Wandering Thoughts archives

Some interesting software tools (part 1)

Here's some interesting bits and pieces for software developers:

• bstring, a C library for safe and easy string manipulation in the style of Python. Every so often I need to mangle strings faster than Python or Perl can manage it; at those times, I turn to the bstring library. (I have a longer writeup on bstring here.)

• quilt, a package that allows one to manage a series of patches by keeping track of the changes each patch makes. Patches can be applied, un-applied, refreshed, etc.

quilt is especially handy for adding modifications to existing RPM packages (which are already a base program plus a set of patches). It will even take the RPM specfile and build a quilt working environment for you, which is really handy for adding quick modifications to an RPM.

An aphorism of system administration

A great deal of system administration consists of not stubbing your toe a second time.

(Unfortunately I must mar this by adding 'on the same thing' as a footnote.)