Category: Programming

Configuring SSHKit in Automated Tests

Posted on by Robert Starsi

When using Ruby’s SSHKit gem in your application, you might want to test code that uses it. Most likely, you don’t want to connect to real servers when automated tests are run. Luckily SSHKit includes a backend just for that, called Printer.

You can easily configure your test suite to use it:

SSHKit.configure do |kit|
  kit.backend = SSHKit::Backend::Printer
end

In a Rails application for example, simply add this to your test_helper.rb. Now all the execute statements will be printer to the standard output.

You can also implement your own SSHKit backend, based on the Printer class, if you need something more involved, like saving all the commands into a Thread.current variable and running assertions on them within your test.

MacOS Ventura firewall repeatedly asks to accept incoming connections when reinstalling a Ruby version with rbenv

Posted on by Robert Starsi

On my Intel iMac on macOS Ventura 13.4 I ran into this annoying issue when reinstalling the same version of Ruby (3.2.2 for example) with rbenv. When running rails test:system the firewall’s “Accept incoming connections” dialog would pop every time, no matter whether you Denied or Allowed the connection to go through previously, making testing quite painful.

I couldn’t find a working solution through googling, but ChatGPT was able to help. It’s as simple as:

sudo codesign --force --sign - $HOME/.rbenv/versions/3.2.2/bin/ruby

Simply find the ruby bin version you’re having problems with inside your .rbenv folder and instruct macOS to re-sign it. The expected output should be something like:

/Users/klevo/.rbenv/versions/3.2.2/bin/ruby: replacing existing signature

After that, you’ll need to confirm or deny the “Accept incoming connections” Firewall dialog when running something like system test suite, but afterwards the Firewall should remember your choice.

Lastly, this only seems to affect Intel Macs. At least for me, no such issue occurred when reinstalling ruby with rbenv on an ARM MacBook.

Thanks AI 🙂

Who is this feature for?

Posted on by Robert Starsi

In software development, when thinking about and designing new features, or trying to solve existing issues, it’s important to, early, ask the question: Who is this feature for?

That applies to writing tools intended for your developer colleagues, web application features for customers or anything in between.

I found, that the result only tends to be good, if the feature or solution was actually designed for a specific person, doing specific task and this solution allows them to improve the way they do this task considerably.

For example when deciding for a Content Management System for a website, developers often jump to first evaluating various offerings out there, based on features, APIs and supported languages. Instead of first identifying the person that is going to be working with such a system and establishing what their workflow is going to be. What’s important for them, what’s not important and only based on that then look for a solution, or build a custom one.

Tools that are build for a very specific need and for a real person that can tell you, this helps, or not; tend to end up being simpler, more pleasurable to use, last longer and require less maintenance and generally tend to achieve the goal set out for them at the beginning.

Bash: Underscore a String

Posted on by Robert Starsi

I find it weird that I did not find a ready made script for this immediately through a google search. So this is what I arrived at after some digging:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
read input
str="$(echo $input | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')"
printf ${str// /_}

Use it with stdin:

echo "Underscore Me" | underscore
underscore_me

I use this in TextMate when I need to convert normal english string/text into a parameter/key.

Automate everything

Posted on by Robert Starsi

To automate everything, even the smallest things (scripts), is a lesson I continuously learn while doing programming.

Let’s take MySQL and setting up replication for example. For years I would rely on googling and then copy and pasting the same few SQL commands to configure the master, slave and start the replication. Forward to around now, while crafting the Percona Docker Container I finally decided to encapsulate the process into 2 simple to use and remember commands.

Now, I can just exec into my MySQL container and type:

replication_master_sql

To get the SQL to execute on the master, tailored for the particular configuration. Once I execute this SQL on the master, I finish the whole “process” and start the replication with something like:

start_replication mysql-bin.000001 107

Where the last two arguments are the binlog position of where to start the replication.

When I first used this in production, the experience was like night and day compared to looking up the correct queries and then modifying them according to my setup. Thus—automate everything. It pays of every time you need it afterwards.

Recent projects

Posted on by Robert Starsi

A few days ago I’ve launched a new website for the Equal Money System project. The project is about a complete social and economic change, worldwide.

I really enjoyed doing the graphic design and I am satisfied with how it turned out. The feedback of the community is also very positive. Programming wise it was nothing advanced – it’s backed by the excellent WordPress, which I am again “falling in love” with.

Equal Money For All