Open Tech Notes

Let Apachefriends supports Pspell extension for PHP 5.2.5

Apachefriends is great project that facilitate the configuration of LAMP,  but it’s latest version(1.6.5a) does not support Pspell extension for PHP which is required in our development team.

Fortunately, Apachefriends project provides a development package so that I can take advantage of it to re-compile the PHP. My Linux version is CentOS 4.5 final, all the steps are pretty straightforward:

1) Download latest apachefriends packages (both working package and development package) and install them.
2) Download PHP 5.2.5 and untar it
3) yum install pspell-devel
4) Download libbz2 and install it
5) Hack the PHP configuration
    
   This is the original apachefriends’s php configuration

./configure –prefix=/opt/lampp –with-apxs2=/opt/lampp/bin/apxs –with-config-file-path=/opt/lampp/etc –with-mysql=/opt/lampp –enable-inline-optimization –disable-debug –enable-bcmath –enable-calendar –enable-ctype –enable-dbase –enable-discard-path –enable-exif –enable-filepro –enable-force-cgi-redirect –enable-ftp –enable-gd-imgstrttf –enable-gd-native-ttf –with-ttf –enable-magic-quotes –enable-memory-limit –enable-shmop –enable-sigchild –enable-sysvsem –enable-sysvshm –enable-track-vars –enable-trans-sid –enable-wddx –enable-yp –with-ftp –with-gdbm=/opt/lampp –with-jpeg-dir=/opt/lampp –with-png-dir=/opt/lampp –with-freetype-dir=/opt/lampp –without-xpm –with-zlib=yes –with-zlib-dir=/opt/lampp –with-openssl=/opt/lampp –with-expat-dir=/opt/lampp –enable-xslt=/opt/lampp –with-xsl=/opt/lampp –with-dom=/opt/lampp –with-ldap=/opt/lampp –with-ncurses=/opt/lampp –with-gd –with-imap-dir=/opt/lampp –with-imap-ssl –with-imap=/opt/lampp –with-gettext=/opt/lampp –with-mssql=/opt/lampp –with-sybase=/opt/lampp –with-interbase=shared,/opt/interbase –with-mysql-sock=/opt/lampp/var/mysql/mysql.sock –with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/opt/lampp/lib/instantclient –with-mcrypt=/opt/lampp –with-mhash=/opt/lampp –enable-sockets –enable-mbstring=all –with-curl=/opt/lampp –enable-mbregex –enable-zend-multibyte –enable-exif –with-bz2=/opt/lampp –with-sqlite=shared,/opt/lampp –with-libxml-dir=/opt/lampp –enable-soap –enable-pcntl –with-mysqli=/opt/lampp/bin/mysql_config –with-mime-magic –with-pgsql=shared,/opt/lampp/postgresql –with-iconv –enable-dio –with-pdo-mysql=/opt/lampp –with-pdo-pgsql=/opt/lampp/postgresql –with-pdo-sqlite –with-ming=shared,/opt/lampp

Because we only use MySQL , so I remove other database support from it such as:

–with-pdo-pgsql=/opt/lampp/postgresql
–with-pgsql=shared,/opt/lampp/postgresql
–with-oci8=shared,instantclient,/opt/lampp/lib/instantclient
–with-interbase=shared,/opt/interbase

Of course, in order to support Pspell extension, add this at the end

–with-pspell=/usr

6) re-compile the php

Done!   

“ip route” causes problem

After I re setup the server, there are two weird things happened.

1) I use SSH remotely access the server, after I input the password, it took me about 20 seconds to login in.
2) some clients complained that they could not access the website whereas others could.

After dinner, I came across my friend’s home, in his computer, the website could not be accessible.

Then, I was thinking … he used different ISP, the ip address in his computer starts with 64 whereas mine starts with 24.

I login the server again and type "ip route" and found there was an entry forward all ip start with 64 to one special ip address.(who set this?)

After I deleted this ip route, the two problems above are gone!

post commit

Programmers require that they want see the effect right after they commit their codes and fortunately the SVN system provides such a great tool to do so.

Under /repository name/hooks/, there is a file called post-commit.tmpl, it is a template file that you can revise it to fit your needs.

Upon the requirements from programmers, I have implemented two post commit scripts:

1) the website and the SVN server  reside in the same machine
2) the website and the SVN server  reside in two different machine

MySQL Could not start on Apache Friends

Today, I setup security for  Apache Friends package on one of my CentOS (5.0 final) servers. After I followed the command:

./lampp security

setup password for the lampp demo web page
turn off access Mysql via the network

Then, the Mysql server could not start. Even I use command:

./lampp startmysql

it said

Mysql Starting and exit to command line.

(note: the apache friends package version is 1.63a)

So, I went to apachefriends.org to find the answer and unfortunately I did not find anything that can help. I decided to upgrade it to the latest version(1.63b) because this server is currently not in service. I don’t worry about the data lose. Upgrading was smooth, but it did not work too.

Anyway, the last result, I removed the whole folder /lampp from /opt and re-installed  apache friends version 1.63b. It worked fine.

One thing I need to remember: Don’t forget stop lampp before remove the folder /lampp, otherwise, it will waste a lot of time to kill some process manually.

Setup Clam Antivirus & SpamAssassin

I followed the original setup guide (part 14) and will make some modifications here

—————————————————————–

vi /etc/clamd.conf

"Example" - should already be commented out. However, if it is not, make sure that it is commented out (#)
"LogFile" - should be set to /var/log/clamav/clamd.log
"LogTime" - should be uncommmented.
"LogSyslog" - should be uncommented.
"User" - should be set to qscand
"ScanMail" - should be uncommented.

—————————————————————–

Because the user is set to qscand, I have to change the owner and group of /var/log/clamav to qscand. the commands as follow:

chgrp -R qscand /var/log/clamav
chown -R qscand /var/log/clamav

otherwise, it won’t start.

And

I need grant write permission to others, otherwise the virus definition update can’t proceed. the command is:

chmond -R o=rwx /var/log/clamav   (the original permission is rx)

Furthermore, here is the good place to download the latest version of Clamav

http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/clamav/