Gandalf's Blog

Use fcron like anacron

2026-10-29T01:45:57Z

By default, after installing and enabling the fcron daemon, you won't get hourly, daily, weekly and monthly execution of the scripts in the respective /etc/cron.* directories, if your system is asleep at the wrong moment.

Here's a crontab which will work like anacron:

As root, execute: fcrontab -u systab -e

...comment-out the existing lines from the text that appears, and type in the following:

    %hourly,runas(root) 0-59 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.hourly

    %daily,runas(root) 0-59 0-23 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.daily

    %weekly,runas(root) 0-59 0-23 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.weekly

    %monthly,runas(root) 0-59 0-23 1-31 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

...and then save.

HOWTO: Set up etckeeper on Void Linux

2026-10-29T02:47:58Z

etckeeper keeps track of all the changes you make to your /etc directory over time. It keeps a .git repo inside of /etc, and will do a git commit:

* before and after installing or removing a void package
* once a day (with cron)

Since Void Linux will serve the package in its original form and won't configure it for you, here's the steps you need to follow to make it do the above:

1. Install the etckeeper package
2. Create or edit an /etc/.gitignore file to include files you don't want to be versioned (such as resolv.conf)
3. As use root run: etckeeper init, and then: etckeeper commit "first commit"
4. Create a symbolic link from /etc/cron.daily/etckeeper to /etc/etckeeper/daily

Then create these three executable files:

** /usr/local/bin/xbps-install **:

    #!/usr/bin/env perl

    

    use v5.42;

    

    use English '$UID';

    

    my $binary = trim((`which -a xbps-install`)[1]) or die "No deep xbps-install binary found";

    system('etckeeper pre-install') or die "Couldn't execute 'etckeeper pre-install'\n" unless $UID;

    !system($binary, @ARGV) or die "Couldn't execute this: $binary @ARGV\n";

    !system('etckeeper post-install') or die "Couldn't execute 'etckeeper post-install'\n" unless $UID;

** /usr/local/bin/xbps-remove **:

    #!/usr/bin/env perl

    

    use v5.42;

    

    use English '$UID';

    

    my $binary = trim((`which -a xbps-remove`)[1]) or die "No deep xbps-remove binary found";

    !system('etckeeper pre-install') or die "Couldn't execute 'etckeeper pre-install'\n" unless $UID;

    !system($binary, @ARGV) or die "Couldn't execute this: $binary @ARGV\n";

    !system('etckeeper post-install') or die "Couldn't execute 'etckeeper post-install'\n" unless $UID;

** /etc/cron.daily/01-record_manual_packages ** (note you need to install xtools to get xpkg):

    #!/bin/sh

    

    xpkg -m > /etc/my_list_of_manual_pkgs

And you're done.

Update multiple rows to different values

2026-10-28T21:34:49Z

Think it's impossible to apply different values to different rows with just one PostgreSQL query?

Think again.

Check this out:

    UPDATE my_table

        SET foo = my_table.foo + new_table.foo

        FROM (VALUES (1, 5), (2,6), (3,7)) AS new_table(id, foo)

        WHERE my_table.id = new_table.id;

My de-Googling efforts

2026-10-28T20:46:18Z

While you're all busy using Google for everything, I've been transitioning to other solutions to avoid "feeding the monster" as I say, often paying hefty amounts of €€ to be able to use the same stuff you get for free.

But I don't mind.

* My searches are conducted with kagi.com, for which I pay 10 bucks a month.
* E-mail is hosted at fastmail.com for €5/mo.
* Cloud hosting is done at German Hetzner.
* I have a GrapheneOS phone in my posession.

A better 'cd' for JS nvm users

2026-10-28T20:41:19Z

nvm's official script for automatically switching node version while cd'ing into different projects is very slow. Every invocation of cd takes a long time regardless of whether a new project is reached.

A speedy alternative has been proposed in nvm's github issues, and it works fine.

Copying from github issue #3508, the following is the proposed script that can be placed in .bashrc:

    cdnvm() {

        command cd "$@" || return $?

        eval $(bash <<'END'

            dir=$(pwd)

            while true; do

                if [ -f "$dir/.nvmrc" ]; then

                    current_v=$(node -v | sed 's/^v//; s/[[:space:]]*$//')

                    this_v=$(cat "$dir/.nvmrc" | sed 's/^v//; s/[[:space:]]*$//')

                    

                    if [ "$this_v" != "$current_v" ]; then

                        echo "nvm use"

                    fi

                    break

                fi

                

                if [ "$dir" = "/" ]; then

                    break

                fi

                

                dir=$(dirname "$dir")

            done

    END

        )

    }

    

    alias cd='cdnvm'

    cdnvm "$PWD" || exit

Code-blocks with link tags

2026-10-28T20:41:33Z

Hi there, this should be a normal link: Google

And another one: Duck.com

    #!/usr/bin/env perl

    

    say "Hello, world!";

    

    say "And another one: [Duck.com](https://duck.com)";

    say "And another one: ![Duck.com](https://duck.com)";

And another one: Duck.com

Usenet trumped Facebook

2026-10-28T20:41:44Z

I find that discussions on Usenet when the Internet existed only in universities were more civil, thought-provoking and intelligent than what we have nowadays in facebook and other social media/forum sites, and I believe the reasons for this were mainly technical:

* Discussions were deeply threaded, while facebook allows only two levels of replies to exist
* Messages could be very long without making the discussion any harder to follow
* It was easy to scroll to older discussions, browsable by title (subject line) and searchable, like e-mail
* They allowed users to post anonymously

Perhaps in the future a modern forum website will replicate the above?

Images

2026-10-28T20:41:54Z

Clopyright Trudy & Doug

Disable cookie banners

2026-10-28T20:42:13Z

1. Install the uBlock Origin browser add-on (not available on Chrome)
2. uBlock Origin settings → "filter lists" tab → in the search box there type: cookie → tick all the checkboxes → click on the "apply settings" button

My Void Linux review

2026-10-28T20:42:30Z

I've been using Void Linux for the last two years. Here's the good and bad things I found about it:

Good:
* Rolling-release distro: recent software packages, unlike Ubuntu, without needing to re-install the entire OS
* Stable rolling-release distro: Like Tumbleweed, the packages have been tested before being released
* Good, concise documentation
* Very minimal base system
* Unopinionated: wide choice of cron daemons, DEs, NTP daemons, etc
* Easy to contribute to, with guiding documents
* Good support on IRC
* Works perfectly with Steam
* Being a community distro ensures it won't get discontinued anytime soon
* Fast system updates

Bad:
* KDE broke twice because not all KDE/Plasma packages had been updated in the repo at the time of my update. Situation fixed itself by updating again the following day.
* Not for absolute beginners in Linux

Code blocks

2026-10-28T20:42:40Z

    #!/usr/bin/env perl

    

    use v5.44;

    

    sub foo ($x, $y) {

        return $x + $y;

    }

    

    say foo(10, 20);

Another code block:

    #!/usr/bin/env perl

    

    use v5.44;

    use FindBin '$RealBin';

    use lib "$RealBin/local/lib/perl5";

    

    use Mojo::Pg;

    

    my $pg = Mojo::Pg->new('postgtresql://user:pass@localhost/website');

And HTML, with multiple blank lines:

    <!-- line 1 -->

    <strong>Bold text</strong>

    

    

    

    <!-- line 2 -->

    <em>Italic text</em>

Multi-line posts

2026-10-28T20:42:48Z

Line 1
Line 2

Line 3 (with one blank line above it)

Line 4 (with three blank lines above it)

This is my new blog

2026-10-28T20:42:58Z

Enjoy.