Magento CLI: The /shell Folder

I noticed the /shell directory in the Magento root folder, so I took a peek inside. Cool stuff. There’s a small set of PHP scripts intended to be called via the PHP CLI! This means a nice tidy interface to working with Magento via the command line.

You may be thinking, “Command line is cool?!? Really?” Definitely. The CLI is great for deployment and maintenance operations on your Magento server. Instead of writing exposed controllers to trigger operations, you can safely do it via terminal, cron or any other scripting mechanism.

There’s even a nifty abstract.php, that contains everything needed to build your own custom command line interfaces. Thanks Magento, that was nice! Then only thing that’s missing is a shell script for cache refresh.

Some example usage:


ticean@ticean-laptop:~/Projects/local.magento/shell$ ls
abstract.php compiler.php indexer.php log.php

Optimize All MySql Tables

If you need to quickly optimize ALL tables in a mysql instance this simple command will optimize everything.

mysqlcheck –optimize -A

Clear MySql Query Cache Without a Restart

So you’ve allocated some memory to cache your queries, but you need to clear the MySql query cache. You could do a MySql restart, but you probably don’t want to do that on a production server.

…so bust that cache with a query!

RESET QUERY CACHE

Syncing Backup FROM Amazon S3

There’s plenty of information available on the interwebs for backing up a local directory to Amazon S3. For home and light file sharing use, I’d highly recommend Jungle Disk. I use it at my corporate office and I have to say that it has been better & faster than the dedicated file sharing server we phased out. You can use Jungle Disk without even really getting your hands dirty. Just sign up for an Amazon S3 account, then sign up at Jungle Disk enter your S3 keys, and you’re off.

If you’re doing some more industrial things, you may need to roll your own S3 backup mechanism.  Do a simple goog’ on it, and you’ll find a lot of helpful guides that will show you how to do that too But, things are not so clear when you already have an S3 bucket and you need to keep a local machine synced up to the bucket.  That’s exactly what I needed to do, and I couldn’t find jack on the web.  At least not easily.

Essentially I need to backup S3.  Files are continually uploaded to the bucket in question, so I need something that will recursively scan the bucket for changes and download any new or changed files to my backup Linux file server.

I finally found the tool for the job, a script called S3Sync.  It seems to be well done and popular, but somehow I missed the boat and had trouble finding it, because I’m not on the Ruby train.  Once, I found the right tool for the job, putting it all together was relatively painless.

You can find the documentation on the S3Sync website, but there’s several scripts in the libary.  The one I needed was s3sync.rb. It gives you the option to sync to or from a S3 bucket.  Perfecto. Then I used bash and wrote a shell script that I could execute via cron and I had it licked.  Now my script runs via cron, once an hour, and downloads any content.

Here’s an example script to give you the general idea:

#!/bin/bash

#Set up environment variables.
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="xx-your-key-xx";
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="xx-your-secret-key-xx";

#You will need to change this to the directory
#where you placed s3sync files.
cd /home/user/s3sync/;

#Execute s3sync.rb.  Notice that the first location is S3,
#the destination is a local folder.
#Using no-md5 speeds up search by using modifed date.
#Using make-dirs creates local folder structure like S3.
#I use --debug to see what's happening.
./s3sync.rb -r --make-dirs --no-md5 --progress --debug
mybucketname:path/to/sync /home/user/local/sync/folder;

Of course, this could be made much better. Specifically, some kind of error checking and improved output so I know if there’s a problem, and if the script is running successfully. But it’s a start!

All My Base Are Belong to Nannerpuss!

Everybody’s voting and reporting today on which Super Bowl ad was their favorite. I think the showing was pretty strong this year. Most of the ads were good. But there was one standout among the crowd…

Nothing compared with Nannerpuss, 8 seconds of WTF just happened:

Recursive File Lowercasing: Moving Files from Windows to Linux

I recently needed to recursively lowercase files and directories on a Linux server. The real task at hand was to move a bazillion files from a Windows server onto a Linux box. All the files were going to be placed on a webserver so the casing needed to be standardized. I looked all around to find a recursive script and found some, but through the task I found an easy way to do this.

I zipped up all the files on the Windows server. Then I used wget from the Linux to download the zip file. Here’s where the magic happened. I found a modifier on the unzip command:

unzip -LL MyZipFile.zip

The -LL parameter tells the command to rename all files and folders during the unzipping process.

DONE!

By the way, if you still really need that recursive lowercasing script, you can find it here: Lowercase files and directories | ubuntu for life .

Best Hack Ever – Roadside Zombies

Some pranksters in Austin, TX pulled off the best. prank. ever. They hijacked two electronic road signs, and tweaked them to display warning messages about Zombies. I love it. I’m surprised it didn’t cause accidents. I would have snorted hot coffee all over myself. Or maybe wrecked while reaching for my bug out bag.

If I were the one who pulled the prank I would be arrested in days, because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Get the full story from the local news station, KXAN.

Follow these links for more information on Zombies and what you can do to stop them:

Zombie Squad
The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Music Review: Bon Iver, Blood Bank

Release DateJan. 20, 2008
Rating: 90/100

I have to admit that that I fell in love with Bon Iver’s first release, For Emma, Forever Ago. It was overtly simple. It made eloquent use of overdubs and some digital effects.  The result was magnificent.  I have a big music collection and try to keep music rated in iTunes so that I can find all the good stuff quick. Usually I find a few stand out tracks on an album, but when I looked at my iTunes ratings, I found that I had rated all songs 5.

As I tried to get more information on Bon Iver, I discovered For Emma, Forever Ago’s backstory. They guy, Justin Vernon, holed up into a cabin in Wisconsin and recorded the album after a breakup & some health problems. He didn’t even intend to write a record. It just happened. The ultimate writers tale – the artist retreats into the wilderness and emerges with a beautiful diary of progression and emergence. Top all that off with public acclaim.

Vernon can write a hell of an album when he’s dumped, sick, and in the woods, covered in snow, and life is bleak. He can write an album when the meloncholy is on, and he’s drunk as hell, and the stacks are low. Can he do it again?

Whatever’s going on personally, he writes good songs. Blood Bank is great.  I like an EP followup. It gives the artist room to breath.  And Bon Iver does stretch out a little. The essece remains the same but it seems like Vernon’s guiding the Bon Iver entity toward a true band situation. It’s obvious in the instrumentation. Electric guitar is used as a main instrument, not just for background effect, as it was in For Emma, Forever Ago.   The essence of Bon Iver is still here although he uses new techniques. Slide guitar on “Beach Baby” is mournfully blissful. When it’s done, there’s nothing left to say. And even hardcore Lil’ John haters would be hard pressed to dismiss the acapella, AutoTune saturated, “Woods”.

Bottom line:  Get it. I can’t wait for the next Bon Iver full length LP.

Links:
Official Homepage
MySpace Page

Album Review: Beirut, March of the Zapotec | Holland

Rating: 89/100

March of the Zapotec | Holland is essentially a double EP release by Zach Condon, the man behind the moniker, Beirut. I wondered why two EP’s weren’t condensed down into one full-length album, but upon listening it became apparent that these two EP’s were recorded by two completely different bands. For March of the Zapotec, Condon traveled to Teotitlan del Valle near Oaxaca, Mexico to record a full Mexican brass band. The opening passage, sounds like an open street festival. I visualized an entire village playing in the band, or marching beside it.

My ears were definitely charmed by March of the Zapotec. Interesting rhythmic syncopations add interest, but the real beauty of the album is the realness of the Mexican band. Its imperfect, sometimes out of tune, and dripping with character. I don’t think it would be possible to attain this kind of vibe without traveling to Oaxaca. Condon’s voice seems naturally seated within the death marches, but vocals are noticibly sparse, and Beirut’s typical layering is absent. It’s for the better. Beirut is a support structure for the band.

The second half of the release is Holland. One of Condon’s earlier psuedonyms, Realpeople, gets the album accredidations. Holland is full of synthy sequence-delayed rhythms that reminded me of Boards of Canada at times. Melodic sensibility is sharp, and the songs are accessible while staying clear of pop hooks. Vocal layers sparkle and I especially appreciated the subtle harmonies with pitch shifted vocals in the first track.

It’s difficult to review this release as each EP is so different. One is a 19 person brass band Beirut. The other is a guy with a computer and mic. Both are very good to their own accord, but I there’s no meaningful statement in the juxtaposition of the two. Each is short, and by the time, March of the Zapotech is finished, Holland feels like a nice cool-down.

I’d highly recommend both EP’s. They’ve both been heavily rotating in my personal playlist. I just don’t get this release concept.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/beruit