As usual, come from 11:30am-1pm at BetaLoftSLC (357 W 200 S #201)  - http://betaloftslc.com

This month, I thought I would share a basic git introduction.  In my opinion, the best Source Control Management (SCM) system out right now.  I’ve been using it for nigh on a year and I have converted a few systems over to it from svn.  This is more of a work session than a presentation, so come on down and learn how to use git.  It is recommended that you bring your laptops with you as that will benefit more if you do.

Some suggested topics I can cover:

• Local and remote git repositories (different workflows and other fun stuff)
• Using git-svn to ‘convert’ from svn
• Comparing Distributed Revision Control with Traditional (non-distributed) Revision Control
• Git hooks, why they are valuable and when to use them
• Other basic git discussions

See you all there.

Cheers,

Herlo

I am very sad to report, there will not be any pressed F12 media at FUDCon this time.

However, I expect the financial details to be sorted out sometime between now and Monday.  If this happens, it’s quite possible we can deliver media starting next week.  Still pretty fast, considering.

I guess every FUDCon can’t be perfect, but we’re still going to make this a great event!

If you are in the area, or wish to participate from afar, we’ve got ways for you to get involved.  FUDCon is always free and I’ve got two remote microphones and two mixers that I plan on using to record and stream the audio from two rooms.  I’m also working on a way to stream/record the desktop of the presenter at the same time so we can have audio and video from the desktops in real time (we’ll see if this part happens).  I might even suggest a hackfest on Monday to make it more solid if I can’t get it working tonight/tomorrow.

I’m excited to see all my friends at FUDCon.

Cheers,

Clint

Everything Just Works(TM).

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a system working with great sound, awesome graphics and very usable GNOME and KDE desktops.  I really like the new NetworkManager features and the ability to tether any device, vpnc and other easy-to-configure options.  KVM support is much improved with the new libguestfs improvements.

Fedora 12 media should be available on December 3, if you are a Fedora Ambassador in North America, start requesting media* for your events (and ambassador kits).

You can get your copy today!!

Cheers,

Herlo

*NOTE: This request page is not for the freemedia project. You must be a Fedora Contributor to request media.  Join the Fedora Project today and help us continue making Fedora the best operating system!!

RSSCloud is an open protocol which creates a loosely-coupled Twitter-like network of people and 140 character status messages.  In plainer language, it enables real-time status updates on anything that can be pushed via RSS.  Why should you care?  Come to the SLLUG daytime SIG meeting to find out.

More information can be found at http://rsscloud.org/

So why not come down to BetaLoft next Wednesday, November 11, from 11:30am-1pm and learn about RSSCloud.

Cheers,

Herlo

This project was dreamed up by Mr. Ian Weller and he graciously let me tag along to get the thing going.  At the Utah Open Source Conference tomorrow, we’re going to be digging into a workflow and concept around the items needed to make FES work.  We’ll be hanging out from 12:30-5pm in room 209 while we work on the project, feel free to drop by and ask questions as well.

So if you are interested in FES, come join us at UTOSC or remotely in #fedora-fad on irc.freenode.net

Cheers,

Herlo

To do this, I’ve been using a centralized git repository using gitosis and gitweb.  Because it’s behind the Backcountry firewalls, there is no easy way to share our repository data.  However, there are some great git repos at github, which I highly recommend.

Anyway, we do the hub-and-spoke model with our git repositories.  Meaning that we have a central repository where much of the data is stored so everyone can get access.  Of course, though, most people clone these repositories and work on the code where they choose.  Because we have several people pushing puppet data to our repository, which has been on subversion until 2 weeks ago, I am keen on making sure the puppet code we push to the central repo is at least syntactically valid.

Git Hooks: The skinny

Essentially, the key here is to understand is that git, like many other popular revision control systems is distributed.  This means that many people keep repos locally and push to the central repository after many many commits (or just one or two).  Git keeps the history in a clean way and all of the commits are pushed and tracked.  Essentially, we need some way to validate the data coming in from an outside source.  Enter git hooks.

There are several git hooks, but three that are quite critical to this scenario; pre-commit, pre-receive and post-receive.

The first, pre-commit is specific to the repository where the commit is taking place, such that a validation of the puppet syntax here is useful to help the person writing the puppet rules.

Next is post-receive which is generally useful for sending out emails after a successful push.  It would list the files and the diff of each in an email to those who wish to know about the commit.

And finally, the least documented of the bunch; the one with the least amount of examples, pre-receive.  The pre-receive hook has some really awesome power, but without knowing the git commands backward and forward, it can be very frustrating to get working.

The value of the pre-receive hook

Whenever a push is made to the centralized repository, you don’t just want to let any willy nilly commit crawl in there.  You can’t trust that the author of the commits did his part to validate the code.  So you need to at least do some basic checks.  That is what the pre-receive hook does.  In the following example, I am parsing files that end in ‘.pp’ with puppet syntax validation as you would do from the command line.

#!/bin/bash

while read old_sha1 new_sha1 refname anothervalue ; do
    list=$(git show --pretty="format:" --name-only $new_sha1 | grep -e ".pp$")
    for tmpfile in ${list}; do
        git show ${new_sha1}:${tmpfile} | puppet --color=false --confdir=/tmp --vardir=/tmp --parseonly --ignoreimport
        if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then exit 1; fi
    done
done

exit $?

The above script, placed in a bare repository at hooks/pre-receive with the execute (+x) bit turned on, will get a list of files that end in ‘.pp’ and run the puppet validator for the newest commit in the push.  Essentially, I can validate someone else’s puppet code in just a few seconds and return a failure if it doesn’t succeed.  With git hooks, a failure means no commit/push/etc will actually happen.

I sure hope this helps someone else to understand pre-receive hooks as well as git hooks in general.  If you have any helpful suggestions or comments, those are most welcome as well.

Cheers,

Herlo

Thank you UTOS Core Team

In addition, it’s been great to have a Conference Manager this year.  Will Smith (aka undertakingyou) has taken these reigns with fire and he’s really picked up the leadership role.  Thank you Will for doing an amazing job.  I know his role will continue to grow as we start our transition into a 501c3 this year, I am excited to have him leading the Core Team charge!

I would also like to recognize the hard work of Barry McCormick.  He’s been a bulldog at getting our program together this year.  His hard work, dedication and shear will has made this years conference program the best I’ve seen.  50+ presentations, several events, scheduling requests, etc.  Even through the flu last week, he was finalizing details.

We have an awesome art and marketing team.  Victor Villa heads up this department, with contributions from Velda Christensen (and former Core Team member Emily Shaw).  I want to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and dedication to detail and spreading the open source love around the Mountain West.

Jason Hall is heading up our volunteer efforts this year.  As the emcee again, we’re excited to have a volunteer manager that will assign and maneuver 50+ volunteers.  The call for volunteers has officially closed, but there’s always 2010.  Come and see the volunteers at work, Jayce^ has them all lined up and ready to go!

While we’ve had some bumps and bruises with our sponsorship position, Justin Carmony has really stepped in to make that role work.  We’ve been able to secure some really good sponsorships this year due to his hard work.  I’m excited to see what the future hold with our sponsorships and Justin at the helm.

Our Network is going to be stellar again this year.  I don’t know of any free software community conference that can boast 100mb/s lines, free wifi and drops to every booth in the convention center.  Trevor Sharpe (Heartsbane) and Nick Brooks (peno) have done an amazing job with this as well.

Securing our parties, getting printable schedules, providing the topics with which our emcee will hand out SWAG, talk about different organizations, introduce presenters and talk about our sponsors is C.R. Oldham.  C.R. joined the core team as an effort to bolster another group, HopeKids, which he will do during the conference.  He’s been a great asset to our core team and we look forward to seeing him for years to come.

And finally, because well, he’d want it that way.  Without our Code Guru, Adam Barrett, the website would look a little bare (or bear, since that’s his nickname).  The site would probably be still in a state of disarray and those schedules, layouts with all the pretty boxes and such would not be there.  He’s working on some more amazing things each week as we meet for our HackNights (which anyone is welcome to attend).  I suspect you’ll see some really cool features at the conference that are part of Adam’s evil plan.

This is the Utah Open Source Core Team.  If you see them at the Utah Open Source Conference, please take a moment to thank them for their hard work.  I know that I will!!

Please register today, we have a few days left before the prices go up.  Promo codes are available for up to 50% off registration at any time.  Contact a LUG or Sponsor if you would like a promo code for discounted registration.

Cheers,

Herlo

I have been looking at airfare, hotel and other travel accommodations to FUDCon, but I seem to have more options than I can count.  Maybe some of you can make recommendations?  So here’s the details of my dilemma:

Option 1: Fly direct to Toronto

Now, of course, this is the easiest of the three options; in and out of Toronto International Airport (YYZ) is a great way to go.  What’s that you say?  Oh, right.  The cost prohibitive trip of a ticket that is well over $600.  WOW! That is all I can say…

Option 2: Fly to Boston and ride the FUDBus

To me, this option is the most appealing.  While I know that I can most likely crash with someone in Boston and then ride the FUDBus up, it’s going to be a bit more painful, but it might be worth the organizational headache to make what could become an epic hackfest (8+ hours) happen for me.

In this case, I would have to fly in Thursday evening, since the FUDBus leaves at around 9am from Alewife station in Boston.  And upon return, Tuesday morning could turn into Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday evening.  A bit scarier here for scheduling return flights.  The other part of this is the actual FUDCon event is only Saturday through Monday (Dec 5-7) so I would have to miss 5+ days of work, not just 1 or possibly 2 with the other options.

The price of this flight is a mere $409 round trip, a savings of over $180, so it could be worth the extra time as long as I don’t have to get an extra hotel room.

Option 3: Fly to New York City and ride a bus to get to the FUDBus

I have a good friend in Jon Stanley, who offered to put me up at his place on Thursday night, which is essentially the same as flying into Boston.  But there are a few benefits as well.  One is that the bus from NYC to Boston has an additional 4ish hours we’d get to hack and chat.  Since I’m really wanting to join the Fedora Infrastructure team, it would be a good opportunity to get my wings.  The other is that the cost from SLC to JFK is another $50 – $75 cheaper than Boston.

The drawbacks of having to leave earlier and travel longer seem to be a mitigating circumstance and really might be something I want to do.  I’m just not sure I’m willing to awake at 4am Eastern (2am Mountain) to take the bus to take the FUDBus.

Option 4: Fly to Buffalo and ride the bus to Toronto

This option seems the most economical and has the least amount of hassles save actually flying into Toronto.  Essentially, I would fly into Buffalo on Friday afternoon, catch a bus that would drive across the border and into Toronto.  The return trip is about as simple, just hop on the bus on Tuesday morning, and fly home that afternoon from Buffalo.  The cost is great too!  At a measly $200 round trip from Salt Lake, now that’s a deal!

I think the thing I am fighting with Buffalo, is that I’ll be doing this all by myself.  While it seems economical, I really, really would like to get on that FUDBus for the hackfest I am sure will happen.  Collaborating for an additional 8 hours is really really tempting.  Going to Buffalo would pretty much eliminate that option.  While I am a bit concerned about crossing the border and such, I don’ think it’s going to be the decision maker or cause me any real heartache.

Decisions, Decisions!

So what would you do?  How would you go to Toronto?  I have the funds right now and want to get everything booked in advance so I don’t have to worry about the details later.  I think my biggest debate point has to be whether to ride the FUDBus.  Money is probably the secondary issue, but comparing that seems to put Buffalo first without question.

I’m really excited either way for FUDCon this year.  I have some really good ideas to share and want to start building out a great Ambassador portal as well.  More on that to come!

Cheers,

Herlo

Now, I’ll be there from around 9am to about 1pm, so it might be good to come and hang out.  I’ll be dropping some Fedora DVDs and CDs by (which I need more Live Media already gah!) so people can pick them up and try out the coolest operating system in the world!

At about 3pm, I’m headed over to a friends house for boardgames.  We’re going to play ‘Arkham Horror’, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, which should be fun as I have never played it before.  Both jennifer and I are attending with some friends I’ve had for a short while now.  Should be a blast.

If it is really good, I’ll suggest playing it at the Boardgame Bash at UTOSC 2009 (you knew I couldn’t resist putting in a plug for the conference, did you?!)

Lastly, I’ll be settling in for the evening probably recovering from the hard week around 10 or 11 catch up on sleep and prep for golfing with my brothers on Sunday.

It’ll be a very nice weekend I think, looking forward to the excitement and relaxation.  I’m very excited to be semi-busy, but doing what I love.  I sure hope it turns out as well as I anticipate.

Cheers,

Herlo

Location:

BetaLoft SLC – 357 West 200 S, Suite 201, Salt Lake City
Map

See you all there.

Clint