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J o u r n a l

 

Tuesday, May 7, 2001 5:38 PM

I have finished my research paper and now I am finished for the semester.

Thursday, April 26, 2001 5:14 PM

I have started to fix up my final paper for Dr. Plaza's final evaluation. Today I will add a index. Some things I need to do:

  • Make index
  • Fix code examples
  • Update recomendations made by Dr. Plaza

Tuesday, April 24, 2001 5:14 PM

I have finished Lenards final paper and the discussion in class should be a good one. Yes. I know that I have to finish this site and wrap up my project. I need to:

  • Correct my resurch paper
  • update my plan page
  • Put my final comments and the grad I received on the front page.

Thursday, April 5, 2001 10:46 AM

I have finished my final paper and all that is left is to proctice my speech. Even though I may not get a decent grade for some reason, I have learned a lot and that is what is important. I am proud of the code and research that I have done. Time to concentrate on my next research project in my Independant Study Program.

Tuesday, April 3, 2001 3:46 PM (my birthday)

I have been heavly into coding my example program and I am glad to say that I have a finished product wich I have been testing the last three days. I am currently running behind schedule for my final written presentation but what can you do. I have put a lot of effort into this learning experience and I have achieved most of my goals.

Thursday, March 29, 2001 3:46 PM

I was able to construct some code over spring break although I was out of town and unable to confer with Dr. Plaza. I got two scripts written and one is being polished up (passwd group file ownerships). I will combine these into one script after testing is done and then it is off to Dr. Plaza for approval.

I am not getting as much done as I would like and it is due to my job. Well I gave my boss two weeks notice and quit. Now maybe I can get caught up. My final paper will be late but I am currently working on it right now.

Thursday, March 15, 2001 11:27 AM

Just updated the paper to reflect the concerns that Dr. Plaza had over my examples of the current directory structure. I mad it clear that we currently use umask 077 to protect the user privacy's and that with out it other users could view others files. After our changes we could use umask 007. I really don't fully understand umask so maybe Ill ask Dr. Plaza tonight.

I have also added a program design page to document my designs that i will use to construct each program that I hope to use for this system administration project.

Wednesday, March 14, 2001 11:06 PM

Last Tuesday was my second speech and it was disastrous. I need to change my users visual aid to reflect the fact that the scheme shown is used in conjunction with umask. I need to have Dr. Plaza explain these details to me further. I meet with him after class on Thursday (today). Today I have gotten caught up in my evaluations. Once again I would like to say that this class involves much more work that any class that I am currently taking. My next step is to design a program that takes the password and group files and updated user ids to the new numbering scheme which was changed again by Dr. Plaza.

Tuesday, March 13, 2001 5:06 PM

Now that I am on the downside to the flu I can get busy on the project. My presentation last Thursday went off even though I had a fever and strep throught Today is another speech (Midway speech). It is speech number two and even though I have had no time to prepare I have added a lot of materials. I have posted the new slide show and have updated the rest of the pages on the site accordingly.

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 4:28 PM

Today my oral presentation will be delayed until further notice due to a winter snow storm that has me stranded at home. Today gave me some extra time to finish my sideshow that will accompany my presentation that will probably be given on Thursday instead of today. The next step is to go back to experimenting and designing solutions for the project. I am currently trying to figure out hoe to change file group memberships in all the users directories. I am tackling this first as I need it to set up the mock SUNY structure. If I can convert it one way I should be able to convert it in reverse.....thus a utility.

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 0:21 AM

I set up a mirror of the Unix style user file system on my Linux machine and tried to impliment some Perl code that traversed the files and changed the ownerships and permissions in the individual folders. I will have to resurch Linux a little more as I am not very profecient in Linux and its system calls. I give my firsa\t presentation today so Now I must get my slides ready for that.

Sunday, March 4, 2001 10:05 PM

I have completed at least half of my final paper and untill I can actually design and impliment the code I cannot finish it. The form of the paper has drastically changed. I have cut out sections and am focusing on the project itself. I have to meet with Dr. Plaza about implimentation when I start coding. My next step is to get ready for the speeches.....Anybody know when we are supposed to actually work on our projects.....with all these speeched and stuff?

Saturday, March 3, 2001 5:00 PM

Met with Dr. jan Plaza for an hour after class Thursday and now I am making some recommenced changes to my midway report. It should be as done as possible by Monday morning. I still have to get my speeches together. This workload is overwhelming.

Thursday, March 1, 2001 3:37 PM

After 24 hours of reading and writing, my paper is still not complete and will be submitted undone. Here it is in its unfinished state.

Wednesday, February 28, 2001 11:33 PM

Absolutely unreal all this work for three credits. Still reading "Perl for System Administration" while proofreading the members web sites and at the same time getting my two speeches ready with the research paper. The research paper is due tomorrow and here is my outline from what I've read and experienced so far.

System Administration Using Perl

	System Administration
		Why Perl?
		Modules
		Introduction to research project
	File Systems Administration
		Traversing
			uses in project
		Manipulating Quotas
		Usage Information Tools
	User Administration
		Identities
			UNIX
			Windows
			Uses in the project
		User Accounting
	Other Issues
		Log Files
			Types
			Disk Administration
			Analysis tools
		Security 
			Suspicious Changes
			Suspicious Activities

Monday, February 26, 2001 3:54 PM

Met with Andrew to discuss the focus on what needs to be done with the user id's, group id's, and owners fields.

  1. Need to change default group to the user's own group
  2. Make changes in the password file
    1. Change user id to > 5000
    2. Group id to match user id
  3. Each file in each users directory needs their owners permissions fields changed
  4. Group file has to be modified to reflect the new structure

I have made changes to my research plans page to reflect today's meeting.

Tuesday, February 20, 2001 12:00 AM

The plan page has been updated to include a status column so that the progress can be tracked better. I have narrowed down my topic to one specific task with the help of Andrew Heuneman. My specific task is stated on the main page. I will get together with him to gain a better understanding of the task at hand and at the same time keep reading "Perl for System Administration".

Monday, February 19, 2001 11:03 PM

The & is used as a identifier to call a subroutine. I used to just do name(par) and now &name(par). I bought a new book and read more in depth about the Perl programming language and I must say I really like Perl now more than before. Its benefits to system administration is becoming apparent. Now to get through that System Administration book before the paper is due.

Sunday, February 18, 2001 2:07 PM

Today I tried to code some more to further understand the way in which Perl can manipulate and traverse a file system I did not get far as I have determined that I am not as proficient in Perl as much as I though I was so ill have to do some more research on the language itself. In particular is the line

sub ScanDirectory{
    my ($workdir) = shift;
    my ($startdir) = &cwd;
    chdir($workdir) or die "Unable to enter dir $workdir:$!\n";
    
    opendir(DIR, ".") or die "Unable to open $workdir:$!\n";
    my @names = readdir(DIR) or die "Unable to read $workdir:$!\n";
    closedir(DIR);

    foreach my $name (@names){
        next if ($name eq ".");
        next if ($name eq "..");
        if (-d $name){ # is this a directory?
            &ScanDirectory($name);
            next;
        }
        if ($name eq "core") { # is this a file named "core"?
            if (defined $r){
                unlink($name) or die "Unable to delete $name:$!\n";
            }
            else {
                print "found one in $workdir\n";
            }
        }
    }
    chdir($startdir) or die "Unable to change to dir $startdir:$!\n";
}
&ScanDirectory(".");

 

- what does the '&' symbol in front of ScanDirectory and cwd mean or do? I will have to do some more research.

9:41 PM 2/17/01 (today)

Today I read some more and also wrote some example code that reads directories.

 

#!/usr/bin/perl -s
######File snoop#############################################
# This subroutine goes through the given directory and snoops 
# through it returning an array of Directories.
# INPUT: file name
# OUTPUT: snoop results
# EXAMPLE CALL: snoopDir($nameOfDir);
#############################################################
sub snoopDir {
	my($directory) = @_;
	print"\nsnooping $directory\n";
	opendir(DIR, $directory) or die 
		"Cant open the current directory: $!\n";
	@names = readdir(DIR) or die 
		"Unable to read current dir: $!\n";
	closedir(DIR);
	foreach $name (@names){
		next if($name eq "." || $name eq "..");
		if (-d $name){
			print "found a directory: $name\n";
			next;
		}
		print "found a file: $name\n";
	}
}
#############################################################
######Directory Find#########################################
# This subroutine goes through the given directory and snoops 
# through it returning an array of Directory names.
# INPUT: file name
# OUTPUT: array of directory names
# EXAMPLE CALL: dirFind($nameOfDir);
#############################################################
sub dirFind {
	my($name) = @_;
	opendir(DIR, $name) or die 
		"Cant open the current directory: $!\n";
	@names = readdir(DIR) or die 
		"Unable to read current dir: $!\n";
	closedir(DIR);
	
	@namesArray=();
	foreach $name (@names){
		next if($name eq "." || $name eq "..");
		if (-d $name){
			$namesArray[@namesArray] = $name;
			next;
		}
	}
	return @namesArray;
}
###########################################################
snoopDir(".");
@directories = dirFind(".");
snoopDir($directories[0]);

 

9:41 PM 2/17/01 (yesterday)

Yesterday I focused on reading the book Perl for System Administration. Some notes from yesterday:

  • Filesystems
    • UNIX - / is root then go from there
    • Windows - names must be < 8 characters and the suffix <3.
    • Differences:

     

 FAT  is not case sensitivve  \ can cause trouble with Perl (quoting character)  file flags like read-only and system  root is C:
 UNIX  is case sensitive  /    root is /

 

Also wrote some code that demonstrates a random file generator:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use POSIX qw(tmpnam);
for (1..20){
	print POSIX::tmpnam(), "\n";
}

 

5:03 PM 2/15/01

Went over chapter 1 and although the author assumes that the reader really knows Perl really well, I did get a taste of some of the security issues to consider when writing Perl for system administration

  • Try to have programs run in a non-privileged state for as long as possible.
  • keep an eye on programs that gives user rights
  • On reading data i.e. a user inputting dangerous characters
  • On writing. Temp file names should not be duplicated and hard for someone else to guess.
  • Avoid race conditions. Use file locking and dont let an outside user interfere with a program that uses a data source that it amasses and uses.

3:01 PM 2/14/01

Starting to read the book that I bought for this research. I have to read another book to learn about Perl modules and how to use them before I can continue with my research on Perl system Administration. Here are some notes so far:

  • How can Perl help us in our lab?
    • According to the author on page 2 "Perl is one of the best glue languages"
    • Offspring of Unix Shells, C language tools.
    • Available on all platforms, important fro multi-platform systems.
    • Core language can be extended easily with modules
    • Committed community with large database of modules for every job.
  • How Perl is not a good choice!
    • Dicey object oriented mechanisms.
    • Does not exist everywhere.
    • It is not always simple or eternally self-consistent.
  • Module - an extension to the core language
    • use Cwd; <== Sample Call - Cwd is a module that returns the name of the current working directory.

10:01 PM 2/12/01

I spruced up my written and oral presentation criteria pages so that they would be ready for tomorrows class. This time maybe Ill be prepared. I cant wait to stop this presentation stuff and sink my teeth into the project. I have also made the pages more simple and less flash since this isn't what I should be concentrating on.

4:07 PM 2/11/01

Today I will work on the page that deals with good writing style. I did not get far but I have to do homework at work so something has to go.

12:32 PM 2/10/01

Today I have finished a rough draft of my research plan. Time constraints due to my full time job are really starting to take its toll and I fear that I am falling behind in this class. I will update and finalize the plan page as soon as it gets reviewed in class. The next step is to finish the page on written presentation criteria. It seems that so much time is spent on these little other details that the project that I want to do just will never get started.

4:13 PM 2/8/01

Today I am focusing on the elements of a good speech since CSC485 is also about making a presentation. So, therefore the first page of this sub site will be the criteria for a good presentation. Also added today is a summary on last weeks meeting on the needs of the lab.

5:26 PM 2/6/01

After extensive research I have decided to attack the Perl programming section on the lab's to-do sheet. I am in the process of researching network administration with Perl.

 
     
 

 copyright 2001 William L. Martin All rights reserved.