Downloading rpm packages using yum - part II

Once you have done the steps mentioned in my previous post then you are one step ahead of collecting all the packages you need to install the application on some other system.

But the problem is the sub-folders under the cachedir will contain previously download packages too and you have to manually separate out those downloaded in the previous yum install or update which is very tedious. I wrote a shell script to do just the job we need but it is not modeled to handle error conditions, so here are the steps you need to follow,

1. first of all it is used to install a package and not update, if you want to update a package and get all this done from the script then you need to change the command in script from "yum install $1" to "yum update $1".
   
2. say you want to download the xchm viewer for your system
   
3. you first type the command "yum install xchm"
4. it will search for dependencies and take you to a prompt saying you want to download it or not, say no. If you get any other response from yum like saying "Nothing to do" then don't proceed any further.
5. now execute the script with xchm as the argument, i.e. "./yum.sh xchm". It won't ask you this time if you want to download the packages or not.
6. It will create a tar ball of all the packages downloaded and will place it in your home directory.

It is a very simple, unsophisticated maybe inefficient script but I don't think we will be using it for mission critical purposes :) . Download the script here.

PS: Remember this always, it is need which drives innovation.

How to download rpm packages using yum

Yellowdog Updater Modified [ yum ] is used to download and install packages from various repositories. The main advantage of yum is that you can keep track of packages installed and update them as and when necessary. There are a lot of things you can do using yum like auto configuring the update operation, downloading packages from specific repositories, etc. I won't be delving into all that in this post.

Here I will tell a very simple yet one of the most sought after tasks that you can do using yum, i.e. to download and store the packages needed (including the dependencies ) so that you needn't have to download all the packages again if you want to do another local install of the same package.

It is very simple actually, all you need to do is change an entry in the /etc/yum.conf file. You need to set the keepcache entry to 1 i.e. your yum.conf file should look something like this after you have changed it,
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
keepcache=1
debuglevel=2
....
....

if keepcache is set to one then the packages downloaded will not be deleted after install, they will be placed in sub-folders under the cachedir i.e. /var/cache/yum in this case.

you might want to look at this post too - Downloading rpm packages using yum - part II

Linux over Windows - A callow developer's choice

I have been thinking about this for some time now. What will be my answer if someone asks me why did I join Novell, why do I pride about it and for knowing about Solaris (maybe not so much but still... ), for being associated with a company like Sun which is supporting open source with such vigor these days.

I am no expert or any kind of an authoritative person in Linux to fill this post up with so much technicalities that it becomes evident that I must like Linux very much to have spent so much time with it. My view is of a callow, I have been using windows from the time I can remember of having a computer in my room and I have been introduced to Linux only say for the last 2 or 3 years. What is it then that makes me like Linux so much ?

Have you ever taken up Microsoft Certification ? Well, I haven't but my guess is you would have to know quite a lot about various Windows based tools like Windows Server, Visual Studio etc etc. Lets say you did learn all that, now do you feel as if you own it, as if it belongs to you, as if you are the king of the OS ? No, it doesn't feel so. You feel as if you are cooperating with something or someone to get your job done.

Lets have a look at Linux, when you sit in front of the Linux command prompt based terminal and type away commands, being pleased with yourself and of course impressing yourself that you can do what an "expert in Linux" can do. You feel it is yours, it belongs to you, it will obey your commands; as if you "rule" it. All this because it is open source.

This is just my opinion as to why I like Linux so much over windows, that too in such a short time. Maybe this is the reason why so many developers opt for Linux over Windows but instead of accepting that Linux is good they besmirch Windows and gloat at it.

Another Extraordinary Common man - Abhishek Kumar Sinha

First time you look at this guy you will describe him to be reticent but look closely and you will notice that he perspicacious too. By just looking at him you will notice that he is an IIT product ( to be precise - an aspirant ) but unlike most IITians he has virtues lacking in most human beings.

If you get more acquainted with him you will realize that he is at least 10 to 15 years elder (not in literal sense though ) when compared to others of his own peer, seeing the way he thinks or acts in various situations. One of his greatest virtues, is being calm even in most difficult situations and my guess is that life itself taught him to be the best of it. He is a consummate survivor and has been through stuff ( hurdles ) which we keep seeing our heroes in typical hindi movies go through, most interesting thing is that he "wins" in the end just like the hero in the movies we watch. If you are fair, like to pick up challenges, solve puzzles and of course need some space from others, willing to reciprocate too in the same sense then you will like him at first sight ( contact ). He is always focussed unlike most of us who keep living in dreams and enjoying most of the time. Keeping all these aside I like him most for his modest and honest nature, I keep turning to him whenever I need an honest advice on some thing and I am really happy... no proud to say that he is my friend.

I am not a veteran writer so please forgive the lack of emotion ( if any ) which I wanted to add to this epitome of the biography of my friend.
[PS: took the photo from his orkut album]

EggClock - A countdown timer

It has been a long time since I have blogged about anything. There is a lot going on presently in my life, my placements has started, I am doing a project, preparing for GRE. Things apart, I still blog and will continue to blog.

From the moment I won my Nokia N70 till now I have never felt any feature lacking in my mobile. Earlier today when I tried to set a countdown timer in my mobile, I couldn't find one. After trying for some time I felt that I was missing something and searched in google for help. There was the biggest shock, the mobile with all these features does not include a very essential personal management software namely, Countdown timer.

I searched in net for a long time till I found the necessary software. It is called EggClock. If you google for that name you will find it. Anyway here is the link,
http://freenet-homepage.de/hskopp/eggclock.html

It is a niece piece of software, short, simple and meets the requirements (Atleast for me).

Chickamaglur Trip

Me and four of my classmates had been to chickmaglur last week for a two day trip. We had a whole lot of fun and since this was my first "legal" trip it was more special for me. It was all Harsha Valaturu's idea from the beginning. My relatives stay in Chickmaglur, So we had asked them to book us a nice hotel for staying and hire a taxi/vehicle for the trip. By the time we went there everything was setup and we didn't have any problems at all.

First day we went to Kemmangundi, Kallathgiri , Baba Budangiri, Bhadra Dam. We first went to Baba Budangiri where we saw the water falls ( Manikya Dhara )



Saw some nice sceneries there,





next we went to the famous Baba budangiri cave. From there we went to kemmangundi where we didn't find anything interesting other than some flowers and see-saws.



Our next stop was Kalatgiri which was the highlight of the day. Here there is a temple in front of which we have a waterfall ( small one ) we climbed up over the falls to explore more. It was kind of our first trekkin experience so everyone liked it the most.







Then we went to some mess in Tarikere where we had our lunch ; the food was nice there. Our next stop was Bhadra dam, since the dam was closed for visitors we didn't get to see much there. Apart from that we got see the water near the dam , take some pictures and we wounded up for the day.





Back at our rooms we watched Prison Break series just to kill time. I forgot to tell you that we contacted our friend Manoj Kumar who has an estate in chickamagalur and was present there for vacation. He had come to our room that night and we had a lot of fun.

Next day started with many promises, we first went to Manoj's estate,





from there we went to Muthodi forest with a lot of expectations. We went there at 12 noon but they said that we would be allowed to go in only at 4:30 pm. Since we had nothing to do there we climbed down the slope by the road to the stream flowing below.





Me and adarsh were the ones pioneering there. Others just were apprehensive as to what would happen and stuff. Anyway it was our best experience of the day - i should say.



While climbing up we took a different route and we couldn't locate the road beside the stream, so a lot of anxiety was there as to what has to be done next. Up from there we did remove our shirts to free it from the thorns and sticks stuck to it due to our trekking while coming back from the stream.



The worst part of the day was our tour inside the muthodi forest, all we got to see there was some deers, elephant droppings and ofcourse some monkeys. Above all we paid around 400 Rs for that ( what a waste of money ).








Anyway from there we went straight to our rooms and again watched half episode of prison break, packed our things and left the same night with Manoj Kumar.

The rest of the pictures are here PicasaWeb Album.

This was our first trip by ourselves and after this we have madeup our mind to have more of such trips in the future.

Induction Programme at Sun

Just after my exams we had this induction program scheduled at Sun Microsystems Office at Divyashree Chambers. Campus Ambassadors from all over India attended this program.

It was a great experience for me since i got to make many new friends. There were presentations , demos conducted during both the days by highly specialized programmers working at Sun. It was a great experience to learn from the actual developers of the various products. Above all this i came to know how it feels to be an IT professional.

We also had a tour of the Sun Microsystems Office ; their labs, support and services department etc. It was great to see the servers ( Niagara ) running with my own eyes.

Apart from all these it was also the valuable information imparted to us during demos about Solaris, NetBeans which are driving me to learn more about them.

We as Sun Campus Ambassadors get a lot of free resources, study materials etc. We also get paid 8000/- per month. Our job is to see that more and more students know about solaris, netbeans and other Sun products and also start using it ( don't forget i am the "ambassador" of Sun ).

I plan to provide my fellow students, faculty with many opportunities and benefits like,

1. Getting a lot of study materials for our college by enrolling our college for the SAI.
2. Obtaining discounts for students who wish to take up certification and also provide them with required learning materials.
3. Getting them guidance from experts working at Sun through User groups etc.
4. Conducting contests with attractive prizes to be won.

I really am apprehensive about what is going to happen when college starts and i will have to give a seminar to an audience full of seniors, lecturers and others.