TT: Uni-directional file synchronization between different hosts with Unison
When you work with at least two computers on the same project on a daily basis you might have a problem. You need to get changed files from host A to host B and vice versa. The problem getting bigger when you work in addition on different operation systems or use more than two hosts. On UNIX/Linux the preferred tool for such a task is Rsync. Unfortunately Rsync synchronize only in one direction, it doesn't work very well when more than two hosts are involved (and it isn't really comfortable to set up on Windows) and can't use a secure communication channel. Another approach is to check-in changed source files into a version control system, like CVS. On host A you check it in and on host B you check it out afterwards. But this means you always need a more or less stable variant of your code, so that other developer can, at least compile, or much better use it. That is not always the case (especially when you leave the office at 11:00 p.m.) and it also doesn't cover files which aren't handled by a version control system. Luckily there is a solution for all the problems mentioned which is called Unison. So here comes the second post in the ToolTips series, which covers an easy and portable way for file synchronization.
TT: Console navigation the easy way with Apparix
Today I will start a new series where I present small tools which I use on a daily basis and considered very useful. These tools haven't to be killer applications, but doing the task they are written for, very well. Therefor also the name of this series: TT, which stands for ToolTips. Most of this applications are open source, so I will take the opportunity to say "Thank you" to all the people out there, which create such cool stuff in there free time.
Creating file shortcuts on three different operation systems
As you may know, developing for multiple platforms is one of my strengths. Strictly speaking, it's a basic requirement if you are involved in such a product like VirtualBox, which runs on every major (and several minor) platform available today. Beside the GUI, which uses Qt and therewith is portable without any additional cost (which isn't fully true if you want real native look and feel on every platform, especially on Mac OS X), all the rest of VirtualBox is written in a portable way. This is done by using only C/C++ and Assembler when necessary. Everything which needs a different approach, because of the design of the OS (and the API's which are available there), is implemented in a platform dependent way. In the history of VirtualBox, several modules are created and grown by the time, which makes it really easy to deal with this differences. For stuff like file handling, paths, strings, semaphores or any other basic functionality, you can just use the modules which are available. On the other side it might be necessary, for a new feature we implement, to write it from the ground. In the following post I will show how to create a file shortcut for the three major operation systems available today.
Getting the backtrace from a kernel panic
You may know the following situation. You arrive in the morning in the office, do what you always do and check out the latest changes of the software you are working on. After a little bit of compile time and the first coffee you start the just build application. Bumm, kernel panic. After rebooting and locking through the changes you may have an idea what the reason for this could be. A colleague of you is working on a fancy new feature which needed changes to a kernel module. As you almost know nothing about this code you seek for help and, as it of course not happen on his computer, he is asking for a backtrace of this panic. You have two problems now. First you need to see the panic yourself and second it would be nice to get a copy of the backtrace for sharing this info within a bugtracker. In the following post I will show how both aims could be easily archived.