodix/blog"
version_file="${wpmine}/wp-includes/version.php"
wordpress_baseurl="http://wordpress.org"
temp_path="/home/user/t"

### </Configuration>


echo -e "Pausing 10 seconds... (Ctrl+C to abort)\007"
sleep 10


msg() {
fill=$(for i in $(seq 1 $((76 - ${#1}))); do echo -n " "; done)
echo<<msg "
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+  ${1}${fill}+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"
msg
}


if ! mkdir -p $temp_path; then
	echo "$temp_path not created"; exit 1
fi

msg "Checking installed version... "
if [ -f $version_file ]; then 
	ref=$(cat $version_file | grep "\$wp_version" | tr -d " _$'';=[:alpha:]")
	echo $ref
else
	echo "$version_file not found"; exit 1
fi


msg "Fetching version $ref... "
[ -f $temp_path/wordpress-$ref.tar.gz ] && rm $temp_path/wordpress-$ref.tar.gz
if wget -q -P $temp_path $wordpress_baseurl/wordpress-$ref.tar.gz; then
	echo "downloaded to $temp_path"
else
	echo "could not fetch $wordpress_baseurl/wordpress-$ref.tar.gz"; exit 1
fi


msg "Unpacking reference version $ref... "
[ -d $temp_path/wordpress-$ref ] && rm -rf $temp_path/wordpress-$ref
if (cd $temp_path && tar zxf wordpress-$ref.tar.gz && mv wordpress wordpress-$ref); then
	echo "unpacked to $temp_path/wordpress-$ref"
else
	echo "failed"; exit 1
fi

wpref="$temp_path/wordpress-$ref"


msg "Diffing codebase... "
( cd $wpref && find . -type f | sed "s|\./||g" | sort > $temp_path/files-$ref-ref ) &&
( cd $wpmine && find . -type f | sed "s|\./||g" | sort > $temp_path/files-$ref-mine ) &&
diff $temp_path/files-$ref-ref $temp_path/files-$ref-mine > $temp_path/diff
if [[ $? < 2 ]]; then
	echo "diff written to $temp_path/diff"
else
	echo "failed"; exit 1
fi


msg "Recording my file/dir permissions..."
cd $wpmine && \
find . -exec ls -ld --time-style=+%s {} \; | sed "s|\./||g" | sort -k 7 \
> $temp_path/files-$ref-mine.perms
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
	echo "written to $temp_path/files-$ref-mine.perms"
else
	echo "failed"; exit 1
fi


msg "Listing files added/removed... "
( cat $temp_path/diff | grep "^>" | awk '{ print $2 }' > $temp_path/only_mine ) &&
( cat $temp_path/diff | grep "^<" | awk '{ print $2 }' > $temp_path/only_ref ) &&
( cat $temp_path/only_mine > $temp_path/not_common ) &&
( cat $temp_path/only_ref >> $temp_path/not_common )
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
	echo "mine only files written to $temp_path/only_mine"
	echo "ref only files written to $temp_path/only_ref"
else
	echo "failed"; exit 1
fi


msg "Listing files changed... "
[ -f $temp_path/changed ] && rm $temp_path/changed && touch $temp_path/changed
for i in $(cat $temp_path/files-$ref-ref); do
	if ! grep -x $i $temp_path/not_common >/dev/null; then
		if ! diff -q $temp_path/wordpress-$ref/$i $wpmine/$i >/dev/null; then
			echo $i >> $temp_path/changed
		fi
	fi
done
if [[ $(wc -l < $temp_path/changed) == "0" ]]; then
	echo "No changes detected"
else
	echo "Files changed written to $temp_path/changed"
fi


msg "Writing individual diffs... "
[ -d $temp_path/diffs ] && rm -rf $temp_path/diffs
mkdir -p $temp_path/diffs
for i in $(cat $temp_path/changed); do
	e=$( echo $i | sed "s|\./||g" | tr "/" "." )
	diff -u $temp_path/wordpress-$ref/$i $wpmine/$i > $temp_path/diffs/$e
done
ds=$(ls $temp_path/diffs | wc -l)
echo "$ds diffs in $temp_path/diffs"


msg "Fetching latest version... "
[ -f $temp_path/latest.tar.gz ] && rm $temp_path/latest.tar.gz
if wget -q -P $temp_path $wordpress_baseurl/latest.tar.gz; then
	echo "downloaded to $temp_path"
else
	echo "could not fetch $wordpress_baseurl/latest.tar.gz"; exit 1
fi


msg "Unpacking latest version... "
[ -d $temp_path/wordpress-latest ] && rm -rf $temp_path/wordpress-latest
if (cd $temp_path && tar zxf latest.tar.gz && mv wordpress wordpress-latest); then
	echo "unpacked to $temp_path/wordpress-latest"
else
	echo "failed"; exit 1
fi

wplatest="$temp_path/wordpress-latest"


msg "Trying to patch diffs... "
post=$(echo $wpmine | tr -d "/")
patch_level=$(( ${#wpmine} - ${#post} ))
[ -f $temp_path/patches.failed ] && rm $temp_path/patches.failed
for i in $(ls $temp_path/diffs); do
	cd $wplatest && patch -p$patch_level < $temp_path/diffs/$i
	if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
		echo $temp_path/diffs/$i >> $temp_path/patches.failed
	fi
done


msg "Merging in my files... "
[ -f $temp_path/file-merge.failed ] && rm $temp_path/file-merge.failed
for i in $(cat $temp_path/only_mine); do
	d=$(dirname	$wplatest/$i)
	mkdir -p $d
	if [ -e $wplatest/$i ]; then 
		( echo "file already exists: $i"; 
		echo $i >> $temp_path/file-merge.failed )
	else
		( echo "merging: $i" && cp -a $wpmine/$i $wplatest/$i )
	fi
done


msg "Merging file/dir permissions..."
while read line; do
	f=$(echo $line | awk '{ print $7 }')
	p=$(echo $line | awk '{ print $1 }'); p=${p:1:9}
	u=$(echo ${p:0:3} | tr -d '-')
	g=$(echo ${p:3:3} | tr -d '-')
	o=$(echo ${p:6:3} | tr -d '-')
	if [ -e $wplatest/$f ]; then 
		echo "setting: $p $f"
		chmod u=$u $wplatest/$f
		chmod g=$g $wplatest/$f
		chmod o=$o $wplatest/$f
	fi
done < $temp_path/files-$ref-mine.perms


msg "Removing files I deleted... "
for i in $(cat $temp_path/only_ref); do
	[ -f $wplatest/$i ] && (echo "removing: $i" && rm $wplatest/$i)
done


msg "Complete"

[ -f $temp_path/patches.failed ] &&
echo "Some of my patches failed to apply, listed in $temp_path/patches.failed"

[ -f $temp_path/file-merge.failed ] &&
echo "Some of my files failed to merge, listed in $temp_path/file-merge.failed"

echo<<close "
The upgraded version is in $wplatest

To install the new version you'll want to do something like this:
  mv $wpmine ${wpmine}.old
  mv $wplatest $wpmine

Afterwards you can remove the temporary dir $temp_path

If the new version provides any php upgrades scripts (to upgrade the 
database), now would be a good time to run them"
close

Another option would be to use Subversion and just update between stable tags, but then again I don't have that on the server and most hosts probably don't install it. But the Subversion method and this one are functionally equivalent, with the small exception that this upgrade is done offsite while the Subversion way would typically (but not necessarily) be a live upgrade.

If you've ever asked yourself which distro is right for me? then you might be interested in trying them all. :D

But I have some further suggestions:

• {Free,Open,Net,PC-}BSD
• Solaris, OpenSolaris, Nexenta
• ReactOS
• Plan9
• Minix
• SkyOS
• GNU Hurd (heck why not :D )

I once tried quadruple booting Gentoo, WinXP, Solaris and OS X, but the latter two conflicted with each other, so I had to pick one of them at a time.

Which programming language should I learn?

It's a question that comes up a lot, especially by novices who are trying to get into programming. It's a good question, but I'm not sure if it's the *right* question. It is a bit like walking into a tool shed and asking which tool should I use? To which the answer is... all the ones you need.

Peter Norvig wrote an opinion about novice programming a few years ago, called Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years. He argued that a lot of people underestimate what it is to learn programming, judging by how many books there are on the subject of learning it quickly. And he said that people should realize it takes long and not be in such a hurry.

I find myself past the 10 year mark myself, since I started some time in junior high. Or maybe even elementary if you count modifying integer variables in Basic to make the gorilla throw a banana and cause a bigger explosion (and MsDos hackers here?), but without any interest in learning to code at the time.

At this point you might be tempted to ask... so did you? Well, I can't say that I know how, but I know enough to get by. I know enough to code the kind of things I have use for. And I never set out to accomplish more than that.

But returning to the question, whatever language you choose, it will be your first language. But it won't be the only language. There are people who have spent 10 years writing nothing but Excel macros, and never touched another programming language. But if you're asking this question, presumably you're not willing to limit yourself to Excel macros. And unless you actually spend decades writing the same kind of applications you will definitely touch multiple languages. So whichever does or doesn't come first isn't really that important.

In 10+ years I've touched quite a few languages. Aside from Basic, my very first attempts were with Pascal, and a few years later it was Delphi, writing silly desktop applications, in particular encryption software. (Along with a friend we made up a mock company called MicroProgz, and inexplicably, the website has somehow survived to this date. :proud: ) In college, they were big on Java, which I didn't particularly love from the start. But since that was the language du jour, I saw quite a bit of it; gui, databases, threading, networking. The gui was the worst by far. We also built mock applications for mock businesses for assignments, so that's the first time I encountered SQL. Around this time I was into web programming, so I started playing with PHP on my own. I also wanted to get into C++, which was sort of the "real" language you were supposed to know, or that was my impression at least. I took a course in it (through which I also had a modest introduction to C) and ever since... I've never really needed it. My college thesis introduced yet another language: Python. I took to it immediately, it was incredibly... readable. Since then I've also been introduced to Haskell at university and played a bit with Ruby on the side. And inevitably, as a linux user I've also had the opportunity to use Bash for all kinds of small things. I even took a stab at Perl a few weeks ago, and ran for the hills over the gruesome syntax.

So it's not so much which language to learn? as it is what do I want to do right now? Eventually you will probably see them all. Or many of them. And what's more, the tools of today are not the tools of tomorrow. Fortran, Cobol, Smalltalk, Algol.. these were the languages preceding my time. Perhaps I'll find some historical interest in some of them one day, but for the moment I have no use for them. In 1995 Java was a new thing, today it's perhaps the most used language out there. C# arrived in 2001, I haven't really had the opportunity to use it yet, but it's definitely making inroads. The thing is that whichever language you choose it becomes a means to accomplish something today, yes, but in the long run it becomes a stepping stone to another language you'll need in the future.

Of course, jack of all trades, master of none holds true just the same. Like a craftsman needs years to master his tools, achieving excellence takes a long time. Although I've encountered many languages (and I expect to see more in the future), I don't know any of them inside out. But... is that really a problem? There isn't a perfect language, each one teaches you to think about code in a different way. And that's really more important than any single language. Unavoidably, there are regrets that I can do X in language A, why can't I also do Y as in language B argh. But you gain something from all these different styles and methods. Your thinking becomes clearer, your code gets better.

This is a feature I've wanted to have for a long time, but until now I didn't know how to realize it. I wanted to have some kind of a notification area for new events on the blog, so that a returning visitor could immediately see what has changed since the last visit. And I definitely didn't want it on the sidebar, it had to be above the fold.

So the concept was in the back of my head for months, but I couldn't figure out how to make it look good. Then I came up with the idea of making it a popup window. Not a browser window, of course, just a layer that would show if there had been new events. Otherwise it wouldn't show up. Yes, that sounds like something. So with some digging and research, a bit of hacking and lots of debugging, here is the final result.

The window conveys quite a lot of information. It lists the three posts last to be published (or commented on). This way you have new posts and new comments in the same place. In the screenshot, the top entry is a post made recently. The bottom two are older posts that have received new comments.

In terms of appearance, I wanted to make the window active only if the user is using it, so on page load it is made partially transparent, onMouseOver it becomes more opaque, and onMouseOut it becomes more transparent again.

For a demo.. you have this blog. After 15 minutes of inactivity your session will expire and the window will go away. To bring it back delete your cookies from this domain (or use a different browser) and it reappears. The session is handled entirely with cookies, so for visitors who don't accept cookies, the window will always appear as if this were their first visit.

Compatibility

The opacity property is new in CSS3 and isn't uniformly supported (yet). I've tested the plugin with the following browsers.

• Firefox 1.0.1, 2.0.0.6
• Opera 8.0, 9.23
• Safari 3.0.3
• IE 5.0, 6.0, 7.0
• Konqueror 3.5.7 (opacity support is rumored to be on the way)
• Netscape 6.0.1, 7.0, 8.0.2, 9.0b3

In addition, there's a rather pesky layout bug in IE <7.0 that causes the height of the window (which is floating above the other content) to be added to the top of the page. If you fix it, please send a patch. :)

Also, I tried very hard to make sure it only consumes one query, which unfortunately made it very complicated. If you rewrite it in simpler terms, send a patch. :)

Required MySQL version: 4.1+
How to use

Download, unzip, install, append the css to your styles. :cap:

• New Posts Popup plugin @ wordpress.org
• New Posts Popup @ svn

UPDATE: Added Netscape.

UPDATE2: MySQL compatibility.

If you're a heavy ssh user, you already know about scp and rsync+ssh, but even that gets tedious when you're using the same remote location a lot.

A solution to this is KDE's fish:// kioslave, which lets you browse the remote path in konqueror much like you do any other. The drawback is that it's not an actual filesystem, so if you open a video, you'll have to wait before konqueror copies the whole file to a temporary local path before it will open it. (The same goes for smb:// samba shares, and probably all kioslaves.)

I've been using fish:// a lot, but lately it's become very flaky on me, and I don't know why, because the terse error messages don't explain anything. But I also miss how it's less convenient than nfs, which *is* a real filesystem (albeit one that is a pita to configure properly).

But there is another option. (Oh who am I kidding? This is linux, there are probably hundreds of options. :D ) If you have a remote location you need to access a lot, you could try sshfs. As the name implies, the protocol is still ssh (so the traffic is encrypted), but the interface is that of a filesystem. And it's based on fuse (the user level filesystem layer), so no messing with the kernel necessary.

Here's what you do

emerge sshfs-fuse
echo "fuse" >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
modprobe fuse

That should make sure the fuse module is loaded on boot. Now to mount and unmount a remote path:

sshfs host:/path /mount/point
fusermount -u /mount/point

Or, to make it even easier.. save this in /usr/local/bin.

MOUNT_POINT=/mount/point
HOST=host
MOUNT_PATH=/path/on/host

if [ ! -d $MOUNT_POINT ]; then
	echo "mount point $MOUNT_POINT missing"; exit 1
fi

if mount | grep $MOUNT_POINT; then
	echo "umounting..."
	fusermount -u $MOUNT_POINT
else
	echo "mounting..."
	sshfs -C -o transform_symlinks -o Cipher="blowfish" $HOST:$MOUNT_PATH $MOUNT_POINT
fi