Category: Scripts

Automated Scripted Install of WordPress on CentOS8/RHEL8 Linux

admin •
I have written a couple of installation scripts to install WordPress throughout the years.  This is the latest in that series to install WordPress 5 on a minimal install of CentOS8. Among the differences between this script and previous ones, is that this will be installed in it's own directory /wordpress rather than /. Basically, write the script as seen below,...Read More »

Create an Ansible script for DISA STIG and execute it in CentOS 7

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Securing a CentOS 7 install doesn't have to be tough.  Code already exists, we just have to find it and execute it. Prerequisites yum install openscap scap-security-guide -y Verification The version of the scap-security-guide that was tested is 0.1.40. scap-security-guide.noarch 0.1.40-13.el7.centos @updates Test The purpose of this test is to determine if the scap-security-guide supports DISA STIG. oscap info /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-centos7-ds.xml...Read More »

Ansible TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS settings warning [resolution]

admin •
I have an ansible playbook that has worked for months.  It still works but, now has a DEPRECATION WARNING that looks ominous along with a python error. Problem BECOME password[defaults to SSH password]: [DEPRECATION WARNING]: The TRANSFORM_INVALID_GROUP_CHARS settings is set to allow bad characters in group names by default, this will change, but still be user configurable on deprecation. This...Read More »

NFL Pick ‘Em buildSchedule.php for any season

admin • • 1 Comment
I have been playing around with the buildSchedule.php component of NFL PHP Pick 'Em as this is the component that makes it all possible to generate tables needed to create the SQL script to import into the new season.  My previous post on this subject required a spreadsheet, which never really was necessary.  Even though the output filename contains a...Read More »

NFL Pick ‘Em for 2019 Season

admin •
NFL PHP Pick 'Em is a free php web app that allows you to host a weekly NFL pick 'em football pool on your website.  This fantastic tool replaced the use of spreadsheets.  There was a time that this tool was not supported.  However, I just checked out the www.phpickem.org website it is is updated for 2019. I wish I...Read More »
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VMware Expand Hard Drive Size and Extend in CentOS 7 Linux

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One approach to adding space to an existing Linux hard drive that is using Linux LVM is to add space to the drive. This can easily be accomplished in VMware. This has been tested using VMware vSphere Client for Windows with CentOS 7.5 (minimal install). To demonstrate a before and after, here are a few commands that can be used...

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Add SMTP STARTTLS Support in Sendmail

admin •
Configure Sendmail email server to use SSL encryption for sending/receiving email. This is an example of using a CA certificate rather than a self-signed certificate.  This article assumes that the CA certificate is already in place and ready to go. Modify the /etc/mail/sendmail.mc file.  Find the section with similar variables that is commented out and copy this under it. At...Read More »

How to Build the latest mod_jk RPM

admin •
mod_jk is an Apache module used to connect the Tomcat servlet container with web servers such as Apache. It has come increasingly difficult to find a an apache2-mod_jk-1.2.37-4.1.src.rpm or apache2-mod_jk-1.2.37-4.1.rpm as some of the links are now dead.  However, after tracking down a copy of the apache2-mod_jk-1.2.37-4.1.src.rpm, a modification or two to the .spec file along with the official .tar.gz...Read More »

How to Build a Better haproxy RPM

admin •
There are several RPM builds of haproxy that can be found throughout the Internet.  There are GitHub repositories with customized .spec files to build your own RPM.  In fact, there is an haproxy.spec file that may be found in the official .tar.gz file under examples.  However, here is a unique way to build one as close to the original, haproxy-1.5.4-2.el6.rpm,...Read More »

Using shc to compile a shell script

admin •
Not being a programmer, I do write a descent shell script from time to time.  In the Microsoft world, there are all sorts of script compilers that will compile a batch, visual basic, or any number of other scripts into an executable.  A benefit of an executable could be the files portability or even an attempt to obfuscate the code. ...Read More »

Windows Vista Default Folder Template Patch (AutoIT Script)

admin •

In 2008,I put together several solutions to prevent Windows Vista from automatically selecting a default view, which was generally inconsistent with the folder content. The purpose of this article is to take the first solution of that article that was found on vistax64.com and create a nice little utility using AutoIT. It hasn't been fully burned in but there may...

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Vsftpd FTP Server With Virtual Users (CentOS 7)

admin •

vsftpd ("Very Secure FTP Daemon") is an FTP server for Linux and supports PAM ("pluggable authentication modules"). A virtual user cannot login to the Linux system and is considered more secure than using a "real" user whom can login to a Linux system. This guide offers a script that demonstrates one way to setup a vsftpd server using PAM with...

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