On FreeBSD most system configuration is centralized in /etc/rc.conf, which sets options for system startup and all well-behaved daemons. Most people however don’t know that rc.conf.local also is sourced by the same scripts. This makes it possible to use a generic rc.conf to specify site/company wide defaults, and configure host specific settings in rc.conf.local. One advantage is that rc.conf.local usually ends up being quite short which simplifies host management. Using this scheme works extremely well when it’s combined with cfengine and source control. Versioning and commit mailinglists can do truly amazing things for sysadmin productivity.
Archive for December, 2006
Unix Tip #1
Tuesday, December 19th, 2006Linux 2.6.20
Tuesday, December 19th, 2006I carefully watched the Ubuntu respositories for linux 2.6.20 packages, and quickly noticed when the experimental packages were released. These however aren’t quite stable yet, the atheros driver (in restricted) currently oopses, which is somewhat problematic for me.
Someone has already reported the problem at launchpad, let’s see how quickly it’ll get fixed.
Linux IPv6 Stateful Firewalling
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006After some research I discovered that linux has IPv6 Stateful firewalling since 2.6.15. But the code won’t be usable until at least 2.6.20 because it doesn’t play nice with IPv4 NAT.
Initial Patches are available on the netfilter mailinglists, let’s hope they make 2.6.20.
Thai Chicken Soup
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006Ingredients:
- Water
- Bouillon Cubes (Chicken)
- Nam Pla (fish sauce)
- Bamboo shoots
- Leek
- Ginger
- 1/2 Red Pepper
- Chicken Breast
- Teriyaki sauce
- Rice Noodles
- 1 Lime
Fill a pan with 2 Liters of water and bring it a slow simmer, add the bouillon cubes and a splash of Nam Pla. Add chopped ginger, red pepper, sliced leek, and the bamboo shoots to the stock. Let the stock simmer while you prepare the chicken. First marinate chopped chicken in the teriyaki sauce for about 15 minutes, then bake until brown. Finally boil the rice noodles. Serve the soup by first putting some noodles in a bowl, then add soup, chicken and some lime juice.