Relatively complex authorization strategies are somewhat challenging to setup. I have a functional configuration but I do question whether there may be some gotchas (which should be documented).
What I was able to get working is:
Apache Virtual Host 1
* SSL terminated by HW accelerator
* read/write access to each repository
* Location 1 [SVNParentPath /the-path/svn-parent-loc]
* All projects covered
* Location 2 [SVNPath /the-path/svn-parent-loc/project-X]
* this project is covered by parent path as well
* Project access/Authorization specific to a special limited user group
Apache Virtual Host 2
* SSL passed directly through to Apache
* client certificate authentication/authorization
* Read-only access for all repositories
* Location 3 [SVNParentPath /the-path/svn-parent-loc]
This does work; I can access all required resources with the appropriate credentials. Conversely, without appropriate credentials, access is denied to the protected resources. This was somewhat painful to setup. I would recommend that a test case of a file move to a different directory be used as sanity check of proper operational behavior. The SSL accelerator causes the biggest headache of which a file move typically will trigger a failure if the server is misconfigured. Usually the problem is in the server name (had to specify http://server.x.y instead of https://server.x.y). This last statement assumes you are using a rewrite type rule as the various docs mention to handle the self-referential URL issues produced in this case. I think various Subversion/Apache documentation gets you close but this last part could use more/improved examples (and maybe corrections).
I do have some concern about access to the same SVN DAV resources being available through multiple virtual hosts and location elements. It seems possible that caching of various items (meta-data, etc) could cause stale results to get returned in some use cases. This fear is somewhat driven by the fact that each location element specifies SVN DAV related items. I have not looked into the mod_dav_svn ,etc to see if there is any intelligent aggregation of duplicated SVNPath info (for example) or whether everything is completely distinct. My slight uncomfortableness is mitigated by the fact that most resources are not accessed by more than one or 2 users and usually via the same host/location. In the few use cases where I expect differences in access, if I run into issues I think that various tweaks to cache/timeout type values can further mitigate the chance of stale data impacting things. Time will tell on this. If time ever permits, I will try and review the SVN code myself or try to form some intelligent question for the various related forums/lists.
I don't think posting extra detail is wise in this area but hopefully what I did post may help someone solve a setup issue.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Linux/Unix - the little things
If you are writing software which cares about the fully qualified domain name of the server; remember the correct order of /etc/hosts host/alias info.
i.e.
<ip address> <fqdn> <alias1> <alias n>
If you swap the <fqdn> and an alias - the server will not report itself as <fqdn> and if you have software which expects/utilizes the domain info; it won't work.
I have run into this with scripts/batch jobs which broke mysteriously when trying to key off of what should be <fqdn> when looking up information - but only for one or a small set of servers.
i.e.
<ip address> <fqdn> <alias1> <alias n>
If you swap the <fqdn> and an alias - the server will not report itself as <fqdn> and if you have software which expects/utilizes the domain info; it won't work.
I have run into this with scripts/batch jobs which broke mysteriously when trying to key off of what should be <fqdn> when looking up information - but only for one or a small set of servers.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Welding for the birds?
Was out in the garage the other afternoon with the garage door open and had noticed some birds hanging out nearby. I didn't mind much until they started to fly into the garage on occasion. They went away and I didn't think much about them until I saw something fly into the corner. I suddenly had a feeling that some baby birds might be hiding under equipment along the wall so I went to shoo them away. It wasn't a baby bird but it left the garage.
So I headed back toward my welding cart to get some tools out of a drawer when something came flying out of the drawer at high speed. I nearly screamed like a girl (but with manly undertones). After a minute I opened the drawer and found that a bird (sparrow it seems) was trying to build a nest in my welding drawer. I tend to leave the drawer slightly ajar as it is hard to get to unless I roll the cart outside.
Got the drawer cleaned out a bit. Keeping the drawer closed now. Very glad that there were no eggs yet. Could be fun to get some bird size welding goggles and make some feathered friends.. As long as they don't nest or make a mess in my helmet!
I have had a good amount of wildlife encounters since starting to weld and do other metal working. Good for stories and plenty of laughter from the family.
So I headed back toward my welding cart to get some tools out of a drawer when something came flying out of the drawer at high speed. I nearly screamed like a girl (but with manly undertones). After a minute I opened the drawer and found that a bird (sparrow it seems) was trying to build a nest in my welding drawer. I tend to leave the drawer slightly ajar as it is hard to get to unless I roll the cart outside.
Got the drawer cleaned out a bit. Keeping the drawer closed now. Very glad that there were no eggs yet. Could be fun to get some bird size welding goggles and make some feathered friends.. As long as they don't nest or make a mess in my helmet!
I have had a good amount of wildlife encounters since starting to weld and do other metal working. Good for stories and plenty of laughter from the family.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Hobby Metal working on a budget and lessons learned - part 1
I am looking to broaden my skills for a couple reasons:
There turned out to be a number of side effects to this though. Some were expected and others less so. Some of the expected effects are the need for safety related items like a welding jacket, gloves, helmet and such. Some partially expected effects are the need for a wide variety of clamps, clamp/magnet devices along with wire brushes.
Since I am working with mild steel mostly, I noted a need to keep my work area clean so you end up with a magnetic sweeper and other magnetic pickups.
If you want to work with sheet metal; it only takes a very small project to decide that metal snips are tiring so you pickup electric metal cutting shears/snips.
I am still working with flux core wire only for now and that means pretty big messes with slag and such. Also, since I am still learning, there tend to be mistakes which must be fixed so it doesn't take long to find a need for an angle grinder. There is a big need for wire wheel, cut-off and grinder blades to go along with that.
You decide pretty early on to make your own welding cart and.. you find that you need all kinds of things. You try some things that work ok but you recognize that many of those are not what you want to do long term..
I didn't have a drill press of any sort so I searched around but couldn't make up my mind in regards to a nicer used drill press. I ended up with a Harbor Freight 12 speed Bench drill press. It can make holes but don't expect something other than pretty low quality. The table and base are now stamped steel, the table height adjustment wobbles severely at best and the spindle/chuck has plenty of runout.
One project I am working on is an adapter to attach the Craftsman furrow blade (intended for my tiller) onto the sleeve hitch on my garden tractor. Not expecting much from this; somewhat an experiment. It is providing a good learning opportunity and test of the drill press. Of course, a drill press without bits isn't much use and in this case I needed something in the 5/8" size to handle the pin attachment on the hitch. Since I didn't have anything that large I ended up buying the Silver and Demming 8 pc drill bit set from Harbor freight. As others state in reviews of those bits; the box is pretty much trash but the bits work pretty well. I am running the drill press at the lowest speed (300rpm) and using some tapping oil at the moment. Based on feed and speeds from "Machine Shop Basics; by Audel", I could go to a higher RPM. I am inclined to keep it lower for now until I get more comfortable with with the drill press.
Some surprising (or not) initial finding related to the drill press are;
Next on the lessons learned was; how do I immobilize the work during drilling? I came up with a reasonable solution which included 2 small "super strut" angle brackets bolted to the table slots with part of the work under the edges of those and then a bolt between the 2 angle brackets which took up slack and helped keep things from shifting. Again, a mill/drill vise may be in my future.
It was "interesting" trying to properly locate the top and bottom holes for the sleeve hitch pin. I was able to just "pick a spot" on the bottom plate which is where I started. Since the pin needs to go through a piece of tube on the tractor side though, I knew I had to be somewhat accurate with the hole on the far side. I bounce around a few ideas and was debating about just using the tape measure but since this part had already been welded; it would be slightly harder to do with a tape measure. What I finally decided on (and which worked) was to dip the tip of the pin (which has a flat tip) in paint and run it up from the bottom against the top plate. That gave me a fairly accurate point of reference from which I was able to measure and transfer the location from the underside to the topside where I was able to align the bit with it. I successful in test fitting the plate on the sleeve. I still have more parts to weld up but I think the hard parts are now complete.
I again am impressed by the ingenuity other folks demonstrated to successfully create jigs and other types of items to successfully hold work in useful ways.
Anyways, it is a fun hobby but don't plan on it being inexpensive for long. I think many used tools can be good deals though but I am leery of a few used items (plasma cutter being one).
Here is a pic of the in-progress bracket for the sleeve hitch. I cut some 1/4" angle iron, welded it together and drilled the top and bottom holes for the pin. You can see the 1 of the brackets I used to clamp the work piece to the drill press.
Here is the bracket test fitted to the sleeve hitch. Next I will weld an extension and a vertical piece for bolting the furrow head to.
Here is the end result attached to the mower ;
This is the test run; not bad. I don' think the picture is quite as easy to tell how well it worked.
A very good learning experience. If I did it again I would extend it another 6" or so. A minor issues though is that in the up position, it is so close to the ground that it can make contact as you hit bumps. I would love to convert to a linear actuator mechanism instead of the manual lever/arm; or maybe make an extension to the manual lever to make it easier to use while driving/steering.
Anyways, hope this was entertaining and/or useful to someone.
God Bless,
Scott
- Hoping that a new hobby will provide relaxation and help reduce day job stress.
- Desire to gain skills which I hope to combine someday in a career change and/or post retirement money maker in the longer term.
There turned out to be a number of side effects to this though. Some were expected and others less so. Some of the expected effects are the need for safety related items like a welding jacket, gloves, helmet and such. Some partially expected effects are the need for a wide variety of clamps, clamp/magnet devices along with wire brushes.
Since I am working with mild steel mostly, I noted a need to keep my work area clean so you end up with a magnetic sweeper and other magnetic pickups.
If you want to work with sheet metal; it only takes a very small project to decide that metal snips are tiring so you pickup electric metal cutting shears/snips.
I am still working with flux core wire only for now and that means pretty big messes with slag and such. Also, since I am still learning, there tend to be mistakes which must be fixed so it doesn't take long to find a need for an angle grinder. There is a big need for wire wheel, cut-off and grinder blades to go along with that.
You decide pretty early on to make your own welding cart and.. you find that you need all kinds of things. You try some things that work ok but you recognize that many of those are not what you want to do long term..
- Starting with hacksaw
- Trying out the jig saw with some metal cutting blades
- abrasive blades for the 3" pneumatic cutt-off tool
- Angle grinder with cut-off blades
- And then start eying up metal cutting circular saws, chop saws, iron workers, plasma cutters, metal cutting band saws, etc. Plasma cutters need a dry source of air and then there are tools which are more common in 208-240V 1 phase or the more industrial 3 phase power. So you find some nice equipment using 3 phase power and end up with a static phase converter..
I didn't have a drill press of any sort so I searched around but couldn't make up my mind in regards to a nicer used drill press. I ended up with a Harbor Freight 12 speed Bench drill press. It can make holes but don't expect something other than pretty low quality. The table and base are now stamped steel, the table height adjustment wobbles severely at best and the spindle/chuck has plenty of runout.
One project I am working on is an adapter to attach the Craftsman furrow blade (intended for my tiller) onto the sleeve hitch on my garden tractor. Not expecting much from this; somewhat an experiment. It is providing a good learning opportunity and test of the drill press. Of course, a drill press without bits isn't much use and in this case I needed something in the 5/8" size to handle the pin attachment on the hitch. Since I didn't have anything that large I ended up buying the Silver and Demming 8 pc drill bit set from Harbor freight. As others state in reviews of those bits; the box is pretty much trash but the bits work pretty well. I am running the drill press at the lowest speed (300rpm) and using some tapping oil at the moment. Based on feed and speeds from "Machine Shop Basics; by Audel", I could go to a higher RPM. I am inclined to keep it lower for now until I get more comfortable with with the drill press.
Some surprising (or not) initial finding related to the drill press are;
- Quill travel on it is pretty low
- max spindle to table travel is low and with large bits it becomes VERY noticeable
Next on the lessons learned was; how do I immobilize the work during drilling? I came up with a reasonable solution which included 2 small "super strut" angle brackets bolted to the table slots with part of the work under the edges of those and then a bolt between the 2 angle brackets which took up slack and helped keep things from shifting. Again, a mill/drill vise may be in my future.
It was "interesting" trying to properly locate the top and bottom holes for the sleeve hitch pin. I was able to just "pick a spot" on the bottom plate which is where I started. Since the pin needs to go through a piece of tube on the tractor side though, I knew I had to be somewhat accurate with the hole on the far side. I bounce around a few ideas and was debating about just using the tape measure but since this part had already been welded; it would be slightly harder to do with a tape measure. What I finally decided on (and which worked) was to dip the tip of the pin (which has a flat tip) in paint and run it up from the bottom against the top plate. That gave me a fairly accurate point of reference from which I was able to measure and transfer the location from the underside to the topside where I was able to align the bit with it. I successful in test fitting the plate on the sleeve. I still have more parts to weld up but I think the hard parts are now complete.
I again am impressed by the ingenuity other folks demonstrated to successfully create jigs and other types of items to successfully hold work in useful ways.
Anyways, it is a fun hobby but don't plan on it being inexpensive for long. I think many used tools can be good deals though but I am leery of a few used items (plasma cutter being one).
Here is a pic of the in-progress bracket for the sleeve hitch. I cut some 1/4" angle iron, welded it together and drilled the top and bottom holes for the pin. You can see the 1 of the brackets I used to clamp the work piece to the drill press.
Here is the end result attached to the mower ;
A very good learning experience. If I did it again I would extend it another 6" or so. A minor issues though is that in the up position, it is so close to the ground that it can make contact as you hit bumps. I would love to convert to a linear actuator mechanism instead of the manual lever/arm; or maybe make an extension to the manual lever to make it easier to use while driving/steering.
Anyways, hope this was entertaining and/or useful to someone.
God Bless,
Scott
Wood working - cutting board shelves
I bought a couple small accessories for my router (Muscle Chuck and 1/4" collet) because I have a number of home projects I want to do. My first project is a small storage shelf addition that I want to mount under the top cabinets in our kitchen which would hold cutting boards, cooling racks and even the cookie sheets look like they will fit. This was intended partly as a Mothers Day gift to my wonderful wife but my time got split into to many things to complete it for mothers day.
This won't be a fancy item; it is about 5" tall with a bottom and one middle shelf. This is intended for under a diagonal corner cabinet and will be 17" across the front and 17" deep at the sides. I am using 1/2" oak plywood with 1/4" plywood for the bottom/shelves. I decided to create dado grooves in the 2 sides for the bottom and middle shelf to attach to the sides with the use of some wood glue. I am looking into nailing as well but with the thin wood makes me leery of both hand nailing without pre-drilling and use of my 16 gauge air nailer seems like a bad idea as well. I've got some time to make my final decision on that yet.
I decided to route the grooves in the 1/2" plywood and this gave me a perfect opportunity to try out my new Muscle Chuck and 1/4" collet. I removed the fixed base and pulled off the existing collet from my porter Cable 690 and popped the Muscle Chuck in without issue. I did find that the allen bolt didn't seem to clear the base when I went to put it back on; not really a problem.
The 1/4" collet slips into the chuck easily but has enough friction to not just fall out. I then put in a 1/4" straight plunge bit for making my grooves. It took me a while to get my depth right; I have not used my router much and it is like learning all over some days. I finally got it right but ended up setting it again after it appeared that the bit had slipped vertically in the collet and was pushed up higher than desired. I ended up tightening it a bit more than I thought I would need. I remember a few blogs indicating problems with slippage in the 1/4" collet (not sure if it was the Muscle Chuck or something else off the top of my head). I don't think that a bit with a normal 1/2" shaft bit would have a problem. I did line up the slit in the collet with the slit in the Muscle Chuck as indicated in some instructions so it was setup correctly.
Under power I had no problems, there was no apparent vibration and no slippage as I was working on the work piece. I would recommend the Muscle Chuck if you tend to mash knuckles changing bits.
I am intending to build a router table in preparation for a number of other wood working projects and am hoping that the Muscle Chuck will reduce the pain involved with those projects.
Here is the in-progress shelf for the cutting boards, cookie sheets and such. I'll be edging the front with some thin solid Oak trim.
Here is the Muscle Chuck installed and the 1/4" collet.
Another view of the installed Muscle Chuck.
Here is the nearly completed result. It was somewhat difficult matching the stain to the existing cabinets. I ended up mixing 3 stains to get it close and am using a satin polyurethane finish.
I was a bit bummed that I ended up with some polyurethane runs in a couple places; I took a stab at correcting that (scratch out some of it, light sand papering, restain a touch and add another poly coat). I was using some older brushes which were somewhat nice except I would lose a bristle in the finish every so often. A bit tiresome, I think I will start with fresh brushes next time.
Here is the location prior to installing the shelves.
[2014/06/07\ And here is how it looks after installing it .
Not bad overall. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I wish some aspects would have turned out better though. I think my wife really likes it even with a few warts though so it was certainly worth the effort.
Lessons learned:
Hope you enjoyed this adventure and may God bless your day!
Scott
This won't be a fancy item; it is about 5" tall with a bottom and one middle shelf. This is intended for under a diagonal corner cabinet and will be 17" across the front and 17" deep at the sides. I am using 1/2" oak plywood with 1/4" plywood for the bottom/shelves. I decided to create dado grooves in the 2 sides for the bottom and middle shelf to attach to the sides with the use of some wood glue. I am looking into nailing as well but with the thin wood makes me leery of both hand nailing without pre-drilling and use of my 16 gauge air nailer seems like a bad idea as well. I've got some time to make my final decision on that yet.
I decided to route the grooves in the 1/2" plywood and this gave me a perfect opportunity to try out my new Muscle Chuck and 1/4" collet. I removed the fixed base and pulled off the existing collet from my porter Cable 690 and popped the Muscle Chuck in without issue. I did find that the allen bolt didn't seem to clear the base when I went to put it back on; not really a problem.
The 1/4" collet slips into the chuck easily but has enough friction to not just fall out. I then put in a 1/4" straight plunge bit for making my grooves. It took me a while to get my depth right; I have not used my router much and it is like learning all over some days. I finally got it right but ended up setting it again after it appeared that the bit had slipped vertically in the collet and was pushed up higher than desired. I ended up tightening it a bit more than I thought I would need. I remember a few blogs indicating problems with slippage in the 1/4" collet (not sure if it was the Muscle Chuck or something else off the top of my head). I don't think that a bit with a normal 1/2" shaft bit would have a problem. I did line up the slit in the collet with the slit in the Muscle Chuck as indicated in some instructions so it was setup correctly.
Under power I had no problems, there was no apparent vibration and no slippage as I was working on the work piece. I would recommend the Muscle Chuck if you tend to mash knuckles changing bits.
I am intending to build a router table in preparation for a number of other wood working projects and am hoping that the Muscle Chuck will reduce the pain involved with those projects.
Here is the in-progress shelf for the cutting boards, cookie sheets and such. I'll be edging the front with some thin solid Oak trim.
Here is the Muscle Chuck installed and the 1/4" collet.
Another view of the installed Muscle Chuck.
Here is the nearly completed result. It was somewhat difficult matching the stain to the existing cabinets. I ended up mixing 3 stains to get it close and am using a satin polyurethane finish.
I was a bit bummed that I ended up with some polyurethane runs in a couple places; I took a stab at correcting that (scratch out some of it, light sand papering, restain a touch and add another poly coat). I was using some older brushes which were somewhat nice except I would lose a bristle in the finish every so often. A bit tiresome, I think I will start with fresh brushes next time.
Here is the location prior to installing the shelves.
[2014/06/07\ And here is how it looks after installing it .
Not bad overall. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I wish some aspects would have turned out better though. I think my wife really likes it even with a few warts though so it was certainly worth the effort.
Lessons learned:
- I should have planned more of the final assembly/install in the very beginning.
- Dealing with the vertical air gap between the wall of the new shelves and the bottom of the existing cabinet turned out to be more of a headache than I expected. Need to put more thought into that. The 1/2" wood did not make it easy to get screws into the walls without some slight bulging of the wall. I did pre-drill holes but would likely have to go to smaller diameter screws as well. I didn't show it in a picture but I took some scrap flooring pieces and cut them down in height and thickness for use in filling the nearly hidden side gaps between the new shelves and cabinet. I put the finished side of the flooring out so it blended better. This was a workable idea but getting screws in from inside the main cabinet and hitting the center of the 1/2" filler was where things didn't go so well.
- I should have done some of the stain/finish before final assembly. I had to use a small roller and paint brush taped to a stir stick to get the inner shelf. It worked but not as well as desired.
- Use quality brushes which are not shedding.
- I should consider whether a small finish/HVLP type sprayer could have produced a slightly better finish. Of course, without a good dust/breeze free location to work on it; it may not make much difference.
- A pin nailer may have been a little better for tacking the face pieces on with less chance of splitting and smaller holes to fill.
- I should have checked with my Dad for some tips. He has lots more experience and is always full of good ideas - a slight same I had to learn some things the hard way.
Hope you enjoyed this adventure and may God bless your day!
Scott
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)