FTP script to automate file transfers to remote server

Below you will find a FTP script that will allow you to automate your files transfers without requiring any user input. The only problem with this method is you will be putting a username and password into the script file, but having a simple automated FTP file upload or FTP file download probably outweighs the drawback.

So to describe what this script does:
First the script will tar and zip all files and folders in the /var/log/ folder to the home directory of the user who runs the script. This will create a dated zip file in the user’s home folder who ran the script. Then it will FTP the files to the remote host. You can then add the script to a cron job to execute it everyday, week, hour, etc.
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Simple Postgresql Cron Backup

Here is a very simple method to backup your postgresql DB using a cron job and the pg_dump command. The main problem people encounter when trying to automate the pg_dump command is the password input. Now you could easily create a local user with no password, but why would you want to do that.

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Installing Mongrel with Ruby 1.9

Installing mongrel on ruby 1.9 has caused problems for many different people as has been reported on isitruby19.com.

Running gem install mongrel produces the following error.

http11.c: In function ‘http_field’:
http11.c:77: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘ptr’
http11.c:77: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘len’
http11.c:77: warning: left-hand operand of comma expression has no effect
http11.c: In function ‘header_done’:
http11.c:172: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘ptr’
http11.c:174: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘ptr’
http11.c:176: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘ptr’
http11.c:177: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘len’
http11.c: In function ‘HttpParser_execute’:
http11.c:298: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘ptr’
http11.c:299: error: ‘struct RString’ has no member named ‘len’
make: *** [http11.o] Error 1

To install mongrel after receiving this error, just follow these steps: Read the rest of this entry »

Installing MySQL gem for Ruby 1.9.x

As of this writing, the MYSQL gem cannot be installed by simply doing a GEM INSTALL with ruby 1.9.1. In order to install the gem, follow these easy steps.

First download the mysql gem from rubyforge, and unzip it:

sudo wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/51087/mysql-ruby-2.8.1.tar.gz

 sudo tar -xzvf mysql-ruby-2.8.1.tar.gz

 cd mysql-ruby-2.8.1

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Replace Ruby 1.8.x with version 1.9.x

We recently replaced ruby 1.8.6 on a Ubuntu 8.04 Server with Ruby 1.9.1. Follow these steps to remove the old ruby from the system, but be warned that it may not be as simple for you.

First thing was to remove the old ruby1.8. We had installed this from the Ubuntu package installer so removing it was as simple as running:

sudo apt-get uninstall ruby

or

sudo apt-get uninstall ruby1.8

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