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Author SHA1 Message Date
Cadey Ratio d6468f5382 step 1 2019-06-05 07:38:21 -04:00
323 changed files with 2049 additions and 29644 deletions

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.envrc
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eval "$(lorri direnv)"

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.gitattributes vendored
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nix/sources.nix linguist-vendored

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.github/FUNDING.yml vendored
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# These are supported funding model platforms
github: Xe
patreon: cadey
ko_fi: A265JE0

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name: "Nix"
on:
push:
branches:
- main
pull_request:
branches:
- main
jobs:
docker-build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v1
- uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v12
- uses: cachix/cachix-action@v7
with:
name: xe
- run: nix build --no-link

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.gitignore vendored
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cw.tar
.env
.DS_Store
/result-*
/result
.#*
/target

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.travis.yml Normal file
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language: generic
services:
- docker
script:
- docker build .

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# Changelog
New site features will be documented here.
## 2.1.0
- Blogpost bodies are now present in the RSS feed
## 2.0.1
Custom render RSS/Atom feeds
## 2.0.0
Complete site rewrite in Rust

2841
Cargo.lock generated

File diff suppressed because it is too large Load Diff

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[package]
name = "xesite"
version = "2.2.0"
authors = ["Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>"]
edition = "2018"
build = "src/build.rs"
repository = "https://github.com/Xe/site"
# See more keys and their definitions at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html
[dependencies]
color-eyre = "0.5"
chrono = "0.4"
comrak = "0.9"
envy = "0.4"
glob = "0.3"
hyper = "0.14"
kankyo = "0.3"
lazy_static = "1.4"
log = "0.4"
mime = "0.3.0"
prometheus = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["process"] }
rand = "0"
reqwest = { version = "0.11", features = ["json"] }
sdnotify = { version = "0.1", default-features = false }
serde_dhall = "0.9.0"
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
serde_yaml = "0.8"
sitemap = "0.4"
thiserror = "1"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }
tracing = "0.1"
tracing-futures = "0.2"
tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.2", features = ["fmt"] }
warp = "0.3"
xml-rs = "0.8"
url = "2"
uuid = { version = "0.8", features = ["serde", "v4"] }
# workspace dependencies
cfcache = { path = "./lib/cfcache" }
go_vanity = { path = "./lib/go_vanity" }
jsonfeed = { path = "./lib/jsonfeed" }
mi = { path = "./lib/mi" }
patreon = { path = "./lib/patreon" }
[build-dependencies]
ructe = { version = "0.13", features = ["warp02"] }
[dev-dependencies]
pfacts = "0"
serde_json = "1"
eyre = "0.6"
pretty_env_logger = "0"
[workspace]
members = [
"./lib/*",
]

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Dockerfile Normal file
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FROM xena/go:1.12.1 AS build
ENV GOPROXY https://cache.greedo.xeserv.us
COPY . /site
WORKDIR /site
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 go test -v ./...
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOBIN=/root go install -v ./cmd/site
FROM xena/alpine
EXPOSE 5000
RUN apk add --no-cache bash
WORKDIR /site
COPY --from=build /root/site .
COPY ./static /site/static
COPY ./templates /site/templates
COPY ./blog /site/blog
COPY ./talks /site/talks
COPY ./css /site/css
COPY ./app /app
COPY ./app.json .
HEALTHCHECK CMD wget --spider http://127.0.0.1:5000/.within/health || exit 1
CMD ./site

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Copyright (c) 2017-2021 Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>
Copyright (c) 2017 Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages

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# site
[![built with
nix](https://builtwithnix.org/badge.svg)](https://builtwithnix.org)
![Nix](https://github.com/Xe/site/workflows/Nix/badge.svg)
![Rust](https://github.com/Xe/site/workflows/Rust/badge.svg)
My personal/portfolio website.
![](https://puu.sh/vWnJx/57cda175d8.png)

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2.1.0

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app.json Normal file
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{
"scripts": {
"dokku": {
"postdeploy": "curl https://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=https://christine.website/sitemap.xml"
}
}
}

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app/CHECKS Normal file
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/ Christine

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---
title: The 7th Edition
date: 2020-12-19
tags:
- ttrpg
---
# The 7th Edition
You know what, fuck rules. Fuck systems. Fuck limitations. Let's dial the
tabletop RPG system down to its roots. Let's throw out every stat but one:
Awesomeness. When you try to do something that could fail, roll for Awesomeness.
If your roll is more than your awesomeness stat, you win. If not, you lose. If
you are or have something that would benefit you in that situation, roll for
awesomeness twice and take the higher value.
No stats.<br />
No counts.<br />
No limits.<br />
No gods.<br />
No masters.<br />
Just you and me and nature in the battlefield.
* Want to shoot an arrow? Roll for awesomeness. You failed? You're out of ammo.
* Want to, defeat a goblin but you have a goblin-slaying-broadsword? Roll twice
for awesomeness and take the higher value. You got a 20? That goblin was
obliterated. Good job.
* Want to pick up an item into your inventory? Roll for awesomeness. You got it?
It's in your inventory.
Etc. Don't think too hard. Let a roll of the dice decide if you are unsure.
## Base Awesomeness Stats
Here are some probably balanced awesomeness base stats depending on what kind of
dice you are using:
* 6-sided: 4 or 5
* 8-sided: 5 or 6
* 10-sided: 6 or 7
* 12-sided: 7 or 8
* 20-sided: anywhere from 11-13
## Character Sheet Template
Here's an example character sheet:
```
Name:
Awesomeness:
Race:
Class:
Inventory:
*
```
That's it. You don't even need the race or class if you don't want to have it.
You can add more if you feel it is relevant for your character. If your
character is a street brat that has experience with haggling, then fuck it be
the most street brattiest haggler you can. Try to not overload your sheet with
information, this game is supposed to be simple. A sentence or two at most is
good.
## One Player is The World
The World is a character that other systems would call the Narrator, the
Pathfinder, Dungeon Master or similar. Let's strip this down to the core of the
matter. One player doesn't just dictate the world, they _are_ the world.
The World also controls the monsters and non-player characters. In general, if
you are in doubt as to who should roll for an event, The World does that roll.
## Mixins/Mods
These are things you can do to make the base game even more tailored to your
group. Whether you should do this is highly variable to the needs and whims of
your group in particular.
### Mixin: Adjustable Awesomeness
So, one problem that could come up with this is that bad luck could make this
not as fun. As a result, add these two rules in:
* Every time you roll above your awesomeness, add 1 to your awesomeness stat
* Every time you roll below your awesomeness, remove 1 from your awesomeness
stat
This should add up so that luck would even out over time. Players that have less
luck than usual will eventually get their awesomeness evened out so that luck
will be in their favor.
### Mixin: No Awesomeness
In this mod, rip out Awesomeness altogether. When two parties are at odds, they
both roll dice. The one that rolls higher gets what they want. If they tie, both
people get a little part of what they want. For extra fun do this with six-sided
dice.
* Monster wants to attack a player? The World and that player roll. If the
player wins, they can choose to counterattack. If the monster wins, they do a
wound or something.
* One player wants to steal from another? Have them both roll to see what
happens.
Use your imagination! Ask others if you are unsure!
## Other Advice
This is not essential but it may help.
### Monster Building
Okay so basically monsters fall into two categories: peons and bosses. Peons
should be easy to defeat, usually requiring one action. Bosses may require more
and might require more than pure damage to defeat. Get clever. Maybe require the
players to drop a chandelier on the boss. Use the environment.
In general, peons should have a very high base awesomeness in order to do things
they want. Bosses can vary based on your mood.
Adjustable awesomeness should affect monsters too.
### Worldbuilding
Take a setting from somewhere and roll with it. You want to do a cyberpunk jaunt
in Night City with a sword-wielding warlock, a succubus space marine, a bard
netrunner and a shapeshifting monk? Do the hell out of that. That sounds
awesome.
Don't worry about accuracy or the like. You are setting out to have fun.
## Special Thanks
Special thanks goes to Jared, who sent out this [tweet][1] that inspired this
document. In case the tweet gets deleted, here's what it said:
[1]: https://twitter.com/infinite_mao/status/1340402360259137541
> heres a d&d for you
> you have one stat, its a saving throw. if you need to roll dice, you roll your
> save.
> you have a class and some equipment and junk. if the thing you need to roll
> dice for is relevant to your class or equipment or whatever, roll your save
> with advantage.
> oh your Save is 5 or something. if you do something awesome, raise your save
> by 1.
> no hp, save vs death. no damage, save vs goblin. no tracking arrows, save vs
> running out of ammo.
> thanks to @Axes_N_Orcs for this
> What's So Cool About Save vs Death?
> can you carry all that treasure and equipment? save vs gains
I replied:
> Can you get more minimal than this?
He replied:
> when two or more parties are at odds, all roll dice. highest result gets what
> they want.
> hows that?
This document is really just this twitter exchange in more words so that people
less familiar with tabletop games can understand it more easily. You know you
have finished when there is nothing left to remove, not when you can add
something to "fix" it.
I might put this on my [itch.io page](https://withinstudios.itch.io/).

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---
title: "OVE-20190623-0001"
date: 2019-06-24
tags:
- v
- security
- release
---
# OVE-20190623-0001
## Within Security Advisory
Root-level Remote Command Injection in the [V](https://vlang.io) playground (OVE-20190623-0001)
> The real CVEs are the friends we made along the way
awilfox
## Summary
While playing with the [V playground](https://vlang.io/play), a root-level
command injection vulnerability was discovered. This allows for an
unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary root-level commands on the
playground server.
This vulnerability is instantly exploitable by a remote, unauthenticated
attacker in the default configuration. To remotely exploit this vulnerability,
an attacker must send specially created HTTP requests to the playground server
containing a malformed function call.
This playground server is not open sourced or versioned yet, but this
vulnerability has lead to the compromising of the box as reported by the lead
developer of V.
## Remote Exploitation
V allows for calling of C functions through a few means:
- starting a line with a `#` character
- calling a C function with the `C.` namespace
The V playground insufficiently strips the latter form of the function call,
allowing an invocation such as this:
```
fn main() {
C .system(' id')
}
```
or even this:
```
fn main() {
C
.system(' id')
}
```
As the server is running as the root user, successful exploitation can result
in an unauthenticated user totally compromising the system, as happened
earlier yesterday on June 23, 2019. As the source code and configuration of
the V playground server is unknown, it is not possible to track usage of these
commands.
The playground did attempt to block these attacks; but it appeared to do pattern
matching on `#` or `C.`, allowing the alternative methods mentioned above.
## Security Suggestions
Do not run the playground server as a root user outside a container or other
form of isolation. The fact that this server runs user-submitted code makes
this kind of thing very difficult to isolate and/or secure properly. The use
of an explicit sandboxing environment like [gVisor](https://gvisor.dev) or
[Docker](https://www.docker.com) is suggested. The use of more elaborate
sandboxing mechanisms like [CloudABI](https://cloudabi.org) or
[WebAssembly](https://webassembly.org) may be practical for future
developments, but is admittedly out of scope for this initial class of issues.
## GReeTZ
Special thanks to the people of [#ponydev](https://pony.dev) for helping to
discover and toy with this bug.
## Timeline
All times are Eastern Standard Time.
### June 23, 2019
- 4:56 PM - The first exploit was found and the contents of /etc/passwd were dumped, other variants of this attack were proposed and tested in the meantime
- 5:00 PM - The V playground server stopped replying to HTTP and ICMP messages
- 6:26 PM - The V creator was notified of this issue
- 7:02 PM - The V creator acknowledged the issue and admitted the machine was compromised
### June 24, 2019
- 12:00 AM - This security bulletin was released

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---
title: "OVE-20191021-0001"
date: "2019-10-22"
tags:
- security
- release
- javascript
- mysql
- oh-dear-god
---
# OVE-20191021-0001
## Within Security Advisory
Multiple vulnerabilities in the mysqljs API and code.
Security Warning Level: yikes/10
## Summary
There are multiple issues exploitable by local and remote actors in
[mysqljs][mysqljs]. These can cause application data leaks, database leaks, SQL
injections, arbitrary code execution, and credential leaks among other things.
Mysqljs is unversioned, so it is very difficult to impossible to tell how many
users are affected by this and what users can do in order to ensure they are
patched against these critical vulnerabilities.
## Background
Mysqljs is a library intended to facilitate prototyping web applications and
mobile applications using technologies such as [PhoneGap][phonegap] or
[Cordova][cordova]. These technologies allow developers to create a web
application that gets packaged and presented to users as if it was a native
application.
This library is intended to help with developers creating persistent storage for
these applications.
## Issues in Detail
There are at least seven vulnerabilities with this library, each of them will be
outlined below with a fairly vague level of detail.
### mysql.js is NOT versioned
The only version information I was able to find are the following:
- The `Last-Modified` date of Friday, March 11 2016
- The `ETag` of `80edc3e5a87bd11:0`
These header values correlate to a vulnerable version of the mysql.js file.
An entire copy of this file is embedded for purposes of explanation:
```
var MySql = {
_internalCallback : function() { console.log("Callback not set")},
Execute: function (Host, Username, Password, Database, Sql, Callback) {
MySql._internalCallback = Callback;
// to-do: change localhost: to mysqljs.com
var strSrc = "http://mysqljs.com/sql.aspx?";
strSrc += "Host=" + Host;
strSrc += "&Username=" + Username;
strSrc += "&Password=" + Password;
strSrc += "&Database=" + Database;
strSrc += "&sql=" + Sql;
strSrc += "&Callback=MySql._internalCallback";
var sqlScript = document.createElement('script');
sqlScript.setAttribute('src', strSrc);
document.head.appendChild(sqlScript);
}
}
```
### Fundamental Operation via Cross-Site Scripting
The code operates by creating a `<script>` element. The Javascript source of
this script is dynamically generated by the remote API server. This opens the
door for many kinds of Cross-Site Scripting attacks.
Especially because:
### Credentials Exposed over Plain HTTP
The script works by creating a `<script>` element pointed at a HTTP resource in
order to facilitate access to the MySQL Server. Line 6 shows that the API server
in question is being queried over UNENCRYPTED HTTP.
```
var strSrc = "http://mysqljs.com/sql.aspx?";
```
### Credentials and SQL Queries Are Not URL-Encoded Before Adding Them to a URL
Credentials and SQL queries are not URL-encoded before they are added to the
`strSrc` URL. This means that values may include other HTTP parameters that
could be evaluated, causing one of the two following:
### Potential for SQL Injection from Malformed User Input
It appears this API works by people submitting plain text SQL queries. It is
likely difficult to write these plain text queries in a way that avoids SQL
injection attacks.
### Potential for Arbitrary Code Execution
Combined with the previous issues, a SQL injection that inserts arbitrary
Javascript into the result will end up creating an arbitrary code execution bug.
This could let an attacker execute custom Javascript code on the page, which may
have even more disastrous consequences depending on the usage of this library.
### Server-Side Code has Unknown Logging Enabled
This means that user credentials and database results may be logged, stored and
leaked by the mysql.js API server without user knowledge. The server that is
running the API server may also do additional logging of database credentials
and results without user knowledge.
### Encourages Bad Practices
Mysql.js works by its API server dialing out an _UNENCRYPTED_ connection to your
MySQL server over the internet. This requires exposing your MySQL server to the
internet. This means that user credentials are vulnerable to anyone who has
packet capture abilities.
Mysql.js also encourages developers commit database credentials into their
application source code. Cursory searching of GitHub has found
[this][leakedcreds]. I can only imagine there are countless other potential
victims.
## Security Suggestions
- Do not, under any circumstances, allow connections to be made without the use
of TLS (HTTPS).
- Version the library.
- Offer the source code of the API server to allow users to inspect it and
ensure their credentials are not being stored by it.
- Detail how the IIS server powering this service is configured, proving that it
is not keeping unsanitized access logs.
- Ensure all logging methods sanitize or remove user credentials.
- URL-encode all values being sent as part of a URL.
- Do not have your service fundamentally operate as a Cross-Site Scripting
attack.
- Do not, under any circumstances, encourage developers to put database
credentials in the source code of front-end web applications.
In summary, we label this a solid yikes/10 in terms of security. It would be
advisable for current users of this library to re-evaluate the life decisions
that have lead them down this path.
## GReeTZ
Über thanks to [jadr2ddude][jaden] for helping with identifying the unfortunate
scope of these massive security issues.
Hyper thanks to [J][j] for coming up with a viable GitHub search for potentially
affected users.
[mysqljs]: http://www.mysqljs.com/
[phonegap]: https://phonegap.com/
[cordova]: https://cordova.apache.org/
[leakedcreds]: https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%22https%3A%2F%2Fmysqljs.com%2Fmysql.js%22&type=Code
[jaden]: https://twitter.com/CompuJad
[j]: https://twitter.com/LombaxJay

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---
title: "TL;DR Rust"
date: 2020-09-19
series: rust
tags:
- go
- golang
---
# TL;DR Rust
Recently I've been starting to use Rust more and more for larger and larger
projects. As things have come up, I realized that I am missing a good reference
for common things in Rust as compared to Go. This post contains a quick
high-level overview of patterns in Rust and how they compare to patterns
in Go. This will focus on code samples. This is no replacement for the [Rust
book](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/), but should help you get spun up on the
various patterns used in Rust code.
Also I'm happy to introduce Mara to the blog!
[Hey, happy to be here! I'm Mara, a shark hacker from Christine's imagination.
I'll interject with side information, challenge assertions and more! Thanks for
inviting me!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Let's start somewhere simple: functions.
## Making Functions
Functions are defined using `fn` instead of `func`:
```go
func foo() {}
```
```rust
fn foo() {}
```
### Arguments
Arguments can be passed by separating the name from the type with a colon:
```go
func foo(bar int) {}
```
```rust
fn foo(bar: i32) {}
```
### Returns
Values can be returned by adding `-> Type` to the function declaration:
```go
func foo() int {
return 2
}
```
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
return 2;
}
```
In Rust values can also be returned on the last statement without the `return`
keyword or a terminating semicolon:
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
2
}
```
[Hmm, what if I try to do something like this. Will this
work?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
if some_cond {
2
}
4
}
```
Let's find out! The compiler spits back an error:
```
error[E0308]: mismatched types
--> src/lib.rs:3:9
|
2 | / if some_cond {
3 | | 2
| | ^ expected `()`, found integer
4 | | }
| | -- help: consider using a semicolon here
| |_____|
| expected this to be `()`
```
This happens because most basic statements in Rust can return values. The best
way to fix this would be to move the `4` return into an `else` block:
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
if some_cond {
2
} else {
4
}
}
```
Otherwise, the compiler will think you are trying to use that `if` as a
statement, such as like this:
```rust
let val = if some_cond { 2 } else { 4 };
```
### Functions that can fail
The [Result](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/) type represents things that
can fail with specific errors. The [eyre Result
type](https://docs.rs/eyre) represents things that can fail
with any error. For readability, this post will use the eyre Result type.
[The angle brackets in the `Result` type are arguments to the type, this allows
the Result type to work across any type you could imagine.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```go
import "errors"
func divide(x, y int) (int, err) {
if y == 0 {
return 0, errors.New("cannot divide by zero")
}
return x / y, nil
}
```
```rust
use eyre::{eyre, Result};
fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32> {
match y {
0 => Err(eyre!("cannot divide by zero")),
_ => Ok(x / y),
}
}
```
[Huh? I thought Rust had the <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/error/trait.Error.html">Error trait</a>,
shouldn't you be able to use that instead of a third party package like
eyre?](conversation://Mara/wat)
Let's try that, however we will need to make our own error type because the
[`eyre!`](https://docs.rs/eyre/0.6.0/eyre/macro.eyre.html) macro creates its own
transient error type on the fly.
First we need to make our own simple error type for a DivideByZero error:
```rust
use std::error::Error;
use std::fmt;
#[derive(Debug)]
struct DivideByZero;
impl fmt::Display for DivideByZero {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "cannot divide by zero")
}
}
impl Error for DivideByZero {}
```
So now let's use it:
```rust
fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32, DivideByZero> {
match y {
0 => Err(DivideByZero{}),
_ => Ok(x / y),
}
}
```
However there is still one thing left: the function returns a DivideByZero
error, not _any_ error like the [error interface in
Go](https://godoc.org/builtin#error). In order to represent that we need to
return something that implements the Error trait:
```rust
fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32, impl Error> {
// ...
}
```
And for the simple case, this will work. However as things get more complicated
this simple facade will not work due to reality and its complexities. This is
why I am shipping as much as I can out to other packages like eyre or
[anyhow](https://docs.rs/anyhow). Check out this code in the [Rust
Playground](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=debug&edition=2018&gist=946057d8eb02f388cb3f03bae226d10d)
to mess with this code interactively.
[Pro tip: eyre (via <a href="https://docs.rs/color-eyre">color-eyre</a>) also
has support for adding <a href="https://docs.rs/color-eyre/0.5.4/color_eyre/#custom-sections-for-error-reports-via-help-trait">custom
sections and context</a> to errors similar to Go's <a href="https://godoc.org/fmt#Errorf">`fmt.Errorf` `%w`
format argument</a>, which will help in real world
applications. When you do need to actually make your own errors, you may want to look into
crates like <a href="https://docs.rs/thiserror">thiserror</a> to help with
automatically generating your error implementation.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### The `?` Operator
In Rust, the `?` operator checks for an error in a function call and if there is
one, it automatically returns the error and gives you the result of the function
if there was no error. This only works in functions that return either an Option
or a Result.
[The <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/index.html">Option</a> type
isn't shown in very much detail here, but it acts like a "this thing might not exist and it's your
responsibility to check" container for any value. The closest analogue in Go is
making a pointer to a value or possibly putting a value in an `interface{}`
(which can be annoying to deal with in practice).](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```go
func doThing() (int, error) {
result, err := divide(3, 4)
if err != nil {
return 0, err
}
return result, nil
}
```
```rust
use eyre::Result;
fn do_thing() -> Result<i32> {
let result = divide(3, 4)?;
Ok(result)
}
```
If the second argument of divide is changed to `0`, then `do_thing` will return
an error.
[And how does that work with eyre?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
It works with eyre because eyre has its own error wrapper type called
[`Report`](https://docs.rs/eyre/0.6.0/eyre/struct.Report.html), which can
represent anything that implements the Error trait.
## Macros
Rust macros are function calls with `!` after their name:
```rust
println!("hello, world");
```
## Variables
Variables are created using `let`:
```go
var foo int
var foo = 3
foo := 3
```
```rust
let foo: i32;
let foo = 3;
```
### Mutability
In Rust, every variable is immutable (unchangeable) by default. If we try to
change those variables above we get a compiler error:
```rust
fn main() {
let foo: i32;
let foo = 3;
foo = 4;
}
```
This makes the compiler return this error:
```
error[E0384]: cannot assign twice to immutable variable `foo`
--> src/main.rs:4:5
|
3 | let foo = 3;
| ---
| |
| first assignment to `foo`
| help: make this binding mutable: `mut foo`
4 | foo = 4;
| ^^^^^^^ cannot assign twice to immutable variable
```
As the compiler suggests, you can create a mutable variable by adding the `mut`
keyword after the `let` keyword. There is no analog to this in Go.
```rust
let mut foo: i32 = 0;
foo = 4;
```
[This is slightly a lie. There's more advanced cases involving interior
mutability and other fun stuff like that, however this is a more advanced topic
that isn't covered here.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### Lifetimes
Rust does garbage collection at compile time. It also passes ownership of memory
to functions as soon as possible. Lifetimes are how Rust calculates how "long" a
given bit of data should exist in the program. Rust will then tell the compiled
code to destroy the data from memory as soon as possible.
[This is slightly inaccurate in order to make this simpler to explain and
understand. It's probably more accurate to say that Rust calculates _when_ to
collect garbage at compile time, but the difference doesn't really matter for
most cases](conversation://Mara/hacker)
For example, this code will fail to compile because `quo` was moved into the
second divide call:
```rust
let quo = divide(4, 8)?;
let other_quo = divide(quo, 5)?;
// Fails compile because ownership of quo was given to divide to create other_quo
let yet_another_quo = divide(quo, 4)?;
```
To work around this you can pass a reference to the divide function:
```rust
let other_quo = divide(&quo, 5);
let yet_another_quo = divide(&quo, 4)?;
```
Or even create a clone of it:
```rust
let other_quo = divide(quo.clone(), 5);
let yet_another_quo = divide(quo, 4)?;
```
[You can also get more fancy with <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/scope/lifetime/explicit.html">explicit
lifetime annotations</a>, however as of Rust's 2018 edition they aren't usually
required unless you are doing something weird. This is something that is also
covered in more detail in <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/book/ch04-00-understanding-ownership.html">The
Rust Book</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### Passing Mutability
Sometimes functions need mutable variables. To pass a mutable reference, add
`&mut` before the name of the variable:
```rust
let something = do_something_to_quo(&mut quo)?;
```
## Project Setup
### Imports
External dependencies are declared using the [Cargo.toml
file](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html):
```toml
# Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
eyre = "0.6"
```
This depends on the crate [eyre](https://crates.io/crates/eyre) at version
0.6.x.
[You can do much more with version requirements with cargo, see more <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html">here</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Dependencies can also have optional features:
```toml
# Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
reqwest = { version = "0.10", features = ["json"] }
```
This depends on the crate [reqwest](https://crates.io/reqwest) at version 0.10.x
with the `json` feature enabled (in this case it enables reqwest being able to
automagically convert things to/from json using Serde).
External dependencies can be used with the `use` statement:
```go
// go
import "github.com/foo/bar"
```
```rust
use foo; // -> foo now has the members of crate foo behind the :: operator
use foo::Bar; // -> Bar is now exposed as a type in this file
use eyre::{eyre, Result}; // exposes the eyre! and Result members of eyre
```
[This doesn't cover how the <a
href="http://www.sheshbabu.com/posts/rust-module-system/">module system</a>
works, however the post I linked there covers this better than I
can.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Async/Await
Async functions may be interrupted to let other things execute as needed. This
program uses [tokio](https://tokio.rs/) to handle async tasks. To run an async
task and wait for its result, do this:
```
let printer_fact = reqwest::get("https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact")
.await?
.text()
.await?;
println!("your printer fact is: {}", printer_fact);
```
This will populate `response` with an amusing fact about everyone's favorite
household pet, the [printer](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club).
To make an async function, add the `async` keyword before the `fn` keyword:
```rust
async fn get_text(url: String) -> Result<String> {
reqwest::get(&url)
.await?
.text()
.await?
}
```
This can then be called like this:
```rust
let printer_fact = get_text("https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact").await?;
```
## Public/Private Types and Functions
Rust has three privacy levels for functions:
- Only visible to the current file (no keyword, lowercase in Go)
- Visible to anything in the current crate (`pub(crate)`, internal packages in
go)
- Visible to everyone (`pub`, upper case in Go)
[You can't get a perfect analog to `pub(crate)` in Go, but <a
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8kOo3r51b2BWtTs_1uADIA5djfXhPT36s6eHVRIvaU/edit">internal
packages</a> can get close to this behavior. Additionally you can have a lot
more control over access levels than this, see <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/reference/visibility-and-privacy.html">here</a>
for more information.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Structures
Rust structures are created using the `struct` keyword:
```go
type Client struct {
Token string
}
```
```rust
pub struct Client {
pub token: String,
}
```
If the `pub` keyword is not specified before a member name, it will not be
usable outside the Rust source code file it is defined in:
```go
type Client struct {
token string
}
```
```rust
pub(crate) struct Client {
token: String,
}
```
### Encoding structs to JSON
[serde](https://serde.rs) is used to convert structures to json. The Rust
compiler's
[derive](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/rust-by-example/trait/derive.html)
feature is used to automatically implement the conversion logic.
```go
type Response struct {
Name string `json:"name"`
Description *string `json:"description,omitempty"`
}
```
```rust
use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug)]
pub(crate) struct Response {
pub name: String,
pub description: Option<String>,
}
```
## Strings
Rust has a few string types that do different things. You can read more about
this [here](https://fasterthanli.me/blog/2020/working-with-strings-in-rust/),
but at a high level most projects only uses a few of them:
- `&str`, a slice reference to a String owned by someone else
- String, an owned UTF-8 string
- PathBuf, a filepath string (encoded in whatever encoding the OS running this
code uses for filesystems)
The strings are different types for safety reasons. See the linked blogpost for
more detail about this.
## Enumerations / Tagged Unions
Enumerations, also known as tagged unions, are a way to specify a superposition
of one of a few different kinds of values in one type. A neat way to show them
off (along with some other fancy features like the derivation system) is with the
[structopt](https://docs.rs/structopt/0.3.14/structopt/) crate. There is no easy
analog for this in Go.
[We've actually been dealing with enumerations ever since we touched the Result
type earlier. <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/enum.Result.html">Result</a> and <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/enum.Option.html">Option</a> are
implemented with enumerations.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```rust
#[derive(StructOpt, Debug)]
#[structopt(about = "A simple release management tool")]
pub(crate) enum Cmd {
/// Creates a new release for a git repo
Cut {
#[structopt(flatten)]
common: Common,
/// Changelog location
#[structopt(long, short, default_value="./CHANGELOG.md")]
changelog: PathBuf,
},
/// Runs releases as triggered by GitHub Actions
GitHubAction {
#[structopt(flatten)]
gha: GitHubAction,
},
}
```
Enum variants can be matched using the `match` keyword:
```rust
match cmd {
Cmd::Cut { common, changelog } => {
cmd::cut::run(common, changelog).await
}
Cmd::GitHubAction { gha } => {
cmd::github_action::run(gha).await
}
}
```
All variants of an enum must be matched in order for the code to compile.
[This code was borrowed from <a
href="https://github.com/lightspeed/palisade">palisade</a> in order to
demonstrate this better. If you want to see these patterns in action, check this
repository out!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Testing
Test functions need to be marked with the `#[test]` annotation, then they will
be run alongside `cargo test`:
```rust
mod tests { // not required but it is good practice
#[test]
fn math_works() {
assert_eq!(2 + 2, 4);
}
#[tokio::test] // needs tokio as a dependency
async fn http_works() {
let _ = get_html("https://within.website").await.unwrap();
}
}
```
Avoid the use of `unwrap()` outside of tests. In the wrong cases, using
`unwrap()` in production code can cause the server to crash and can incur data
loss.
[Alternatively, you can also use the <a href="https://learning-rust.github.io/docs/e4.unwrap_and_expect.html#expect">`.expect()`</a> method instead
of `.unwrap()`. This lets you attach a message that will be shown when the
result isn't Ok.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
---
This is by no means comprehensive, see the rust book or [Learn X in Y Minutes
Where X = Rust](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/rust/) for more information.
This code is written to be as boring and obvious as possible. If things don't
make sense, please reach out and don't be afraid to ask questions.

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@ -2,8 +2,6 @@
title: A Letter to Those That Bullied Me
date: 2018-06-16
for: Elizabeth
tags:
- offmychest
---
# A Letter to Those Who Bullied Me

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@ -1,112 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Outsider Art and Anathema"
date: 2019-10-21
tags:
- philosophy
- art
- makes-u-thonk
---
# Outsider Art and Anathema
This was going to be a post about [Urbit][urbit] at first; but in the process of discussing about my interest in writing something _positive_ about it, I was warned by a few people that this was a Bad Idea. I was focusing purely on the technical side of it and how closely it implemented a concept called [liquid software][liquidsoftware], but from what people were saying, it seemed like a creation that was spoiled by something outside of it, specifically the creator's political views (of which I had little idea at the time).
As much as I will probably return to the original concept in the future with another post, this feels like something I had to address first.
**DISCLAIMER:** This post references to projects and people that the mainstream considers controversial. This post is not an approval of these people's views. I am focusing purely on the aspect of how this correlates into how art is perceived, recognized and able to be admired. I realize that the people behind the projects I have cited have said things that if taken seriously at a societal level could hurt me and people like me. That is not the point of this; I am trying to learn how this art works so I can create my own in the future. If this is uncomfortable for you at any point, please close this browser tab and do something else.
## Art
So, what is art?
This is a surprisingly hard question to answer. Most of the time though, I know art when I see it.
Art doesn't have to follow conventional ideas of what most people think "art" is. Art can be just about anything that you can classify as art. As a conventional example, consider something like the Mona Lisa:
![The Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/monalisa_small.jpg)
People will accept this as art without much argument. It's a painting, it obviously took a lot of skill and time to create. It is said that Leonardo Da Vinci (the artist of the painting) created it partially [as a contribution to the state of the art of oil painting][monalisawhy].
So that painting is art, and a lot of people would consider it art; so what *would* a lot of people *not* consider art? Here's an example:
![Untitled (Perfect Lovers) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/perfect-lovers.jpg)
This is *Untitled (Perfect Lovers)* by Felix Gonzalez. If you just take a look at it without context, it's just two battery-operated clocks on a wall. Where is the expertise and the like that goes into this? This is just the result of someone buying two clocks from the store and putting them somewhere, right?
Let's dig into [the description of the piece][perfectloversdescription]:
> Initially set to the same time, these identical battery-powered clocks will eventually fall out of sync, or may stop entirely. Conceived shortly after Gonzalez-Torress partner was diagnosed with AIDS, this work uses everyday objects to track and measure the inevitable flow of time. When one of the clocks stops or breaks, they can both be reset, thereby resuming perfect synchrony. In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres reflected, “Time is something that scares me. . . or used to. This piece I made with the two clocks was the scariest thing I have ever done. I wanted to face it. I wanted those two clocks right in front of me, ticking.”
And after reading that description, it's impossible for me to say this image is _not_ art. Even though it's made up of ordinary objects, the art comes out in the way that the clocks' eventual death relates to the eventual death of the author and their partner.
This art may be located on the fringes of what people consider "art". So what else is on the fringes?
### Outsider Art
For there to be "fringes" to the art landscape, there must be an "inside" and "outside" to it. In particular, the "outsider" art usually (but not always) contains elements and themes that are outside of the mainstream. Outsiders are therefore more free to explore ideas, concepts and ways of expression that defy cultural, spiritual or other norms. Logically, every major art style you know and love started as outsider art, before it was cool. Memes are also a form of outsider art, though they are gradually being accepted into the mainstream.
It's very easy to find outsider art if you are looking for it: just fish for some on Twitter, 4chan or Reddit; you'll find plenty of artists there who are placed firmly outside of the mainstream art community.
## Computer Science
Computer science is a kind of art. It's the art of turning contextual events into effects and state. It's also the art of creating solutions for problems that could never be solved before. It's also the science of how to connect millions of people across common protocols and abstractions that they don't have to understand in order to use.
This is an art that connects millions and has shaped itself into an industry of its own. This art, like the rest of mainstream art, keeps evolving, growing and changing into something new; into a more ultimate and detailed expression of what it can be, as people explore the ways it can be created and presented. This art is also quite special because it's not very limited by physical objects or expressions in material space. It's an art that can evolve and change with the viewer.
But, since this is an art, there's still an inside and an outside. Things on the inside are generally "safe" for people to admire, use and look at. The inside contains things like Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Intel, C, Go, PHP, Ruby and other well-known and battle-proven tools.
### The Outside
The outside, however, is where the real innovation happens. The outside is where people can really take a more critical look at what computing is, does or can be. These views can add up into fundamentally different ways of looking at computer science, much like changing a pair of glasses for another changes how you see the world around you.
As an example, consider [TempleOS][codersnotestempleos]. It's a work of outsider art by [Terry Davis][terrydavis] (1969-2018, RIP), but it's also a fully functional operating system. It has a custom-built kernel, compiler, toolchain, userland, debugger, games, and documentation system, each integrated into everything else, in ways that could realistically not be done with how mainstream software is commonly developed.
[Urbit][urbit] is another example of this. It's a fundamentally different way of looking at networked computing. Everything in Urbit is seamlessly interlinked with everything else to the point that it can be surprising that a file you are working with actually lives on another computer. It implements software updates as invisible to the user. It allows for the model of [liquid software][liquidsoftware], or updates to a program flowing into user's computers without the users having to care about the updates. Users don't even notice the downtime.
As yet another example, consider [Minecraft][minecraft]. As of the writing of this article, it is the video game with the most copies sold in human history. It is an open world block building game where the limits of what you can make are the limits of your imagination. It has been continuously updated, refined and improved from a minimal proof of concept into the game it is today.
## The Seam
Consider this quote that comes into play a lot with outsider art:
> Genius and insanity are differentiated only by context. One person's genius is another person's insanity.
- Anonymous
These three projects are developed by people whom the mainstream has cast out. Terry Davis' mental health issues and delusions about hearing the voice of God have tainted TempleOS to be that "weird bible OS" to the point where people completely disregard it. Urbit was partially created by a right-wing reactionary (Curtis Yarvin). He has been so ostracized that he [cannot publicly talk about his work][curtisbannedfromlambdaconf] to the kind of people that would most directly benefit from learning about it. Curtis isn't even involved with Urbit anymore, and his name is still somehow an irrevocable black mark on the entire thing. Minecraft was initially created by Notch, who recently had [intro texts mentioning his name removed from the game][minecraftintrotextpatch] after he said questionable things about transgender people.
## Anathema
This "irrevocable" black mark has a name: [Anathema][anathema]. It refers to anything that is shunned by the mainstream. Outsiders that create outsider art may or may not be anathema to their respective mainstreams. This turns the art into a taboo, a curse, a stain. People no longer see an anathema as the art it is, but merely the worthless product of someone that society would probably rather forget if it had the chance.
I don't really know how well this sits with me, personally. Outsiders have unique views of the world that can provide ideas that ultimately strengthen us all. Society's role is to disseminate mainstream improvements to large groups, but real development happens at the personal level.
Does one bad apple really spoil the sociological bunch? Why does this happen? Have the political divides gotten so deeply entrenched into society that people really become beyond reproach? Isn't this a recursive trap? How does someone redeem themselves to no longer be an anathema? Is it possible for people who are anathema to redeem themselves? Why or why not? Is there room for forgiveness, or does the [original sin][originalsin] doom the sinner eternally, much like it has to Catholicism?
Are the creations of an anathema outsider artist still art? Are they still an artist even though they become unable to share their art with others?
---
I don't know. These are hard questions. I don't really have much of a conclusion here. I don't want to seem like I'm trying to prescribe a method of thinking here. I'm just sitting on the side and spouting out ideas to inspire people to think for themselves.
I'm just challenging you, the reader, to really think about what/who is and is not an anathema in your day-to-day life. Identify them. Understand where/who they are. Maybe even apply some compassion and attempt to understand their view and how they got there. I'm not saying to put yourself in danger, but just to be mindful of it.
Be well.
---
Special thanks to CelestialBoon, Grapz and MoonGoodGryph for proofreading and helping with this post. This would be a very different article without their feedback and input.
[urbit]: https://urbit.org
[liquidsoftware]: https://liquidsoftware.com
[monalisa]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/monalisa_small.jpg
[monalisawhy]: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/painting/sfumato.htm
[perfectlovers]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/perfect-lovers.jpg
[perfectloversdescription]: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81074
[codersnotestempleos]: http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-templeos/
[terrydavis]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis
[curtisbannedfromlambdaconf]: http://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/why-it-matters-that-an-obscure-programming-conference-is-hosting-mencius-moldbug.html
[anathema]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathema
[minecraft]: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/
[minecraftintrotextpatch]: https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/notch-removed-minecraft-1203174964/
[originalsin]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin

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@ -1,10 +1,7 @@
---
title: My Experience with Atom as A Vim User
date: 2014-11-18
series: medium-archive
tags:
- atom
- vim
from: medium
---
My Experience with Atom as A Vim User

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@ -1,229 +0,0 @@
---
title: "</kubernetes>"
date: 2021-01-03
---
# &lt;/kubernetes&gt;
Well, since I posted [that last post](/blog/k8s-pondering-2020-12-31) I have had
an adventure. A good friend pointed out a server host that I had missed when I
was looking for other places to use, and now I have migrated my blog to this new
server. As of yesterday, I now run my website on a dedicated server in Finland.
Here is the story of my journey to migrate 6 years of cruft and technical debt
to this new server.
Let's talk about this goliath of a server. This server is an AX41 from Hetzner.
It has 64 GB of ram, a 512 GB nvme drive, 3 2 TB drives, and a Ryzen 3600. For
all practical concerns, this beast is beyond overkill and rivals my workstation
tower in everything but the GPU power. I have named it `lufta`, which is the
word for feather in [L'ewa](https://lewa.within.website/dictionary.html).
## Assimilation
For my server setup process, the first step it to assimilate it. In this step I
get a base NixOS install on it somehow. Since I was using Hetzner, I was able to
boot into a NixOS install image using the process documented
[here](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Install_NixOS_on_Hetzner_Online). Then I decided
that it would also be cool to have this server use
[zfs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) as its filesystem to take advantage of
its legendary subvolume and snapshotting features.
So I wrote up a bootstrap system definition like the Hetzner tutorial said and
ended up with `hosts/lufta/bootstrap.nix`:
```nix
{ pkgs, ... }:
{
services.openssh.enable = true;
users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [
"ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIPg9gYKVglnO2HQodSJt4z4mNrUSUiyJQ7b+J798bwD9 cadey@shachi"
];
networking.usePredictableInterfaceNames = false;
systemd.network = {
enable = true;
networks."eth0".extraConfig = ''
[Match]
Name = eth0
[Network]
# Add your own assigned ipv6 subnet here here!
Address = 2a01:4f9:3a:1a1c::/64
Gateway = fe80::1
# optionally you can do the same for ipv4 and disable DHCP (networking.dhcpcd.enable = false;)
Address = 135.181.162.99/26
Gateway = 135.181.162.65
'';
};
boot.supportedFilesystems = [ "zfs" ];
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ wget vim zfs ];
}
```
Then I fired up the kexec tarball and waited for the server to boot into a NixOS
live environment. A few minutes later I was in. I started formatting the drives
according to the [NixOS install
guide](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-installation) with
one major difference: I added a `/boot` ext4 partition on the SSD. This allows
me to have the system root device on zfs. I added the disks to a `raidz1` pool
and created a few volumes. I also added the SSD as a log device so I get SSD
caching.
From there I installed NixOS as normal and rebooted the server. It booted
normally. I had a shiny new NixOS server in the cloud! I noticed that the server
had booted into NixOS unstable as opposed to NixOS 20.09 like my other nodes. I
thought "ah, well, that probably isn't a problem" and continued to the
configuration step.
[That's ominous...](conversation://Mara/hmm)
## Configuration
Now that the server was assimilated and I could SSH into it, the next step was
to configure it to run my services. While I was waiting for Hetzner to provision
my server I ported a bunch of my services over to Nixops services [a-la this
post](/blog/nixops-services-2020-11-09) in [this
folder](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common/services) of my
configs repo.
Now that I had them, it was time to add this server to my Nixops setup. So I
opened the [nixops definition
folder](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/nixops/hexagone) and
added the metadata for `lufta`. Then I added it to my Nixops deployment with
this command:
```console
$ nixops modify -d hexagone -n hexagone *.nix
```
Then I copied over the autogenerated config from `lufta`'s `/etc/nixos/` folder
into
[`hosts/lufta`](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/hosts/lufta) and
ran a `nixops deploy` to add some other base configuration.
## Migration
Once that was done, I started enabling my services and pushing configs to test
them. After I got to a point where I thought things would work I opened up the
Kubernetes console and started deleting deployments on my kubernetes cluster as
I felt "safe" to migrate them over. Then I saw the deployments come back. I
deleted them again and they came back again.
Oh, right. I enabled that one Kubernetes service that made it intentionally hard
to delete deployments. One clever set of scale-downs and kills later and I was
able to kill things with wild abandon.
I copied over the gitea data with `rsync` running in the kubernetes deployment.
Then I killed the gitea deployment, updated DNS and reran a whole bunch of gitea
jobs to resanify the environment. I did a test clone on a few of my repos and
then I deleted the gitea volume from DigitalOcean.
Moving over the other deployments from Kubernetes into NixOS services was
somewhat easy, however I did need to repackage a bunch of my programs and static
sites for NixOS. I made the
[`pkgs`](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/pkgs) tree a bit more
fleshed out to compensate.
[Okay, packaging static sites in NixOS is beyond overkill, however a lot of them
need some annoyingly complicated build steps and throwing it all into Nix means
that we can make them reproducible and use one build system to rule them
all. Not to mention that when I need to upgrade the system, everything will
rebuild with new system libraries to avoid the <a
href="https://blog.tidelift.com/bit-rot-the-silent-killer">Docker bitrot
problem</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Reboot Test
After a significant portion of the services were moved over, I decided it was
time to do the reboot test. I ran the `reboot` command and then...nothing.
My continuous ping test was timing out. My phone was blowing up with downtime
messages from NodePing. Yep, I messed something up.
I was able to boot the server back into a NixOS recovery environment using the
kexec trick, and from there I was able to prove the following:
- The zfs setup is healthy
- I can read some of the data I migrated over
- I can unmount and remount the ZFS volumes repeatedly
I was confused. This shouldn't be happening. After half an hour of
troubleshooting, I gave in and ordered an IPKVM to be installed in my server.
Once that was set up (and I managed to trick MacOS into letting me boot a .jnlp
web start file), I rebooted the server so I could see what error I was getting
on boot. I missed it the first time around, but on the second time I was able to
capture this screenshot:
![The error I was looking
for](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+1.13.05+AM.png)
Then it hit me. I did the install on NixOS unstable. My other servers use NixOS
20.09. I had downgraded zfs and the older version of zfs couldn't mount the
volume created by the newer version of zfs in read/write mode. One more trip to
the recovery environment later to install NixOS unstable in a new generation.
Then I switched my tower's default NixOS channel to the unstable channel and ran
`nixops deploy` to reactivate my services. After the NodePing uptime
notifications came in, I ran the reboot test again while looking at the console
output to be sure.
It booted. It worked. I had a stable setup. Then I reconnected to IRC and passed
out.
## Services Migrated
Here is a list of all of the services I have migrated over from my old dedicated
server, my kubernetes cluster and my dokku server:
- aerial -> discord chatbot
- goproxy -> go modules proxy
- lewa -> https://lewa.within.website
- hlang -> https://h.christine.website
- mi -> https://mi.within.website
- printerfacts -> https://printerfacts.cetacean.club
- xesite -> https://christine.website
- graphviz -> https://graphviz.christine.website
- idp -> https://idp.christine.website
- oragono -> ircs://irc.within.website:6697/
- tron -> discord bot
- withinbot -> discord bot
- withinwebsite -> https://within.website
- gitea -> https://tulpa.dev
- other static sites
Doing this migration is a bit of an archaeology project as well. I was
continuously discovering services that I had littered over my machines with very
poorly documented requirements and configuration. I hope that this move will let
the next time I do this kind of migration be a lot easier by comparison.
I still have a few other services to move over, however the ones that are left
are much more annoying to set up properly. I'm going to get to deprovision 5
servers in this migration and as a result get this stupidly powerful goliath of
a server to do whatever I want with and I also get to cut my monthly server
costs by over half.
I am very close to being able to turn off the Kubernetes cluster and use NixOS
for everything. A few services that are still on the Kubernetes cluster are
resistant to being nixified, so I may have to use the Docker containers for
that. I was hoping to be able to cut out Docker entirely, however we don't seem
to be that lucky yet.
Sure, there is some added latency with the server being in Europe instead of
Montreal, however if this ever becomes a practical issue I can always launch a
cheap DigitalOcean VPS in Toronto to act as a DNS server for my WireGuard setup.
Either way, I am now off Kubernetes for my highest traffic services. If services
of mine need to use the disk, they can now just use the disk. If I really care
about the data, I can add the service folders to the list of paths to back up to
`rsync.net` (I have a post about how this backup process works in the drafting
stage) via [borgbackup](https://www.borgbackup.org/).
Let's hope it stays online!
---
Many thanks to [Graham Christensen](https://twitter.com/grhmc), [Dave
Anderson](https://twitter.com/dave_universetf) and everyone else who has been
helping me along this journey. I would be lost without them.

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@ -2,8 +2,6 @@
title: The Beautiful in the Ugly
date: 2018-04-23
for: Silver
tags:
- shell
---
# The Beautiful in the Ugly

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@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
---
title: Web Application Development with Beego
date: 2014-11-28
tags:
- go
- beego
---
Web Application Development with Beego

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@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: "Blind Men and an Elephant"
date: 2018-11-29
series: conlangs
---
# Blind Men and an Elephant

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---
title: "Blog Feature: Art Gallery"
date: 2019-11-01
tags:
- art
- announce
- 100th-post
---
# Blog Feature: Art Gallery
I have just implemented support for my portfolio site to also function as an art
gallery. See all of my posted art [here](/gallery).
I have been trying to get better at art for a while and I feel I'm at the level
where I feel comfortable putting it on my portfolio. Let's see how far this
rabbit hole goes.
---
Also this is my 100th post! Yay!

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---
title: "How to Set Up Borg Backup on NixOS"
date: 2021-01-09
series: howto
tags:
- nixos
- borgbackup
---
# How to Set Up Borg Backup on NixOS
[Borg Backup](https://www.borgbackup.org/) is a encrypted, compressed,
deduplicated backup program for multiple platforms including Linux. This
combined with the [NixOS options for configuring
Borg Backup](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&show=services.borgbackup.jobs.%3Cname%3E.paths&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=services.borgbackup.jobs)
allows you to backup on a schedule and restore from those backups when you need
to.
Borg Backup works with local files, remote servers and there are even [cloud
hosts](https://www.borgbackup.org/support/commercial.html) that specialize in
hosting your backups. In this post we will cover how to set up a backup job on a
server using [BorgBase](https://www.borgbase.com/)'s free tier to host the
backup files.
## Setup
You will need a few things:
- A free BorgBase account
- A server running NixOS
- A list of folders to back up
- A list of folders to NOT back up
First, we will need to create a SSH key for root to use when connecting to
BorgBase. Open a shell as root on the server and make a `borgbackup` folder in
root's home directory:
```shell
mkdir borgbackup
cd borgbackup
```
Then create a SSH key that will be used to connect to BorgBase:
```shell
ssh-keygen -f ssh_key -t ed25519 -C "Borg Backup"
```
Ignore the SSH key password because at this time the automated Borg Backup job
doesn't allow the use of password-protected SSH keys.
Now we need to create an encryption passphrase for the backup repository. Run
this command to generate one using [xkcdpass](https://pypi.org/project/xkcdpass/):
```shell
nix-shell -p python39Packages.xkcdpass --run 'xkcdpass -n 12' > passphrase
```
[You can do whatever you want to generate a suitable passphrase, however
xkcdpass is proven to be <a href="https://xkcd.com/936/">more random</a> than
most other password generators.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## BorgBase Setup
Now that we have the basic requirements out of the way, let's configure BorgBase
to use that SSH key. In the BorgBase UI click on the Account tab in the upper
right and open the SSH key management window. Click on Add Key and paste in the
contents of `./ssh_key.pub`. Name it after the hostname of the server you are
working on. Click Add Key and then go back to the Repositories tab in the upper
right.
Click New Repo and name it after the hostname of the server you are working on.
Select the key you just created to have full access. Choose the region of the
backup volume and then click Add Repository.
On the main page copy the repository path with the copy icon next to your
repository in the list. You will need this below. Attempt to SSH into the backup
repo in order to have ssh recognize the server's host key:
```shell
ssh -i ./ssh_key o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com
```
Then accept the host key and press control-c to terminate the SSH connection.
## NixOS Configuration
In your `configuration.nix` file, add the following block:
```nix
services.borgbackup.jobs."borgbase" = {
paths = [
"/var/lib"
"/srv"
"/home"
];
exclude = [
# very large paths
"/var/lib/docker"
"/var/lib/systemd"
"/var/lib/libvirt"
# temporary files created by cargo and `go build`
"**/target"
"/home/*/go/bin"
"/home/*/go/pkg"
];
repo = "o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com:repo";
encryption = {
mode = "repokey-blake2";
passCommand = "cat /root/borgbackup/passphrase";
};
environment.BORG_RSH = "ssh -i /root/borgbackup/ssh_key";
compression = "auto,lzma";
startAt = "daily";
};
```
Customize the paths and exclude lists to your needs. Once you are satisfied,
rebuild your NixOS system using `nixos-rebuild`:
```shell
nixos-rebuild switch
```
And then you can fire off an initial backup job with this command:
```shell
systemctl start borgbackup-job-borgbase.service
```
Monitor the job with this command:
```shell
journalctl -fu borgbackup-job-borgbase.service
```
The first backup job will always take the longest to run. Every incremental
backup after that will get smaller and smaller. By default, the system will
create new backup snapshots every night at midnight local time.
## Restoring Files
To restore files, first figure out when you want to restore the files from.
NixOS includes a wrapper script for each Borg job you define. you can mount your
backup archive using this command:
```
mkdir mount
borg-job-borgbase mount o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com:repo ./mount
```
Then you can explore the backup (and with it each incremental snapshot) to
your heart's content and copy files out manually. You can look through each
folder and copy out what you need.
When you are done you can unmount it with this command:
```
borg-job-borgbase umount /root/borgbase/mount
```
---
And that's it! You can get more fancy with nixops using a setup [like
this](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/services/backup.nix).
In general though, you can get away with this setup. It may be a good idea to
copy down the encryption passphrase onto paper and put it in a safe space like a
safety deposit box.
For more information about Borg Backup on NixOS, see [the relevant chapter of
the NixOS
manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#module-borgbase) or
[the list of borgbackup
options](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&query=services.borgbackup.jobs)
that you can pick from.
I hope this is able to help.

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---
title: How I Converted my Brain fMRI to a 3D Model
date: 2019-08-23
series: howto
tags:
- python
- blender
---
# How I Converted my Brain fMRI to a 3D Model
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just want to start this out by saying I am not an expert, and
nothing in this blogpost should be construed as medical advice. I just wanted
to see what kind of pretty pictures I could get out of an fMRI data file.
So this week I flew out to Stanford to participate in a study that involved a
fMRI of my brain while I was doing some things. I asked for (and recieved) a
data file from the fMRI so I could play with it and possibly 3D print it. This
blogpost is the record of my journey through various software to get a fully
usable 3D model out of the fMRI data file.
## The Data File
I was given [christine_brain.nii.gz][firstniifile] by the researcher who was
operating the fMRI. I looked around for some software to convert it to a 3D
model and [/r/3dprinting][r3dprinting] suggested the use of [FreeSurfer][freesurfer]
to generate a 3D model. I downloaded and installed the software then started
to look for something I could do in the meantime, as this was going to take
something on the order of 8 hours to process.
### An Animated GIF
I started looking for the file format on the internet by googling "nii.gz brain image"
and I stumbled across a program called [gif\_your\_nifti][gyn]. It looked to be
mostly pure python so I created a virtualenv and installed it in there:
```
$ git clone https://github.com/miykael/gif_your_nifti
$ cd gif_your_nifti
$ virtualenv -p python3 env
$ source env/bin/activate
(env) $ pip3 install -r requirements.txt
(env) $ python3 setup.py install
```
Then I ran it with the following settings to get [this first result][firstgif]:
```
(env) $ gif_your_nifti christine_brain.nii.gz --mode pseudocolor --cmap plasma
```
<center><video controls> <source src="https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine-fmri-raw.mp4" type="video/mp4">A sideways view of the brain</video></center>
<small>(sorry the video embed isn't working in safari)</small>
It looked weird though, that's because the fMRI scanner I used has a different
rotation to what's considered "normal". The gif\_your\_nifti repo mentioned a
program called `fslreorient2std` to reorient the fMRI image, so I set out to
install and run it.
### FSL
After some googling, I found [FSL's website][fsl] which included an installer
script and required registration.
37 gigabytes of downloads and data later, I had the entire FSL suite installed
to a server of mine and ran the conversion command:
```
$ fslreorient2std christine_brain.nii.gz christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz
```
This produced a slightly smaller [reoriented file][secondniifile].
I reran gif\_your\_nifti on this reoriented file and got [this result][secondgif]
which looked a _lot_ better:
<center><video controls> <source src="https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine-fmri-reoriented.mp4">A properly reoriented brain</video></center>
<small>(sorry again the video embed isn't working in safari)</small>
### FreeSurfer
By this time I had gotten back home and [FreeSurfer][freesurfer] was done installing,
so I registered for it (god bless the institution of None) and put its license key
in the place it expected. I copied the reoriented data file to my Mac and then
set up a `SUBJECTS_DIR` and had it start running the numbers and extracting the
brain surfaces:
```
$ cd ~/tmp
$ mkdir -p brain/subjects
$ cd brain
$ export SUBJECTS_DIR=$(pwd)/subjects
$ recon-all -i /path/to/christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz -s christine -all
```
This step took 8 hours. Once I was done I had a bunch of data in
`$SUBJECTS_DIR/christine`. I opened my shell to that folder and went into the
`surf` subfolder:
```
$ mris_convert lh.pial lh.pial.stl
$ mris_convert rh.pial rh.pial.stl
```
Now I had standard stl files that I could stick into [Blender][blender].
### Blender
Importing the stl files was really easy. I clicked on File, then Import, then
Stl. After guiding the browser to the subjects directory and finding the STL
files, I got a view that looked something like this:
<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BRAIN <a href="https://t.co/kGSrPj0kgP">pic.twitter.com/kGSrPj0kgP</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1164526098526478336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
I had absolutely no idea what to do from here in Blender, so I exported the
whole thing to a stl file and sent it to a coworker for 3D printing (he said
it was going to be "the coolest thing he's ever printed").
I also exported an Unreal Engine 4 compatible model and sent it to a friend of
mine that does hobbyist game development. A few hours later I got this back:
<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/fXnwnSpMry">pic.twitter.com/fXnwnSpMry</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1164714830630203393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
(Hint: it is a take on the famous [galaxy brain memes][galaxybrain])
## Conclusion
Overall, this was fun! I got to play with many gigabytes of software that ran
my most powerful machine at full blast for 8 hours, I made a fully printable 3D
model out of it and I have some future plans for importing this data into
Minecraft (the NIFTI `.nii.gz` format has a limit of _256 layers_).
I'll be sure to write more about this in the future!
## Citations
Here are my citations in [BibTex format][citations].
Special thanks goes to Michael Lifshitz for organizing the study that I
participated in that got me this fMRI data file. It was one of the coolest
things I've ever done (if not the coolest) and I'm going to be able to get a
3D printed model of my brain out of it.
[firstniifile]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine_brain.nii.gz
[secondniifile]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz
[r3dprinting]: https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/2w0zxx/magnetic_resonance_image_nii_to_stl/
[freesurfer]: https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/FreeSurferWiki
[gyn]: https://github.com/miykael/gif_your_nifti
[firstgif]: /static/blog/christine-fmri-raw.mp4
[secondgif]: /static/blog/christine-fmri-reoriented.mp4
[fsl]: https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/
[blender]: https://www.blender.org
[galaxybrain]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/expanding-brain
[citations]: /static/blog/brainfmri-to-3d-model.bib

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@ -1,194 +0,0 @@
---
title: Advice to People Nurturing a Career in Computering
date: 2019-06-18
tags:
- career
---
# Advice to People Nurturing a Career in Computering
Computering, or making computers do things in exchange for money, can be a
surprisingly hard field to break into as an outsider. There's lots of jargon,
tool holy wars, flamewars about the "right" way to do things and a whole host
of overhead that can make it feel difficult or impossible when starting from
scratch. I'm a college dropout, I know what it's like to be turned down over
and over because of the lack of that blessed square paper. In this post I
hope to give some general advice based on what has and hasn't worked for me
over the years.
Hopefully this can help you too.
## Make a Portfolio Site
When you are breaking into the industry, there is a huge initial "brand" issue.
You're nobody. This is both a very good thing and a very bad thing. It's a very
good thing because you have a clean slate to start from. It's also a very bad
thing because you have nothing to refer to yourself with.
Part of establishing a brand for yourself in this day and age is to make a website
(like the one you are probably reading this off of right now). This website can
be powered by anything. [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com) with the `github.io`
domain works, but it's probably a better idea to make your website backend from scratch.
Your website should include at least the following things:
- Your name
- A few buzzwords relating to the kind of thing you'd like to do with computers (example: I have myself listed as a "Backend Services and Devops Specialist" which sounds really impressive yet doesn't really mean much of anything)
- Tools or soft skills you are experienced with
- Links to yourself on other social media platforms (GitHub, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Links to or words about projects of yours that you are proud of
- Some contact information (an email address is a good idea too)
If you feel comfortable doing so, I'd also suggest putting your [resume](https://christine.website/resume)
on this site too. Even if it's just got your foodservice jobs or education
history (including your high school diploma if need be).
This website can then be used as a landing page for other things in the future
too. It's _your_ space on the internet. _You_ get to decide what's up there or
not.
## Make a Tech Blog On That Site
This has been the single biggest thing to help me grow professionally. I regularly
put [articles](https://christine.website/blog) on my blog, sometimes not even about
technology topics. Even if you are writing about your take on something people have
already written about, it's still good practice. Your early posts are going to be
rough. It's normal to not be an expert when starting out in a new skill.
This helps you stand out in the interview process. I've actually managed to skip
interviews with companies purely because of the contents of my blog. One of them
had the interviewer almost word for word say the following:
> I've read your blog, you don't need to prove technical understanding to me.
It was one of the most awestruck feelings I've ever had in the hiring process.
## Find People to Mentor You
Starting out you are going to not be very skilled in anything. One good way you
can help yourself get good at things is to go out into communities and ask for
help understanding things. As you get involved in communities, naturally you will
end up finding people who are giving a lot of advice about things. Don't be
afraid to ask people for more details.
Get involved in niche communities (like unpopular Linux distros) and help them
out, even if it's just doing spellcheck over the documentation. This kind of
stuff really makes you stand out and people will remember it.
Formal mentorship is a very hard thing to try and define. It's probably better
to surround yourself with experts in various niche topics rather than looking
for that one magic mentor. Mentorship can be a very time consuming thing on the
expert's side. Be thankful for what you can get and try and give back by helping
other people too.
Seriously though, don't be afraid to email or DM people for more information about
topics that don't make sense in group chats. I have found that people really
appreciate that kind of stuff, even if they don't immediately have the time to
respond in detail.
## Do Stuff with Computers, Post the Results Somewhere
Repository hosting sites like GitHub and Gitlab allow you to show potential
employers exactly what you can do by example. Put your code up on them, even
if you think it's "bad" or the solution could have been implemented better by
someone more technically skilled. The best way to get experience in this industry
is by doing. The best way to do things is to just do them and then let other
people see the results.
Your first programs will be inelegant, but that's okay.
Your first repositories will be bloated or inefficient, but that's okay.
Nobody expects perfection out of the gate, and honestly even for skilled experts
perfection is probably too high of a bar. We're human. We make mistakes. Our job
is to turn the results of these mistakes into the products and services that
people rely on.
## You Don't Need 100% Of The Job Requirements
Many companies put job requirements as soft guidelines, not hard ones. It's easy
to see requirements for jobs like this:
> Applicants must have:
>
> - 1 year managing a distributed Flopnax system
> - Experience using Rilkef across multiple regions
> - Ropjar, HTML/CSS
and feel really disheartened. That "must" there seldom actually is a hard
requirement. Many companies will be willing to hire someone for a junior
level. You can learn the skills you miss as a natural part of doing your job.
There's support structures at nearly every company for things like this. You
don't need to be perfect out of the gate.
## Interviews
This one is a bit of a weird one to give advice for. Each company ends up having
their own interviewing style, and even then individual interviewers have their
own views on how to do it. My advice here is trying to be as generic as possible.
### Know the Things You Have Listed on Your Resume
If you say you know how to use a language, brush up on that language. If you say
you know how to use a tool, be able to explain that what that tool does and why
people should care about it to someone.
Don't misrepresent your skills on your resume either. It's similar to lying. It's
also a good idea to go back and prune out skills you don't feel as fresh with over
time.
### Be Yourself
It's tempting to put on a persona or try to present yourself as larger than life.
Resist this temptation. They want to see _you_, not a caricature of yourself. It's
scary to do interviews at times. It feels like you are being judged. It's not
personal. Everything in interviews is aimed at making the best decision for the
company.
Also, don't be afraid to say you don't know things. You don't need to have API
documentation memorized. They aren't looking for that. API documentation will be
available to you while you write code at your job. Interviews are usually there
to help the interviewer verify that you know how to break larger problems into
more understandable chunks. Ask questions. Ensure you understand what they are
and are not asking you. Nearly every interview that I've had that's resulted in
a job offer has had me ask questions about what they are asking.
### "Do You Have Any Questions?"
A few things I've found work really well for this:
- "Do you know of anyone who left this company and then came back?"
- "What is your favorite part of your workday?"
- "What is your least favorite part of your workday?"
- "Do postmortems have formal blame as a part of the process?"
- "Does code get reviewed before it ships into production?"
- "Are there any employee run interest groups for things like mindfulness?"
And then finally as your last question:
- "What are the next steps?"
This question in particular tends to signal interest in the person interviewing
you. I don't completely understand why, but it seems to be one of the most
useful questions to ask; especially with initial interviews with hiring managers
or human resources.
### Meditate Before Interviews
Even if it's just [watching your breath for 5 minutes](https://when-then-zen.christine.website/meditation/anapana).
I find that doing this helps reset the mind and reduces subjective experiences of
anxiety.
## Persistence
Getting the first few real jobs is tough, but after you get a year or two at any
employer things get a lot easier. Your first job is going to give you a lot of
experience. You are going to learn things about things you didn't even think
would be possible to learn about. People, processes and the like are going to
surprise or shock you.
At the end of the day though, it's just a job. It's impermanent. You might not
fit in. You might have to find another. Don't panic about it, even though it's
really, really tempting to. You can always find another job.
---
I hope this is able to help. Thanks for reading this and be well.

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title: "Chaos Magick Debugging"
date: 2018-11-13
thanks: CelestialBoon
series: magick
---
# Chaos Magick Debugging

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@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
---
title: Chicken Stir Fry
date: 2020-04-13
series: recipes
tags:
- instant-pot
- pan
- rice
- garlic
---
# Chicken Stir Fry
This recipe was made up by me and my fiancé. We just sorta winged it every time
we made it until we found something that was easy to cook and tasty. We make
this every week or so.
## Recipe
### Ingredients
- Pack of 4 chicken breasts
- A fair amount of Montreal seasoning (garlic, onion, salt, oregano)
- 3 cups basmati rice
- 3.75 cups water
- 1/4th bag of frozen stir fry vegetables
- Avocado/coconut oil
- Standard frying pan
- Standard chef's knife
- Standard 11x14 cutting board
- Two metal bowls
- Instant Pot
- Spatula
### Seasoning
Put the seasoning in one of the bowls and unwrap the plastic around the chicken
breasts. Take each chicken breast out of the package (you may need to cut them
free of eachother, use a sharp knife for that) and rub all sides of it around in
the seasoning.
Put these into the other metal bowl and when you've done all four, cover with
plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 5-6 hours.
Doing this helps to have the chicken soak up the flavor of the seasoning so it
tastes better when you cook it.
### Cooking
Slice two chicken breasts up kinda like
[this](https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/04/knife-skills-how-to-slice-chicken-breast-for-stir-fries.html)
and then transfer to the heated pan with oil in it. Cook those and flip them
every few minutes until you've cooked everything all the way through (random
sampling by cutting a bit of chicken in half with the spatula and seeing if it's
overly juicy or not is a good way to tell, or if you have a food thermometer to
165 degrees fahrenheit or 75 degrees celsius). Put this chicken into a plastic
container for use in other meals (it goes really good on sandwiches).
Then repeat the slicing and cooking for the last two chicken breasts. However,
this time put _half_ of the chicken into the plastic container you used before
(about one chicken breast worth in total, it doesn't have to be exact). At the
same time as the second round of chicken is cooking, put about 3 cups of rice
and 3.75 cups of water into the instant pot; then seal it and set it to manual
for 4 minutes.
Dump frozen vegetables on top of the remainder of the chicken and stir until the
vegetables are warm.
### Serving
Serve the stir fry hot on a bed of rice.
![image of the food](/static/blog/chicken-stir-fry.jpg)

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@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
---
title: CinemaQuestria Orchestration
date: 2015-03-13
tags:
- cinemaquestria
---
CinemaQuestria Orchestration

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@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
---
title: Coding on an iPad
date: 2018-04-14
tags:
- ipad
---
# Coding on an iPad

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@ -1,88 +0,0 @@
---
title: Colemak Layout - First Week
date: 2020-08-22
series: colemak
---
# Colemak Layout - First Week
A week ago I posted the last post in this series where I announced I was going
all colemak all the time. I have not been measuring words per minute (to avoid
psyching myself out), but so far my typing speed has gone from intolerably slow
to manageably slow. I have been only dipping back into qwerty for two main
things:
1. Passwords, specifically the ones I have in muscle memory
2. Coding at work that needs to be done fast
Other than that, everything else has been in colemak. I have written DnD-style
game notes, hacked at my own "Linux distro", started a few QMK keymaps and more
all via colemak.
Here are some of the lessons I've learned:
## Let Your Coworkers Know You Are Going to Be Slow
This kind of thing is a long tirm investment. In the short term, your
productivity is going to crash through the floor. This will feel frustrating. It
took me an entire workday to implement and test a HTTP handler/client for it in
Go. You will be making weird typos. Let your coworkers know so they don't jump
to the wrong conclusions too quickly.
Also, this goes without saying, but don't do this kind of change during crunch
time. That's a bit of a dick move.
## Print Out the Layout
I have the layout printed and taped to my monitor and iPad stand. This helps a
lot. Instead of looking at the keyboard, I look at the layout image and let my
fingers drift into position.
I also have a blank keyboard at my desk, this helps because I can't look at the
keycaps and become confused (however this has backfired with typing numbers,
lol). This keyboard has cherry MX blues though, which means it can be loud when
I get to typing up a storm.
## Have Friends Ask You What Layout You Are Using
Something that works for me is to have friends ask me what keyboard layout I am
using, so I can be mindful of the change. I have a few people asking me that on
the regular, so I can be accountable to them and myself.
## macOS and iPadOS have Colemak Out of the Box
The settings app lets you configure colemak input without having to jailbreak or
install a custom keyboard layout. Take advantage of this.
Someone has also created a colemak windows package for windows that includes an
IA-64 (Itanium) binary. It was last updated in 2004, and still works without
hassle on windows 10. It was the irst time I've ever seen an IA-64 windows
binary in the wild!
## Relearn How To Type Your Passwords
I type passwords from muscle memory. I have had to rediscover what they actually
are so I can relearn how to type them.
---
The colemak experiment continues. I also have a [ZSA
Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) and the kit for a
[GergoPlex](https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex) coming in the mail. Both
of these run [QMK](https://qmk.fm), which allows me to fully program them with a
rich macro engine. Here are a few of the macros I plan to use:
```c
// Programming
SUBS(ifErr, "if err != nil {\n\t\n}", KC_E, KC_I)
SUBS(goTest, "go test ./...\n", KC_G, KC_T)
SUBS(cargoTest, "cargo test\n", KC_C, KC_T)
```
This will autotype a few common things when I press the keys "ei", "gt", or "ct"
at the same time. I plan to add a few more as things turn up so I can more
quickly type common idioms or commands to save me time. The `if err != nil`
combination started as a joke, but I bet it will end up being incredibly
valuable.
Be well, take care of your hands.

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@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
---
title: Colemak Layout - Beginning
date: 2020-08-15
series: colemak
---
# Colemak Layout - Beginning
I write a lot. On average I write a few kilobytes of text per day. This has been
adding up and is taking a huge toll on my hands, especially considering the
Covid situation. Something needs to change. I've been working on learning a new
keyboard layout: [Colemak](https://colemak.com).
This post will be shorter than most of my posts because I'm writing it with
Colemak enabled on my iPad. Writing this is painfully slow at the moment. My
sentences are short and choppy because those are easier to type.
I also have a [ZSA Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) on the way, it
should be here in October or November. I will also be sure to write about that
once I get it in the mail.
So far, I have about 30 words per minute on the homerow, but once I go off the
homerow the speed tanks to less than about five.
However, I am making progress!
Be well all, don't stress your hands out.

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@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
---
title: Coming Out
date: 2015-12-01
tags:
- personal
---
Coming Out

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@ -1,80 +0,0 @@
---
title: Compile Stress Test
date: 2019-10-03
tags:
- rust
---
This is an experiment in blogging. I am going to be putting my tweets and select replies one after another without commentary.
<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">shitty synthetic benchmark idea: how long it takes for a compiler to handle a main function with 1.2 million instances of printf(&quot;hello, world!\n&quot;) or similar</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179467293232902144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">fun fact, you need an AWS x1.16xlarge instance to compile 1.2 million lines of rust source code</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179524224479825921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh god that might not be enough</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179526505505939458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh god, is that what X1 is for???<br><br>My wallet just cringed.</p>&mdash; snake enchantress (@AstraLuma) <a href="https://twitter.com/AstraLuma/status/1179529430890405888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They have been now <a href="https://t.co/o5vMKx583C">https://t.co/o5vMKx583C</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179527054989111296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/le8IFrFbQT">pic.twitter.com/le8IFrFbQT</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179527358388326401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TFW rust uses so much ram an x1.16xlarge can&#39;t compile hello world</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179527672579465218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let&#39;s go x1e.32xlarge!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179533410165018627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">hello world</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179533767284809729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ca" dir="ltr">Code generators</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179533982641340416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/BwLhk9PIb3">pic.twitter.com/BwLhk9PIb3</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179534490017976321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rust can&#39;t match V for compile performance</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179535227376607232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Finally can run two electron apps.</p>&mdash; Pradeep Gowda 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (@btbytes) <a href="https://twitter.com/btbytes/status/1179539282366734337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/Ez0t5BLT9i">pic.twitter.com/Ez0t5BLT9i</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179542623687790595?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It stopped growing at 2.66 TB of ram!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179544161973870592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">overheard: &quot;im paying this computer minimum wage to compile this god damn rust program&quot;</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179545128366743552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The guy who&#39;s paying for the instance in slack said it</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179546147892928515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">you magnificent cursed unholy monster</p>&mdash; Astrid 🦋 (@floofstrid) <a href="https://twitter.com/floofstrid/status/1179546307972734976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just a simple rust program, only 9.88090622052428380708467040696522138519972064500917... × 10^361235 possible conditions</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179546397084913664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh god it&#39;s still going <a href="https://t.co/SIZJBFTDHN">pic.twitter.com/SIZJBFTDHN</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179552296662962180?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Normal couples: watch tv together or something<br><br>me and my fiancé: watch someone try to compile a 1.2 million line of code rust function over slack</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179555137376980993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I guess <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/rust?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#rust</a> isn&#39;t production-ready, it can&#39;t compile hello world.</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179557450057474048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">no swap used though <a href="https://t.co/2Qb0pXqIme">pic.twitter.com/2Qb0pXqIme</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179558236313329664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">what the fuck is it doing <a href="https://t.co/2CuVKhUAsF">pic.twitter.com/2CuVKhUAsF</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179559687144005632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SURVEY SAYS:<br><br>memcpy()!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179561276898451456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">01:01 (Cadey) dalias: this is basically 1.2 million instances of `printf(&quot;hello, world!\n&quot;);` in void main<br>01:01 (dalias) wtf</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179562382152142848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AWS x1e.32large</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179559826722037760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">perf</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179553234660315138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It&#39;s down to 1.36 TB now</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179565615775920134?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;back to 1.47T ram&quot;<br>&quot;oh no&quot;<br>&quot;1.49&quot;<br>&quot;oh it stopped&quot;<br>&quot;it&#39;s definitely still in mir dataflow&quot;</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179569054870319104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The memory is increasing</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179569164220092417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;what stage is that?&quot;<br>&quot;denial?&quot;</p>&mdash; Jaden Weiss (@CompuJad) <a href="https://twitter.com/CompuJad/status/1179570411668987904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lol it ran out of memory!<br><br>4 TB of ram isn&#39;t enough to build hello world in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/rust?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#rust</a>!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179582759133761536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</center>
Meanwhile the same thing in Go took 5 minutes and I was able to run it on my desktop instead of having to rent a server from AWS.

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@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
---
title: "Crazy Experiment: Ship the Frontend as an asar document"
date: "2017-01-09"
tags:
- asar
- frontend
---
Crazy Experiment: Ship the Frontend as an asar document

View File

@ -2,9 +2,6 @@
title: "Creator's Code"
author: Christine Dodrill
date: 2018-09-17
tags:
- release
- coc
---
# [Creator's Code](https://github.com/Xe/creators-code)

View File

@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: My Experience Cursing Out God
date: 2018-11-21
series: dreams
---
# My Experience Cursing Out God

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@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
title: Death
date: 2018-08-19
thanks: Sygma
series: magick
---
# Death
@ -11,7 +10,7 @@ Death is a very misunderstood card in Tarot, but not for the reasons you'd think
Tarot does not see death in this way. Death, the skeleton knight wearing armor, does not see color, race or creed, thus he is depicted as a skeleton. He is riding towards a child and another younger person. The sun is rising in the distance, but even it cannot stop Death. Nor can royalty, as shown by the king under him, dead.
![](/static/img/tarot_death.jpg)
<center>![](/static/img/tarot_death.jpg)</center>
Death, however, does not actually refer to the act of a physical body physically dying. Death is a change that cannot be reverted. The consequences of this change can and will affect what comes next, however.

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@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
---
title: Death Stranding Review
date: 2019-11-11
series: reviews
tags:
- kojima
- video-game
- what
---
# Death Stranding Review
NOTE: There's gonna be spoilers here. Do not read if you are not okay with this.
For a summary of the article without spoilers, this game is 10 out of 10 game of the
year 2019 for me.
I have also been playing through this game [on
twitch](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) and have streams archived
[here](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/kojima_unchained).
There's a long-standing rule of thumb to tell fiction apart from non-fiction.
Fiction needs to make sense to the reader. Non-fiction does not. [Death
Stranding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding) puts this paradigm on
its head. It doesn't make sense out of the gate in the way most AAA games make
sense.
In many AAA games it's very clear who the Big Bad is and who the John America
is. John America defeats the Big Bad and spreads Freedom to the masses by force.
In Death Stranding, you have no such preconceptions going into it. The first few
hours are a chaotic mess of exposition without explanation. First there's a
storm, then there's monsters, then there's a baby-powered locator, then you need
to deliver stuff a-la fetch quests, then there's Monster energy drinks, and the
main currency of this game is Facebook likes (that mean and do absolutely
nothing).
In short, Death Stranding doesn't try to make sense. It leaves questions
unanswered. And this is honestly so refreshing in a day and age where entire
plot points and the like are spoiled in trailers before the game's release date
is even announced. Questions like: what is going on? Why are there monsters?
What is the point of the game? Why the hell are there Monster energy drinks in
your private room and canteen? Death Stranding answers only some of these over
the course of gameplay.
The core of the gameplay loop is delivering cargo from point a to point b across
a ruined America after the apocalypse. The main character is an absolute unit of
a lad, able to carry over 120 kilograms of cargo on his back. As more and more
cargo stacks up you create these comically tall towers of luggage that make
balancing very difficult. You can hold on for balance using both of the shoulder
buttons. The game maps each shoulder button to an arm of the player character.
There's also a stamina system, and while you are gripping the cargo your stamina
regenerates much more slowly than if you weren't doing that.
The game makes you deliver almost everything you can think of from medical aid
to antimatter bombs. The antimatter bomb deliveries are really tricky because of
how delicate they are. If you drop the antimatter bomb, it explodes and you
instantly game over. If you hit a rock while carrying an antimatter bomb, it
gets damaged. If it gets damaged too many times it explodes and you die. If it
gets dropped into water it explodes and you die. And you have to carry the
suckers over miles of terrain and even mountains.
This game handles scale very elegantly. The map is _huge_, even larger than
Skyrim or Breath of the Wild. You are the UPS man who delivers packages,
apocalypse be damned. This game gives you a lot of quiet downtime, which really
lets you soak in the philosophical mindfuck that Kojima cooked up for us all. As
you approach major cities, guitar and vocal music comes in and the other sound
effects of the game quiet down. It overall creates a very sobering and solemn
mood that I just can't get enough of. It seems like it wouldn't fit in a game
where you use your own blood to defeat monsters and drink _monster energy_ out
of your canteen, but it totally does.
There is some mild product placement. Your canteen is full of Monster energy
drink. Yes, that Monster. Making the player defecate shows you an ad for an AMC
show. There's also monster energy drinks in your safe room that increase your
max stamina for a bit. I'm not entirely sure if the product placement was chosen
to be there for artistic reasons (it's surreal as all hell and helps to
complement the confusing aspects of the game), but it's very non-intrusive and
can be ignored with little risk.
This game also has online components. Every time you build a structure in areas
linked to the chiral network, other players can use, interact with and upgrade
them so they can do more things. Other players can also gives you likes, which
again do nothing. Upgrading a zipline makes it able to handle a larger distance
or updating a safe house lets you play music when people walk by it. It really
helps to build the motif of rebuilding America. There is however room for people
to troll others. Here's [an example of
this](https://twitter.com/Brad_barnaby/status/1193084242743312384). There's a
troll ladder to nowhere. There's a lot of those laying around mountains, so be
on your guard.
Overall, Death Stranding is a fantastic game. It's hard. It's unforgiving. But
the real thing that advances is the skill of the player. You make the
deliveries. You go the distance. You do your job as the post-apocalyptic UPS man
that America needs.
![UPS Simulator 2019](/static/img/ups-simulator-2019.jpg)
By [mmmintdesign](https://twitter.com/mmmintdesign) [source](https://twitter.com/mmmintdesign/status/1192856164331114497)
Score: 10 out of 10
Christine Dodrill's Game of the Year 2019

View File

@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
---
title: "Deprecation Notice: Elemental-IRCd"
date: 2019-02-11
tags:
- release
---
# Deprecation Notice: Elemental-IRCd

View File

@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
---
title: Instant Development Environments in Docker
date: 2014-10-24
tags:
- release
---
Instant Development Environments in Docker

View File

@ -1,435 +0,0 @@
---
title: Dhall for Kubernetes
date: 2020-01-25
tags:
- dhall
- kubernetes
- witchcraft
---
# Dhall for Kubernetes
Kubernetes is a surprisingly complicated software package. Arguably, it has to
be that complicated as a result of the problems it solves being complicated; but
managing yaml configuration files for Kubernetes is a complicated task. [YAML][yaml]
doesn't have support for variables or type metadata. This means that the
validity (or sensibility) of a given Kubernetes configuration file (or files)
isn't easy to figure out without using a Kubernetes server.
[yaml]: https://yaml.org
In my [last post][cultk8s] about Kubernetes, I mentioned I had developed a tool
named [dyson][dyson] in order to help me manage Terraform as well as create
Kubernetes manifests from [a template][template]. This works for the majority of
my apps, but it is difficult to extend at this point for a few reasons:
[cultk8s]: https://christine.website/blog/the-cult-of-kubernetes-2019-09-07
[dyson]: https://github.com/Xe/within-terraform/tree/master/dyson
[template]: https://github.com/Xe/within-terraform/blob/master/dyson/src/dysonPkg/deployment_with_ingress.yaml
- It assumes that everything passed to it are already valid yaml terms
- It doesn't assert the type of any values passed to it
- It is difficult to add another container to a given deployment
- Environment variables implicitly depend on the presence of a private git repo
- It depends on the template being correct more than the output being correct
So, this won't scale. People in the community have created other solutions for
this like [Helm][helm], but a lot of them have some of the same basic problems.
Helm also assumes that your template is correct. [Kustomize][kustomize] does
help with a lot of the type-safe variable replacements, but it doesn't have the
ability to ensure your manifest is valid.
[helm]: https://helm.sh
[kustomize]: https://kustomize.io
I looked around for alternate solutions for a while and eventually found
[Dhall][dhall] thanks to a friend. Dhall is a _statically typed_ configuration
language. This means that you can ensure that inputs are _always_ the correct
type or the configuration file won't load. There's also a built-in
[dhall-to-yaml][dhallyaml] tool that can be used with the [Kubernetes
package][dhallk8s] in order to declare Kubernetes manifests in a type-safe way.
[dhall]: https://dhall-lang.org
[dhallyaml]: https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-haskell/tree/master/dhall-yaml#dhall-yaml
[dhallk8s]: https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes
Here's a small example of Dhall and the yaml it generates:
```dhall
-- Mastodon usernames
[ { name = "Cadey", mastodon = "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me" }
, { name = "Nicole", mastodon = "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me" }
]
```
Which produces:
```yaml
- mastodon: "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me"
name: Cadey
- mastodon: "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me"
name: Nicole
```
Which is fine, but we still have the type-safety problem that you would have in
normal yaml. Dhall lets us define [record types][dhallrecord] for this data like
this:
[dhallrecord]: http://www.haskellforall.com/2020/01/dhall-year-in-review-2019-2020.html
```dhall
let User =
{ Type = { name : Text, mastodon : Optional Text }
, default = { name = "", mastodon = None }
}
let users =
[ User::{ name = "Cadey", mastodon = Some "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me" }
, User::{
, name = "Nicole"
, mastodon = Some "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me"
}
]
in users
```
Which produces:
```yaml
- mastodon: "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me"
name: Cadey
- mastodon: "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me"
name: Nicole
```
This is type-safe because you cannot add arbitrary fields to User instances
without the compiler rejecting it. Let's add an invalid "preferred_language"
field to Cadey's instance:
```
-- ...
let users =
[ User::{
, name = "Cadey"
, mastodon = Some "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me"
, preferred_language = "en-US"
}
-- ...
]
```
Which gives us:
```
$ dhall-to-yaml --file example.dhall
Error: Expression doesn't match annotation
{ + preferred_language : …
, …
}
4│ User::{ name = "Cadey", mastodon = Some "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me",
5│ preferred_language = "en-US" }
example.dhall:4:9
```
Or [this more detailed explanation][explanation] if you add the `--explain` flag
to the `dhall-to-yaml` call.
[explanation]: https://clbin.com/JtVWT
We tried to do something that violated the contract that the type specified.
This means that it's an invalid configuration and is therefore rejected and no
yaml file is created.
The Dhall Kubernetes package specifies record types for _every_ object available
by default in Kubernetes. This does mean that the package is incredibly large,
but it also makes sure that _everything_ you could possibly want to do in
Kubernetes matches what it expects. In the [package
documentation][k8sdhalldocs], they give an example where a
[Deployment][k8sdeployment] is created.
[k8sdhalldocs]: https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes/tree/master/1.15#quickstart---a-simple-deployment
[k8sdeployment]: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/deployment/
``` dhall
-- examples/deploymentSimple.dhall
-- Importing other files is done by specifying the HTTPS URL/disk location of
-- the file. Attaching a sha256 hash (obtained with `dhall freeze`) allows
-- the Dhall compiler to cache these files and speed up configuration loads
-- drastically.
let kubernetes =
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes/1.15/master/package.dhall
sha256:4bd5939adb0a5fc83d76e0d69aa3c5a30bc1a5af8f9df515f44b6fc59a0a4815
let deployment =
kubernetes.Deployment::{
, metadata = kubernetes.ObjectMeta::{ name = "nginx" }
, spec =
Some
kubernetes.DeploymentSpec::{
, replicas = Some 2
, template =
kubernetes.PodTemplateSpec::{
, metadata = kubernetes.ObjectMeta::{ name = "nginx" }
, spec =
Some
kubernetes.PodSpec::{
, containers =
[ kubernetes.Container::{
, name = "nginx"
, image = Some "nginx:1.15.3"
, ports =
[ kubernetes.ContainerPort::{
, containerPort = 80
}
]
}
]
}
}
}
}
in deployment
```
Which creates the following yaml:
```
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx
spec:
replicas: 2
template:
metadata:
name: nginx
spec:
containers:
- image: nginx:1.15.3
name: nginx
ports:
- containerPort: 80
```
Dhall's lambda functions can help you break this into manageable chunks. For
example, here's a Dhall function that helps create a docker image reference:
```
let formatImage
: Text -> Text -> Text
= \(repository : Text) -> \(tag : Text) ->
"${repository}:${tag}"
in formatImage "xena/christinewebsite" "latest"
```
Which outputs `xena/christinewebsite:latest` when passed to `dhall text`.
All of this adds up into a powerful toolset that lets you express Kubernetes
configuration in a way that does what you want without as many headaches.
Most of my apps on Kubernetes need only a few generic bits of configuration:
- Their name
- What port should be exposed
- The domain that this service should be exposed on
- How many replicas of the service are needed
- Which Let's Encrypt Issuer to use (currently only `"prod"` or `"staging"`)
- The [configuration variables of the service][12factorconfig]
- Any other containers that may be needed for the service
[12factorconfig]: https://12factor.net/config
From here, I defined all of the [bits and pieces][kubermemeshttp] for the
Kubernetes manifests that Dyson produces and then created a `Config` type that
helps to template them out. Here's my [`Config` type
definition][configdefinition]:
[kubermemeshttp]: https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kubermemes/src/branch/master/k8s/http
[configdefinition]: https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kubermemes/src/branch/master/k8s/app/config.dhall
```dhall
let kubernetes = ../kubernetes.dhall
in { Type =
{ name : Text
, appPort : Natural
, image : Text
, domain : Text
, replicas : Natural
, leIssuer : Text
, envVars : List kubernetes.EnvVar.Type
, otherContainers : List kubernetes.Container.Type
}
, default =
{ name = ""
, appPort = 5000
, image = ""
, domain = ""
, replicas = 1
, leIssuer = "staging"
, envVars = [] : List kubernetes.EnvVar.Type
, otherContainers = [] : List kubernetes.Container.Type
}
}
```
Then I defined a `makeApp` function that creates everything I need to deploy my
stuff on Kubernetes:
```dhall
let Prelude = ../Prelude.dhall
let kubernetes = ../kubernetes.dhall
let typesUnion = ../typesUnion.dhall
let deployment = ../http/deployment.dhall
let ingress = ../http/ingress.dhall
let service = ../http/service.dhall
let Config = ../app/config.dhall
let K8sList = ../app/list.dhall
let buildService =
\(config : Config.Type)
-> let myService = service config
let myDeployment = deployment config
let myIngress = ingress config
in K8sList::{
, items =
[ typesUnion.Service myService
, typesUnion.Deployment myDeployment
, typesUnion.Ingress myIngress
]
}
in buildService
```
And used it to deploy the [h language website][hlang]:
[hlang]: https://h.christine.website
```dhall
let makeApp = ../app/make.dhall
let Config = ../app/config.dhall
let cfg =
Config::{
, name = "hlang"
, appPort = 5000
, image = "xena/hlang:latest"
, domain = "h.christine.website"
, leIssuer = "prod"
}
in makeApp cfg
```
Which produces the following Kubernetes config:
```yaml
apiVersion: v1
items:
- apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
annotations:
external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/cloudflare-proxied: "false"
external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: h.christine.website
external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "120"
labels:
app: hlang
name: hlang
namespace: apps
spec:
ports:
- port: 5000
targetPort: 5000
selector:
app: hlang
type: ClusterIP
- apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: hlang
namespace: apps
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: hlang
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: hlang
name: hlang
spec:
containers:
- image: xena/hlang:latest
imagePullPolicy: Always
name: web
ports:
- containerPort: 5000
imagePullSecrets:
- name: regcred
- apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
annotations:
certmanager.k8s.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-prod
kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
labels:
app: hlang
name: hlang
namespace: apps
spec:
rules:
- host: h.christine.website
http:
paths:
- backend:
serviceName: hlang
servicePort: 5000
tls:
- hosts:
- h.christine.website
secretName: prod-certs-hlang
kind: List
```
And when I applied it on my Kubernetes cluster, it worked the first time and had
absolutely no effect on the existing configuration.
In the future, I hope to expand this to allow for multiple deployments (IE: a
chatbot running in a separate deployment than a web API the chatbot depends on
or non-web projects in general) as well as supporting multiple Kubernetes
namespaces.
Dhall is probably the most viable replacement to Helm or other Kubernetes
templating tools I have found in recent memory. I hope that it will be used by
more people to help with configuration management, but I can understand that
that may not happen. At least it works for me.
If you want to learn more about Dhall, I suggest checking out the following
links:
- [The Dhall Language homepage](https://dhall-lang.org)
- [Learn Dhall in Y Minutes](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/dhall/)
- [The Dhall Language GitHub Organization](https://github.com/dhall-lang)
I hope this was helpful and interesting. Be well.

View File

@ -1,111 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Don't Look Into the Light"
date: 2019-10-06
tags:
- practices
- big-rewrite
---
# Dont Look Into the Light
So at a previous job I was working at, we maintained a system. This system
powered a significant part of the core of how the product was actually used (as
far as usage metrics reported). Over time, we had bolted something onto the side
of this product to take actions based on the numbers the product was tracking.
After a few years of cycling through various people, this system was very hard
to understand. Data would flow in on one end, go to an aggregation layer, then
get sent to storage and another aggregation layer, and then eventually all of
the metrics were calculated. This system was fairly expensive to operate and it
was stressing the datastores it relied on beyond what other companies called
_theoretical_ limits. Oh, to make things even more fun; the part that makes
actions based on the data was barely keeping up with what it needed to do. It
was supposed to run each of the checks once a minute and was running all of them
in 57 seconds.
During a planning meeting we started to complain about the state of the world
and how godawful everything had become. The undocumented (and probably
undocumentable) organic nature of the system had gotten out of hand. We thought
we could kill two birds with one stone and wanted to subsume another product
that took action based on data, as well as create a generic platform to
reimplement the older action-taking layer on top of.
The rules were set, the groundwork was laid. We decided:
* This would be a Big Rewrite based on all of the lessons we had learned from
the past operating the behemoth
* This project would be future-proof
* This project would have 75% test coverage as reported by CI
* This project would be built with a microservices architecture
Those of you who have been down this road before probably have massive alarm
bells going off in your head. This is one of those things that looks like a good
idea on paper, can probably be passed off as a good idea to management and
actually implemented; as happened here.
So we set off on our quest to write this software. The repo was created. CI was
configured. The scripts were optimized to dump out code coverage as output. We
strived to document everything on day 1. We took advantage of the datastore we
were using. Everything was looking great.
Then the product team came in and noticed fresh meat. They soon realized that
this could be a Big Thing to customers, and they wanted to get in on it as soon
as possible. So we suddenly had our deadlines pushed forward and needed to get
the whole thing into testing yesterday.
We set it up, set a trigger for a task, and it worked in testing. After a while
of it consistently doing that with the continuous functional testing tooling, we
told product it was okay to have a VERY LIMITED set of customers have at it.
That was a mistake. It fell apart the second customers touched it. We struggled
to understand why. We dug into the core of the beast we had just created and
managed to discover we made critical fundamental errors. The heart of the task
matching code was this monstrosity of a cross join that took the other people on
the team a few sheets of graph paper to break down and understand. The task
execution layer worked perfectly in testing, but almost never in production.
And after a week of solid debugging (including making deals with other teams,
satan, jesus and the pope to try and understand it), we had made no progress. It
was almost as if there was some kind of gremlin in the code that was just
randomly making things not fire if it wasnt one of our internal users
triggering it.
We had to apologize with the product team. Apparently the a lot of product team
had to go on damage control as a result of this. I can only imagine the
trickled-down impact this had on other projects internal to the company.
The lesson here is threefold. First, the Big Rewrite is almost a sure-fire way
to ensure a project fails. Avoid that temptation. Dont look into the light. It
looks nice, it may even feel nice. Statistically speaking, its not nice when
you get to the other side of it.
The second lesson is that making something microservices out of the gate is a
terrible idea. Microservices architectures are not planned. They are an
evolutionary result, not a fully anticipated feature.
Finally, dont “design for the future”. The future [hasnt happened
yet](https://christine.website/blog/all-there-is-is-now-2019-05-25). Nobody
knows how its going to turn out. The future is going to happen, and you can
either adapt to it as it happens in the Now or fail to. Dont make things overly
modular, that leads to insane things like dynamically linking parts of an
application over HTTP.
> If you 'future proof' a system you build today, chances are when the future
> arrives the system will be unmaintainable or incomprehensible.
\- [John Murphy](https://twitter.com/murphybytes/status/1180131195537039360)
---
This kind of advice is probably gonna feel like a slap to the face to a lot of
people. People really put their heart into their work. It feeds egos massively.
It can be very painful to have to say no to something someone is really
passionate about. It can even lead to people changing their career plans
depending on the person.
But this is the truth of the matter as far as I can tell. This is generally what
happens during the Big Rewrite centred around Best Practices for Cloud Native
software.
The most successful design decisions are wholly and utterly subjective to every
kind of project you come across. What works in system A probably wont work
perfectly in system B. Everything is its own unique snowflake. Embrace this.

View File

@ -1,330 +0,0 @@
---
title: Continuous Deployment to Kubernetes with Gitea and Drone
date: 2020-07-10
series: howto
tags:
- nix
- kubernetes
- drone
- gitea
---
# Continuous Deployment to Kubernetes with Gitea and Drone
Recently I put a complete rewrite of [the printerfacts
server](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club) into service based on
[warp](https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp). I have it set up to automatically
be deployed to my Kubernetes cluster on every commit to [its source
repo](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts). I'm going to explain how this works
and how I set it up.
## Nix
One of the first elements in this is [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix). I use Nix to
build reproducible docker images of the printerfacts server, as well as managing
my own developer tooling locally. I also pull in the following packages from
GitHub:
- [naersk](https://github.com/nmattia/naersk) - an automagic builder for Rust
crates that is friendly to the nix store
- [gruvbox-css](https://github.com/Xe/gruvbox-css) - the CSS file that the
printerfacts service uses
- [nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) - contains definitions for the
base packages of the system
These are tracked using [niv](https://github.com/nmattia/niv), which allows me
to store these dependencies in the global nix store for free. This lets them be
reused and deduplicated as they need to be.
Next, I made a build script for the printerfacts service that builds on top of
these in `printerfacts.nix`:
```nix
{ sources ? import ./nix/sources.nix, pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
let
srcNoTarget = dir:
builtins.filterSource
(path: type: type != "directory" || builtins.baseNameOf path != "target")
dir;
src = srcNoTarget ./.;
naersk = pkgs.callPackage sources.naersk { };
gruvbox-css = pkgs.callPackage sources.gruvbox-css { };
pfacts = naersk.buildPackage {
inherit src;
remapPathPrefix = true;
};
in pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
inherit (pfacts) name;
inherit src;
phases = "installPhase";
installPhase = ''
mkdir -p $out/static
cp -rf $src/templates $out/templates
cp -rf ${pfacts}/bin $out/bin
cp -rf ${gruvbox-css}/gruvbox.css $out/static/gruvbox.css
'';
}
```
And finally a simple docker image builder in `default.nix`:
```nix
{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { };
printerfacts = pkgs.callPackage ./printerfacts.nix { };
name = "xena/printerfacts";
tag = "latest";
in pkgs.dockerTools.buildLayeredImage {
inherit name tag;
contents = [ printerfacts ];
config = {
Cmd = [ "${printerfacts}/bin/printerfacts" ];
Env = [ "RUST_LOG=info" ];
WorkingDir = "/";
};
}
```
This creates a docker image with only the printerfacts service in it and any
dependencies that are absolutely required for the service to function. Each
dependency is also split into its own docker layer so that it is much more
efficient on docker caches, which translates into faster start times on existing
servers. Here are the layers needed for the printerfacts service to function:
- [libunistring](https://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/) - Unicode-safe
string manipulation library
- [libidn2](https://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/) - An internationalized domain
name decoder
- [glibc](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/) - A core library for C programs
to interface with the Linux kernel
- The printerfacts binary/templates
That's it. It packs all of this into an image that is 13 megabytes when
compressed.
## Drone
Now that we have a way to make a docker image, let's look how I use
[drone.io](https://drone.io) to build and push this image to the [Docker
Hub](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/xena/printerfacts/tags).
I have a drone manifest that looks like
[this](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/master/.drone.yml):
```yaml
kind: pipeline
name: docker
steps:
- name: build docker image
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
commands:
- cachix use xe
- nix-build
- cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: push docker image
image: docker:dind
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: dockersock
path: /var/run/docker.sock
commands:
- docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
- docker tag xena/printerfacts:latest xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
- echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
- docker push xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
environment:
DOCKER_USERNAME: xena
DOCKER_PASSWORD:
from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
- name: kubenetes release
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN:
from_secret: DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN
commands:
- nix-env -i -f ./nix/dhall.nix
- ./scripts/release.sh
volumes:
- name: image
temp: {}
- name: dockersock
host:
path: /var/run/docker.sock
```
This is a lot, so let's break it up into the individual parts.
### Configuration
Drone steps normally don't have access to a docker daemon, privileged mode or
host-mounted paths. I configured the
[cadey/printerfacts](https://drone.tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts) job with the
following settings:
- I enabled Trusted mode so that the build could use the host docker daemon to
build docker images
- I added the `DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN` and `DOCKER_PASSWORD` secrets
containing a [Digital Ocean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) API token and a
Docker hub password
I then set up the `volumes` block to create a few things:
```
volumes:
- name: image
temp: {}
- name: dockersock
host:
path: /var/run/docker.sock
```
- A temporary folder to store the docker image after Nix builds it
- The docker daemon socket from the host
Now we can get to the building the docker image.
### Docker Image Build
I use [this docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/monacoremo/nix) to build with
Nix on my Drone setup. As of the time of writing this post, the most recent tag
of this image is `monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci`. This image has a
core setup of Nix and a few userspace tools so that it works in CI tooling. In
this step, I do a few things:
```yaml
name: build docker image
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
commands:
- cachix use xe
- nix-build
- cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
```
I first activate my [cachix](https://xe.cachix.org) cache so that any pre-built
parts of this setup can be fetched from the cache instead of rebuilt from source
or fetched from [crates.io](https://crates.io). This makes the builds slightly
faster in my limited testing.
Then I build the docker image with `nix-build` (`nix-build` defaults to
`default.nix` when a filename is not specified, which is where the docker build
is defined in this case) and copy the resulting tarball to that shared temporary
folder I mentioned earlier. This lets me build the docker image _without needing
a docker daemon_ or any other special permissions on the host.
### Pushing
The next step pushes this newly created docker image to the Docker Hub:
```
name: push docker image
image: docker:dind
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: dockersock
path: /var/run/docker.sock
commands:
- docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
- docker tag xena/printerfacts:latest xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
- echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
- docker push xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
environment:
DOCKER_USERNAME: xena
DOCKER_PASSWORD:
from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
```
First it loads the docker image from that shared folder into the docker daemon
as `xena/printerfacts:latest`. This image is then tagged with the relevant git
commit using the magic
[`$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA`](https://docs.drone.io/pipeline/environment/reference/drone-commit-sha/)
variable that Drone defines for you.
In order to push docker images, you need to log into the Docker Hub. I log in
using this method in order to avoid the chance that the docker password will be
leaked to the build logs.
```
echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
```
Then the image is pushed to the Docker hub and we can get onto the deployment
step.
### Deploying to Kubernetes
The deploy step does two small things. First, it installs
[dhall-yaml](https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-haskell/tree/master/dhall-yaml)
for generating the Kubernetes manifest (see
[here](https://christine.website/blog/dhall-kubernetes-2020-01-25)) and then
runs
[`scripts/release.sh`](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/master/scripts/release.sh):
```
#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
#! nix-shell -p doctl -p kubectl -i bash
doctl kubernetes cluster kubeconfig save kubermemes
dhall-to-yaml-ng < ./printerfacts.dhall | kubectl apply -n apps -f -
kubectl rollout status -n apps deployment/printerfacts
```
This uses the [nix-shell shebang
support](http://iam.travishartwell.net/2015/06/17/nix-shell-shebang/) to
automatically set up the following tools:
- [doctl](https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl) to log into kubernetes
- [kubectl](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/) to actually
deploy the site
Then it logs into kubernetes (my cluster is real-life unironically named
kubermemes), applies the generated manifest (which looks something like
[this](http://sprunge.us/zsO4os)) and makes sure the deployment rolls out
successfully.
This will have the kubernetes cluster automatically roll out new versions of the
service and maintain at least two active replicas of the service. This will make
sure that you users can always have access to high-quality printer facts, even
if one or more of the kubernetes nodes go down.
---
And that is how I continuously deploy things on my Gitea server to Kubernetes
using Drone, Dhall and Nix.
If you want to integrate the printer facts service into your application, use
the `/fact` route on it:
```console
$ curl https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact
A printer has a total of 24 whiskers, 4 rows of whiskers on each side. The upper
two rows can move independently of the bottom two rows.
```
There is currently no rate limit to this API. Please do not make me have to
create one.

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@ -3,9 +3,6 @@ title: "Farewell Email - Heroku"
date: 2019-03-08
for: Herokai
subject: May our paths cross again
tags:
- personal
- heroku
---
# Farewell Email - Heroku

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@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ title: Fear
date: 2018-07-24
thanks: CelestialBoon, no really this guy is amazing and doesn't get enough credit, I'm so grateful for him.
for: Twilight Sparkle
series: stories
---
# Fear

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@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
---
title: RSS/Atom Feeds Fixed and Announcing my Flight Journal
date: 2020-07-26
tags:
- gemini
---
# RSS/Atom Feeds Fixed and Announcing my Flight Journal
I have released version 2.0.1 of this site's code. With it I have fixed the RSS
and Atom feed generation. For now I have had to sacrifice the post content being
in the feed, but I will bring it back as soon as possible.
Victory badges:
[![Valid Atom Feed](https://validator.w3.org/feed/images/valid-atom.png)](/blog.atom)
[![Valid RSS Feed](https://validator.w3.org/feed/images/valid-rss-rogers.png)](/blog.rss)
Thanks to [W3Schools](https://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_rss.asp) for having a
minimal example of an RSS feed and [this Flickr
image](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3652359502/) for expanding it so I
can have the post dates be included too.
## Flight Journal
I have created a [Gemini](https://gemini.circumlunar.space) protocol server at
[gemini://cetacean.club](gemini://cetacean.club). Gemini is an exploration of
the space between [Gopher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29)
and HTTP. Right now my site doesn't have much on it, but I have added its feed
to [my feeds page](/feeds).
Please note that the content on this Gemini site is going to be of a much more
personal nature compared to the more professional kind of content I put on this
blog. Please keep this in mind before casting judgement or making any kind of
conclusions about me.
If you don't have a Gemini client installed, you can view the site content
[here](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/cetacean.club/). I plan to make a HTTP
frontend to this site once I get [Maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj) up and
functional.
## Maj
I have created a Gemini client and server framework for Rust programs called
[Maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj). Right now it includes the following
features:
- Synchronous client
- Asynchronous server framework
- Gemini response parser
- `text/gemini` parser
Additionally, I have a few projects in progress for the Maj ecosystem:
- [majc](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/cetacean.club/maj/majc.gmi) - an
interactive curses client for Gemini
- majd - An advanced reverse proxy and Lua handler daemon for people running
Gemini servers
- majsite - A simple example of the maj server framework in action
I will write more about this in the future when I have more than just this
little preview of what is to come implemented. However, here's a screenshot of
majc rendering my flight journal:
![majc preview image rendering cetacean.club](/static/img/majc_preview.png)

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@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
---
title: FFI-ing Go from Nim for Fun and Profit
date: 2015-12-20
series: howto
tags:
- go
- nim
---
FFI-ing Golang from Nim for Fun and Profit

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@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: A Formal Grammar of h
date: 2019-05-19
series: conlangs
---
# A Formal Grammar of `h`

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@ -1,275 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Gamebridge: Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes since 2020"
date: 2020-05-09
series: howto
tags:
- witchcraft
- sm64
- twitch
---
# Gamebridge: Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes since 2020
Recently I did a stream called [Twitch Plays Super Mario 64][tpsm64]. During
that stream I both demonstrated and hacked on a tool I'm calling
[gamebridge][gamebridge]. Gamebridge is a tool that lets you allow games to
interoperate with programs they really shouldn't be able to interoperate with.
[tpsm64]: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615780185
[gamebridge]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge
Gamebridge works by aggressively hooking into a game's input logic (through a
custom controller driver) and uses a pair of [Unix fifos][ufifo] to communicate
between it and the game it is controlling. Overall the flow of data between the
two programs looks like this:
[ufifo]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/fifo.7.html
![A diagram explaining how control/state/data flows between components of the
gamebridge stack](/static/blog/gamebridge.png)
You can view the [source code of this diagram in GraphViz dot format
here](/static/blog/gamebridge.dot).
The main magic that keeps this glued together is the use of _blocking_ I/O.
This means that the bridge input thread will be blocked _at the kernel level_
for the vblank signal to be written, and the game will also be blocked at the
kernel level for the bridge input thread to write the desired input. This
effectively uses the Linux kernel to pass around a scheduling quantum like you
would in the L4 microkernel. This design consideration also means that
gamebridge has to perform _as fast as possible as much as possible_, because it
realistically only has a few hundred microseconds at best to respond with the
input data to avoid humans noticing any stutter. As such, gamebridge is written
in Rust.
## Implementation
When implementing gamebridge, I had a few goals in mind:
- Use blocking I/O to have the kernel help with this
- Use threads to their fullest potential
- Unix fifos are great, let's use them
- Understand linear interpolation better
- Create a surreal demo on Twitch
- Only have one binary to start, the game itself
As a first step of implementing this, I went through the source code of the
Mario 64 PC port (but in theory this could also work for other emulators or even
Nintendo 64 emulators with enough work) and began to look for anything that
might be useful to understand how parts of the game work. I stumbled across
`src/pc/controller` and then found two gems that really stood out. I found the
interface for adding new input methods to the game and an example input method
that read from tool-assisted speedrun recordings. The controller input interface
itself is a thing of beauty, I've included a copy of it below:
```c
// controller_api.h
#ifndef CONTROLLER_API
#define CONTROLLER_API
#include <ultra64.h>
struct ControllerAPI {
void (*init)(void);
void (*read)(OSContPad *pad);
};
#endif
```
All you need to implement your own input method is an init function and a read
function. The init function is used to set things up and the read function is
called every frame to get inputs. The tool-assisted speedrunning input method
seemed to conform to the [Mupen64 demo file spec as described on
tasvideos.org][mupendemo], and I ended up using this to help test and verify
ideas.
[mupendemo]: http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/Mupen/M64.html
The thing that struck me was how _simple_ the format was. Every frame of input
uses its own four-byte sequence. The constants in the demo file spec also helped
greatly as I figured out ways to bridge into the game from Rust. I ended up
creating two [bitflag][bitflag] structs to help with the button data, which
ended up almost being a 1:1 copy of the Mupen64 demo file spec:
[bitflag]: https://docs.rs/bitflags/1.2.1/bitflags/
```rust
bitflags! {
// 0x0100 Digital Pad Right
// 0x0200 Digital Pad Left
// 0x0400 Digital Pad Down
// 0x0800 Digital Pad Up
// 0x1000 Start
// 0x2000 Z
// 0x4000 B
// 0x8000 A
pub(crate) struct HiButtons: u8 {
const NONE = 0x00;
const DPAD_RIGHT = 0x01;
const DPAD_LEFT = 0x02;
const DPAD_DOWN = 0x04;
const DPAD_UP = 0x08;
const START = 0x10;
const Z_BUTTON = 0x20;
const B_BUTTON = 0x40;
const A_BUTTON = 0x80;
}
}
```
### Input
This is where things get interesting. One of the more interesting side effects
of getting inputs over chat for a game like Mario 64 is that you need to [hold
buttons or even the analog stick][apress] in order to do things like jumping
into paintings or on ledges. When you get inputs over chat, you only have them
for one frame. Therefore you need some kind of analog input (or an emulation of
that) that decays over time. One approach you can use for this is [linear
interpolation][lerp] (or lerp).
[apress]: https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A?list=PLmBeAOWc3Gf7IHDihv-QSzS8Y_361b_YO&t=13
[lerp]: https://www.gamedev.net/tutorials/programming/general-and-gameplay-programming/a-brief-introduction-to-lerp-r4954/
I implemented support for both button and analog stick lerping using a struct I
call a [Lerper][lerper] (the file it is in is named `au.rs` because [.au.][au] is
the lojban emotion-particle for "to desire", the name was inspired from it
seeming to fake what the desired inputs were).
[lerper]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge/blob/b2e7ba21aa14b556e34d7a99dd02e22f9a1365aa/src/au.rs
[au]: http://jbovlaste.lojban.org/dict/au
At its core, a Lerper stores a few basic things:
- the current scalar of where the analog input is resting
- the frame number when the analog input was set to the max (or
above)
- the maximum number of frames that the lerp should run for
- the goal (or where the end of the linear interpolation is, for most cases in
this codebase the goal is 0, or neutral)
- the maximum possible output to return on `apply()`
- the minimum possible output to return on `apply()`
Every frame, the lerpers for every single input to the game will get applied
down closer to zero. Mario 64 uses two signed bytes to represent the controller
input. The maximum/minimum clamps make sure that the lerped result stays in that
range.
### Twitch Integration
This is one of the first times I have ever used asynchronous Rust in conjunction
with synchronous rust. I was shocked at how easy it was to just spin up another
thread and have that thread take care of the Tokio runtime, leaving the main
thread to focus on input. This is the block of code that handles [running the
asynchronous twitch bot in parallel to the main thread][twitchrs]:
[twitchrs]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge/blob/b2e7ba21aa14b556e34d7a99dd02e22f9a1365aa/src/twitch.rs#L12
```rust
pub(crate) fn run(st: MTState) {
use tokio::runtime::Runtime;
Runtime::new()
.expect("Failed to create Tokio runtime")
.block_on(handle(st));
}
```
Then the rest of the Twitch integration is boilerplate until we get to the
command parser. At its core, it just splits each chat line up into words and
looks for keywords:
```rust
let chatline = msg.data.to_string();
let chatline = chatline.to_ascii_lowercase();
let mut data = st.write().unwrap();
const BUTTON_ADD_AMT: i64 = 64;
for cmd in chatline.to_string().split(" ").collect::<Vec<&str>>().iter() {
match *cmd {
"a" => data.a_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"b" => data.b_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"z" => data.z_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"r" => data.r_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"cup" => data.c_up.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"cdown" => data.c_down.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"cleft" => data.c_left.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"cright" => data.c_right.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"start" => data.start.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
"up" => data.sticky.add(127),
"down" => data.sticky.add(-128),
"left" => data.stickx.add(-128),
"right" => data.stickx.add(127),
"stop" => {data.stickx.update(0); data.sticky.update(0);},
_ => {},
}
}
```
This implements the following commands:
| Command | Meaning |
|----------|----------------------------------|
| `a` | Press the A button |
| `b` | Press the B button |
| `z` | Press the Z button |
| `r` | Press the R button |
| `cup` | Press the C-up button |
| `cdown` | Press the C-down button |
| `cleft` | Press the C-left button |
| `cright` | Press the C-right button |
| `start` | Press the start button |
| `up` | Press up on the analog stick |
| `down` | Press down on the analog stick |
| `left` | Press left on the analog stick |
| `stop` | Reset the analog stick to center |
Currently analog stick inputs will stick for about 270 frames and button inputs
will stick for about 20 frames before drifting back to neutral. The start button
is special, inputs to the start button will stick for 5 frames at most.
### Debugging
Debugging two programs running together is surprisingly hard. I had to resort to
the tried-and-true method of using `gdb` for the main game code and excessive
amounts of printf debugging in Rust. The [pretty\_env\_logger][pel] crate (which
internally uses the [env_logger][el] crate, and its environment variable
configures pretty\_env\_logger) helped a lot. One of the biggest problems I
encountered in developing it was fixed by this patch, which I will paste inline:
[pel]: https://docs.rs/pretty_env_logger/0.4.0/pretty_env_logger/
[el]: https://docs.rs/env_logger/0.7.1/env_logger/
```diff
diff --git a/gamebridge/src/main.rs b/gamebridge/src/main.rs
index 426cd3e..6bc3f59 100644
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
},
};
- sticky = match stickx {
+ sticky = match sticky {
0 => sticky,
127 => {
ymax_frame = data.frame;
```
Somehow I had been trying to adjust the y axis position of the stick by
comparing the x axis position of the stick. Finding and fixing this bug is what
made me write the Lerper type.
---
Altogether, this has been a very fun project. I've learned a lot about 3d game
design, historical source code analysis and inter-process communication. I also
learned a lot about asynchronous Rust and how it can work together with
synchronous Rust. I also got to make a fairly surreal demo for Twitch. I hope
this can be useful to others, even if it just serves as an example of how to
integrate things into strange other things from unixy first principles.
You can find out slightly more about [gamebridge][gamebridge] on its GitHub
page. Its repo also includes patches for the Mario 64 PC port source code,
including one that disables the ability for Mario to lose lives. This could
prove useful for Twitch plays attempts, the 5 life cap by default became rather
limiting in testing.
Be well.

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@ -1,69 +0,0 @@
---
title: The Gears and The Gods
date: 2019-11-14
tags:
- wasm
- philosophy
- gods
---
# The Gears and The Gods
If there are any gods in computing, they are the authors of compilers. The
output of compilers is treated as a Heavenly Decree, sometimes used for many
sprints or even years after the output has been last emitted.
People trust this output to be Correct. To tell the machine what to do and by
its will it be done. The compiler is itself a factory of servitors, each bound
by the unholy runes inscribed into it in order to make the endless sequence of
lights change colors in the right patterns.
The output of the work of the Gods is stored for later use when their might is
needed. The work of the Gods however is a very fickle beast. Their words of
power only make the gears turn when they are built with very specific gearing.
This means that people who rely on these sacred runes have to chain themselves
to gearing patterns. Each year new ways of tricking the gears to run faster are
developed. The ways the gears turn can be learned to be abused however to spill
the secrets other gears are crunching on. These gearing patterns havent seen
any real fundamental design changes in decades, because you never know when the
output of the Old Gods is needed.
This means that the gears themselves are the chains that bind people to the
past. The gears of computation. The gears made of sand we tricked into thinking
with lightning.
But now the gears show their age. The gearing on the side of the gearing on the
side of the gearing on the side of the gearing shows its ugly head.
But the Masses never question it. Even though they take hit after hit to
performance of the gears.
What there needs to be is some kind of Apocalypse, a revealing of the faults in
the gears. Maybe then the Masses will start to question their blind loyalty and
chains binding them to the gears. Maybe they would be able to even try other
gear patterns.
But this is just fantasy, nobody would WILLINGLY change the gearing patterns.
Would they?
But what about the experience theyve come to expect from their old gears? Where
they could swap out inputs to the gears with ease. Where the Output of the Gods
of old still functions.
There needs to be a Better Way to switch gearings. But this kind of solution
isnt conducive to how people use the gears. People use the gears they do
because they dont care. They just want things to work “like they expect it to”
and ignore things that dont feed this addiction.
And THIS is why Im such a big advocate for WebAssembly on the server. This lets
you take the output of the Gods and store it in a way that it can be
transparently upgraded to new sets of gearing. So that the future and the past
can work in unison instead of being enemies.
Now, all that's left is to build a bridge. A bridge that will help to unite the
past, the present and the future into a woven masterpiece of collaborative
cocreation. Where the output of the gods is a weaker chain to the gears of old
and can easily be adapted to the gears of new. Even the gears that nobody's even
dreamed of yet.

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@ -1,108 +0,0 @@
---
title: The Fear Of Missing Out
date: 2020-08-02
tags:
- culture
- web
---
# The Fear Of Missing Out
Humans have evolved over thousands of years with communities that are small,
tight-knit and where it is easy to feel like you know everyone in them. The
Internet changes this completely. With the Internet, it's easy to send messages,
write articles and even publish books that untold thousands of people can read
and interact with. This has lead to an instinctive fear in humanity I'm going to
call the Fear of Missing Out [1].
[[1]: The Fear of Missing Out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out)
The Internet in its current form capitalizes and makes billions off of this.
Infinite scrolling and live updating pages that make it feel like there's always
something new to read. Uncountable hours of engineering and psychological
testing spent making sure people click and scroll and click and consume all day
until that little hit of dopamine becomes its own addiction. We have taken a
system for displaying documents and accidentally turned it into a hulking
abomination that consumes the souls of all who get trapped in it, crystallizing
them in an endless cycle of checking notifications, looking for new posts on
your newsfeed, scrolling down to find just that something you think you're
looking for.
When I was in high school, I bagged groceries for a store. I also had the
opportunity to help customers out to their cars and was able to talk with them.
Obviously, I was minimum wage and had a whole bunch of other things to do;
however there were a few times that I could really get to talk with regular
customers and feel like I got to know them. What comes to mind however is a
story where that is not the case. One day I was helping this older woman to her
car, and she eventually said something like "All of these people just keep
going, going, going nonstop. It drives me mad. How can't they see where they are
is good enough already?" I thought for a moment and I wasn't able to come up
with a decent reply.
The infinite scrollbars and newsfeeds of the web just keep going, going, going,
going, going, going, going and going until the user gives up to do something
elses. There's no consideration of _how_ the content is discovered, and _why_
the content is discovered, it's just an endless feed of noise. One subtle change
in your worldview after another, just from the headlines alone. Not to mention
the endless torrent of advertising.
However, I think there may be a way out, a kind of detox from the infinite
scrolling, newsfeeds, notifications and the like for the internet, and I think a
good step towards that is the Gemini [2] protocol.
[[2]: Gemini Protocol](https://gemini.circumlunar.space/)
Gemini is a protocol that is somewhere between HTTP and Gopher. A user sends a
request to a Gemini server and the user gets a response back. This response
could be anything, but a little header tells the client what kind of data it is.
There's also a little markup format that's a very lightweight take on
markdown [3], but overall the entire goal of the project is to be minimal and
just serve documents.
[[3]: Gemtext markup](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.gmi)
I've noticed something as I browse through the known constellation of Gemini
capsules though. I keep refreshing the CAPCOM feed of posts. I keep refreshing
the mailing list archives. I keep refreshing my email client, looking for new
content and feel frustrated when it doesn't show up like I expect it to. I'm
addicted to the newsfeeds. I'm caught in the trap that autoplay put me in. I'm a
victim to infinite scrolling and that constant little hit of dopamine that
modern social media has put on us all. Realizing this feels like I am realizing
an addiction to a drug (but I'd argue that it somewhat is a drug, by design,
what better way to get people to be exposed to ads than to make the service that
serves the ads addictive!).
I'm not sure how to best combat this. It feels kind of scary. I'm starting to
attempt to detox though. I'm writing a lot more on my Gemini capsule [4] [5]. I'm
starting to really consider the Fear of Missing Out when I design and implement
things in the future. So many things update instantly on the modern internet, it
may be a good idea to attempt to make something that updates weekly or even
monthly.
[[4]: My Gemini capsule](gemini://cetacean.club)
[[5]: [experimental] My Gemini capsule over HTTP](http://cetacean.club)
I'm still going to attempt a few ideas that I have regarding long term archival
of the Gemini constellation, but I'm definitely going to make sure that I take
the time to actually consider the consequences of my actions and what kind of
world it creates. I want to create the kind of world that enables people to
better themselves.
Let's work together to detox from the harmful effects of what we all have
created. I'm considering opening up a Gemini server that other people can have
accounts on and write about things that interest them.
If you want to get started with Gemini, I suggest taking a look at the main site
through the Gemini to HTTP proxy [6]. There are some clients listed in the pages
there, including a _very good_ iOS client that is currently in TestFlight.
Please do keep in mind that Gemini is very much a back-button navigation kind of
experience. The web has made people expect navigation links to be everywhere,
which can make it a weird/jarring experience at first, but you get used to it.
You can see evidence of this in my site with all the "Go back" links on each
page. I'll remove those at some point, but for now I'm going to keep them.
[[6]: Project Gemini](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/)
Don't be afraid of missing out. It's inevitable. Things happen. It's okay for
them to happen without you having to see them. They will still be there when you
look again.

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@ -1,228 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Get Going: Hello, World!"
date: 2019-10-28
series: get-going
tags:
- golang
- book
- draft
---
# Get Going: Hello, World!
This post is a draft of the first chapter in a book I'm writing to help people learn the
[Go][go] programming language. It's aimed at people who understand the high
level concepts of programming, but haven't had much practical experience with
it. This is a sort of spiritual successor to my old
[Getting Started with Go][gswg] post from 2015. A lot has changed in the
ecosystem since then, as well as my understanding of the language.
[go]: https://golang.org
[gswg]: https://christine.website/blog/getting-started-with-go-2015-01-28
Like always, feedback is very welcome. Any feedback I get will be used to help
make this book even better.
This article is a bit of an expanded version of what the first chapter will
eventually be. I also plan to turn a version of this article into a workshop for
my dayjob.
## What is Go?
Go is a compiled programming language made by Google. It has a lot of features
out of the box, including:
* A static type system
* Fast compile times
* Efficient code generation
* Parallel programming for free*
* A strong standard library
* Cross-compilation with ease (including webassembly)
* and more!
\* You still have to write code that can avoid race conditions, more on those
later.
### Why Use Go?
Go is a very easy to read and write programming language. Consider this snippet:
```go
func Add(x int, y int) int {
return x + y
}
```
This function wraps [integer
addition](https://golang.org/ref/spec#Arithmetic_operators). When you call it it
returns the sum of x and y.
## Installing Go
### Linux
Installing Go on Linux systems is a very distribution-specific thing. Please see
[this tutorial on
DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-go-on-ubuntu-18-04)
for more information.
### macOS
* Go to https://golang.org/dl
* Download the .pkg file
* Double-click on it and go through the installer process
### Windows
* Go to https://golang.org/dl
* Download the .msi file
* Double-click on it and go through the installer process
### Next Steps
These next steps are needed to set up your shell for Go programs.
Pick a directory you want to store Go programs and downloaded source code in.
This is called your GOPATH. This is usually the `go` folder in
your home directory. If for some reason you want another folder for this, use
that folder instead of `$HOME/go` below.
#### Linux/macOS
This next step is unfortunately shell-specific. To find out what shell you are
using, run the following command in your terminal:
```console
$ env | grep SHELL
```
The name at the path will be the shell you are using.
##### bash
If you are using bash, add the following lines to your .bashrc (Linux) or
.bash_profile (macOS):
```
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"
```
Then reload the configuration by closing and re-opening your terminal.
##### fish
If you are using fish, create a file in ~/.config/fish/conf.d/go.fish with the
following lines:
```
set -gx GOPATH $HOME/go
set -gx PATH $PATH "$GOPATH/bin"
```
##### zsh
If you are using zsh, add the following lines to your .zshrc:
```
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"
```
#### Windows
Follow the instructions
[here](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH#windows).
## Installing a Text Editor
For this book, we will be using VS Code. Download and install it
from https://code.visualstudio.com. The default settings will let you work with
Go code.
## Hello, world!
Now that everything is installed, let's test it with the classic "Hello, world!"
program. Create a folder in your home folder `Code`. Create another folder
inside that Code folder called `get_going` and create yet another subfolder
called `hello`. Open a file in there with VS Code (Open Folder -> Code ->
get_going -> hello) called `hello.go` and type in the following:
```go
// Command hello is your first Go program.
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
fmt.Println("Hello, world!")
}
```
This program prints "Hello, world!" and then immediately exits. Here's each of
the parts in detail:
```go
// Command hello is your first go program.
package main // Every go file must be in a package.
// Package main is used for creating executable files.
import "fmt" // Go doesn't implicitly import anything. You need to
// explicitly import "fmt" for printing text to
// standard output.
func main() { // func main is the entrypoint of the program, or
// where the computer starts executing your code
fmt.Println("Hello, world!") // This prints "Hello, world!" followed by a newline
// to standard output.
} // This ends the main function
```
Now click over to the terminal at the bottom of the VS Code window and run this
program with the following command:
```console
$ go run hello.go
Hello, world!
```
`go run` compiles and runs the code for you, without creating a persistent binary
file. This is a good way to run programs while you are writing them.
To create a binary, use `go build`:
```console
$ go build hello.go
$ ./hello
Hello, world!
```
`go build` has the compiler create a persistent binary file and puts it in the
same directory as you are running `go` from. Go will choose the filename of the
binary based on the name of the .go file passed to it. These binaries are
usually static binaries, or binaries that are safe to distribute to other
computers without having to worry about linked libraries.
## Exercises
The following is a list of optional exercises that may help you understand more:
1. Replace the "world" in "Hello, world!" with your name.
2. Rename `hello.go` to `main.go`. Does everything still work?
3. Read through the documentation of the [fmt][fmt] package.
[fmt]: https://golang.org/pkg/fmt
---
And that about wraps it up for Lesson 1 in Go. Like I mentioned before, feedback
on this helps a lot.
Up next is an overview on data types such as integers, true/false booleans,
floating-point numbers and strings.
I plan to post the book source code on my GitHub page once I have more than one
chapter drafted.
Thanks and be well.

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@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: Getting Started with Go
date: 2015-01-28
series: howto
---
Getting Started with Go

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@ -1,202 +0,0 @@
---
title: "gitea-release Tool Announcement"
date: "2020-05-31"
tags:
- gitea
- rust
- release
---
# gitea-release Tool Announcement
I'm a big fan of automating things that can possibly be automated. One of the
biggest pains that I've consistently had is creating/tagging releases of
software. This has been a very manual process for me. I have to write up
changelogs, bump versions and then replicate the changelog/versions in the web
UI of whatever git forge the project in question is using. This works great at
smaller scales, but can quickly become a huge pain in the butt when this needs
to be done more often. Today I've written a small tool to help me automate this
going forward, it is named
[`gitea-release`](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release). This is one of my
largest Rust projects to date and something I am incredibly happy with. I will
be using it going forward for all of my repos on my gitea instance
[tulpa.dev](https://tulpa.dev).
`gitea-release` is a spiritual clone of the tool [`github-release`][ghrelease],
but optimized for my workflow. The biggest changes are that it works on
[gitea][gitea] repos instead of github repos, is written in Rust instead of Go
and it automatically scrapes release notes from `CHANGELOG.md` as well as
reading the version of the software from `VERSION`.
[ghrelease]: https://github.com/github-release/github-release
[gitea]: https://gitea.io
## CHANGELOG.md and VERSION files
The `CHANGELOG.md` file is based on the [Keep a Changelog][kacl] format, but
modified slightly to make it easier for this tool. Here is an example changelog
that this tool accepts:
[kacl]: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
```markdown
# Changelog
All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
## 0.1.0
### FIXED
- Refrobnicate the spurious rilkefs
## 0.0.1
First release, proof of concept.
```
When a release is created for version 0.1.0, this tool will make the description
of the release about as follows:
```
### FIXED
- Refrobnicate the spurious rilkefs
```
This allows the changelog file to be the ultimate source of truth for release
notes with this tool.
The `VERSION` file plays into this as well. The `VERSION` file MUST be a single
line containing a [semantic version][semver] string. This allows the `VERSION`
file to be the ultimate source of truth for software version data with this
tool.
[semver]: https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html
## Release Process
When this tool is run with the `release` subcommand, the following actions take place:
- The `VERSION` file is read and loaded as the desired tag for the repo
- The `CHANGELOG.md` file is read and the changes for the `VERSION` are
cherry-picked out of the file
- The git repo is checked to see if that tag already exists
- If the tag exists, the tool exits and does nothing
- If the tag does not exist, it is created (with the changelog fragment as the
body of the tag) and pushed to the gitea server using the supplied gitea token
- A gitea release is created using the changelog fragment and the release name
is generated from the `VERSION` string
## Automation of the Automation
This tool works perfectly well locally, but this doesn't make it fully
automated from the gitea repo. I use [drone][drone] as a CI/CD tool for my gitea
repos. Drone has a very convenient and simple to use [plugin
system][droneplugin] that was easy to integrate with [structopt][structopt].
[drone]: https://drone.io
[droneplugin]: https://docs.drone.io/plugins/overview/
[structopt]: https://crates.io/crates/structopt
I created a drone plugin at `xena/gitea-release` that can be configured as a
pipeline step in your `.drone.yml` like this:
```yaml
kind: pipeline
name: ci/release
steps:
- name: whatever unit testing step
# ...
- name: auto-release
image: xena/gitea-release:0.2.5
settings:
auth_username: cadey
changelog_path: ./CHANGELOG.md
gitea_server: https://tulpa.dev
gitea_token:
from_secret: GITEA_TOKEN
when:
event:
- push
branch:
- master
```
This allows me to bump the `VERSION` and `CHANGELOG.md`, then push that commit
to git and a new release will automatically be created. You can see an example
of this in action with [the drone build history of the gitea-release
repo](https://drone.tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release). You can also how the
`CHANGELOG.md` file grows with the [CHANGELOG of
gitea-release](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release/src/branch/master/CHANGELOG.md).
Once the release is pushed to gitea, you can then use drone to trigger
deployment commands. For example here is the deployment pipeline used to
automatically update the docker image for the gitea-release tool:
```yaml
kind: pipeline
name: docker
steps:
- name: build docker image
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
commands:
- cachix use xe
- nix-build docker.nix
- cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
when:
event:
- tag
- name: push docker image
image: docker:dind
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: dockersock
path: /var/run/docker.sock
commands:
- docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
- echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
- docker push xena/gitea-release
environment:
DOCKER_USERNAME:
from_secret: DOCKER_USERNAME
DOCKER_PASSWORD:
from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
when:
event:
- tag
volumes:
- name: image
temp: {}
- name: dockersock
host:
path: /var/run/docker.sock
```
This pipeline will use [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix) to build the docker image,
load it into a Docker daemon and then log into the Docker Hub and push it. This
can then be used to do whatever you want. It may also be a good idea to push a
docker image for every commit and then re-label the tagged commits, but this
wasn't implemented in this repo.
---
I hope this tool will be useful. I will accept feedback over [any contact
method](/contact). If you want to contribute directly to the project, please
feel free to create [issues](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release/issues) or
[pull requests](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release/pulls). If you don't want
to create an account on my git server, get me the issue details or code diffs
somehow and I will do everything I can to fix issues and integrate code. I just
want to make this tool better however I can.
Be well.

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@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ title: Gratitude
date: 2018-07-20
thanks: CelestialBoon
for: Mother Aya
series: magick
---
# Gratitude

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@ -1,328 +0,0 @@
---
title: The h Programming Language
date: 2019-06-30
tags:
- wasm
- release
---
# The h Programming Language
[h](https://h.christine.website) is a project of mine that I have released
recently. It is a single-paradigm, multi-tenant friendly, turing-incomplete
programming language that does nothing but print one of two things:
- the letter h
- a single quote (the Lojbanic "h")
It does this via [WebAssembly](https://webassembly.org). This may sound like a
pointless complication, but actually this ends up making things _a lot simpler_.
WebAssembly is a virtual machine (fake computer that only exists in code) intended
for browsers, but I've been using it for server-side tasks.
I have written more about/with WebAssembly in the past in these posts:
- https://christine.website/talks/webassembly-on-the-server-system-calls-2019-05-31
- https://christine.website/blog/olin-1-why-09-1-2018
- https://christine.website/blog/olin-2-the-future-09-5-2018
- https://christine.website/blog/land-1-syscalls-file-io-2018-06-18
- https://christine.website/blog/templeos-2-god-the-rng-2019-05-30
This is a continuation of the following two posts:
- https://christine.website/blog/the-origin-of-h-2015-12-14
- https://christine.website/blog/formal-grammar-of-h-2019-05-19
All of the relevant code for h is [here](https://github.com/Xe/x/tree/master/cmd/h).
h is a somewhat standard three-phase compiler. Each of the phases is as follows:
## Parsing the Grammar
As mentioned in a prior post, h has a formal grammar defined in [Parsing Expression Grammar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing_expression_grammar).
I took this [grammar](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/h/h.peg) (with some
minor modifications) and fed it into a tool called [peggy](https://github.com/eaburns/peggy)
to generate a Go source [version of the parser](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/h/h_gen.go).
This parser has some minimal [wrappers](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/h/parser.go)
around it, mostly to simplify the output and remove unneeded nodes from the tree.
This simplifies the later compilation phases.
The input to h looks something like this:
```
h
```
The output syntax tree pretty-prints to something like this:
```
H("h")
```
This is also represented using a tree of nodes that looks something like this:
```
&peg.Node{
Name: "H",
Text: "h",
Kids: nil,
}
```
A more complicated program will look something like this:
```
&peg.Node{
Name: "H",
Text: "h h h",
Kids: {
&peg.Node{
Name: "",
Text: "h",
Kids: nil,
},
&peg.Node{
Name: "",
Text: "h",
Kids: nil,
},
&peg.Node{
Name: "",
Text: "h",
Kids: nil,
},
},
}
```
Now that we have this syntax tree, it's easy to go to the next phase of
compilation: generating the WebAssembly Text Format.
## WebAssembly Text Format
[WebAssembly Text Format](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly/Understanding_the_text_format)
is a human-editable and understandable version of WebAssembly. It is pretty low
level, but it is actually fairly simple. Let's take an example of the h compiler
output and break it down:
```
(module
(import "h" "h" (func $h (param i32)))
(func $h_main
(local i32 i32 i32)
(local.set 0 (i32.const 10))
(local.set 1 (i32.const 104))
(local.set 2 (i32.const 39))
(call $h (get_local 1))
(call $h (get_local 0))
)
(export "h" (func $h_main))
)
```
Fundamentally, WebAssembly binary files are also called modules. Each .wasm file
can have only one module defined in it. Modules can have sections that contain the
following information:
- External function imports
- Function definitions
- Memory information
- Named function exports
- Global variable definitions
- Other custom data that may be vendor-specific
h only uses external function imports, function definitions and named function
exports.
`import` imports a function from the surrounding runtime with two fields: module
and function name. Because this is an obfuscated language, the function `h` from
module `h` is imported as `$h`. This function works somewhat like the C library
function [putchar()](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/c_function_putchar.htm).
`func` creates a function. In this case we are creating a function named `$h_main`.
This will be the entrypoint for the h program.
Inside the function `$h_main`, there are three local variables created: `0`, `1` and `2`.
They correlate to the following values:
| Local Number | Explanation | Integer Value |
| :----------- | :---------------- | :------------ |
| 0 | Newline character | 10 |
| 1 | Lowercase h | 104 |
| 2 | Single quote | 39 |
As such, this program prints a single lowercase h and then a newline.
`export` lets consumers of this WebAssembly module get a name for a function,
linear memory or global value. As we only need one function in this module,
we export `$h_main` as `"h"`.
## Compiling this to a Binary
The next phase of compiling is to turn this WebAssembly Text Format into a binary.
For simplicity, the tool `wat2wasm` from the [WebAssembly Binary Toolkit](https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt)
is used. This tool creates a WebAssembly binary out of WebAssembly Text Format.
Usage is simple (assuming you have the WebAssembly Text Format file above saved as `h.wat`):
```
wat2wasm h.wat -o h.wasm
```
And you will create `h.wasm` with the following sha256 sum:
```
sha256sum h.wasm
8457720ae0dd2deee38761a9d7b305eabe30cba731b1148a5bbc5399bf82401a h.wasm
```
Now that the final binary is created, we can move to the runtime phase.
## Runtime
The h [runtime](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/run.go) is incredibly
simple. It provides the `h.h` putchar-like function and executes the `h`
function from the binary you feed it. It also times execution as well as keeps
track of the number of instructions the program runs. This is called "gas" for
historical reasons involving [blockchains](https://blockgeeks.com/guides/ethereum-gas/).
I use [Perlin Network's life](https://github.com/perlin-network/life) as the
implementation of WebAssembly in h. I have experience with it from [Olin](https://github.com/Xe/olin).
## The Playground
As part of this project, I wanted to create an [interactive playground](https://h.christine.website/play).
This allows users to run arbitrary h programs on my server. As the only system
call is putchar, this is safe. The playground also has some limitations on how
big of a program it can run. The playground server works like this:
- The user program is sent over HTTP with Content-Type [text/plain](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L402-L413)
- The program is [limited to 75 bytes on the server](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L44) (though this is [configurable](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L15) via flags or envvars)
- The program is [compiled](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L53)
- The program is [run](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L59)
- The output is [returned via JSON](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L65-L72)
- This output is then put [into the playground page with JavaScript](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L389-L394)
The output of this call looks something like this:
```
curl -H "Content-Type: text/plain" --data "h" https://h.christine.website/api/playground | jq
{
"prog": {
"src": "h",
"wat": "(module\n (import \"h\" \"h\" (func $h (param i32)))\n (func $h_main\n (local i32 i32 i32)\n (local.set 0 (i32.const 10))\n (local.set 1 (i32.const 104))\n (local.set 2 (i32.const 39))\n (call $h (get_local 1))\n (call $h (get_local 0))\n )\n (export \"h\" (func $h_main))\n)",
"bin": "AGFzbQEAAAABCAJgAX8AYAAAAgcBAWgBaAAAAwIBAQcFAQFoAAEKGwEZAQN/QQohAEHoACEBQSchAiABEAAgABAACw==",
"ast": "H(\"h\")"
},
"res": {
"out": "h\n",
"gas": 11,
"exec_duration": 12345
}
}
```
The execution duration is in [nanoseconds](https://godoc.org/time#Duration), as
it is just directly a Go standard library time duration.
## Bugs h has Found
This will be updated in the future, but h has already found a bug in [Innative](https://innative.dev).
There was a bug in how Innative handled C name mangling of binaries. Output of
the h compiler is now [a test case in Innative](https://github.com/innative-sdk/innative/commit/6353d59d611164ce38b938840dd4f3f1ea894e1b#diff-dc4a79872612bb26927f9639df223856R1).
I consider this a success for the project. It is such a little thing, but it
means a lot to me for some reason. My shitpost created a test case in a project
I tried to integrate it with.
That's just awesome to me in ways I have trouble explaining.
As such, h programs _do_ work with Innative. Here's how to do it:
First, install the h compiler and runtime with the following command:
```
go get within.website/x/cmd/h
```
This will install the `h` binary to your `$GOPATH/bin`, so ensure that is part
of your path (if it is not already):
```
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
```
Then create a h binary like this:
```
h -p "h h" -o hh.wasm
```
Now we need to provide Innative the `h.h` system call implementation, so open
`h.c` and enter in the following:
```
#include <stdio.h>
void h_WASM_h(char data) {
putchar(data);
}
```
Then build it to an object file:
```
gcc -c -o h.o h.c
```
Then pack it into a static library `.ar` file:
```
ar rsv libh.a h.o
```
Then create the shared object with Innative:
```
innative-cmd -l ./libh.a hh.wasm
```
This should create `hh.so` in the current working directory.
Now create the following [Nim](https://nim-lang.org) wrapper at `h.nim`:
```
proc hh_WASM_h() {. importc, dynlib: "./hh.so" .}
hh_WASM_h()
```
and build it:
```
nim c h.nim
```
then run it:
```
./h
h
```
And congrats, you have now compiled h to a native shared object.
## Why
Now, something you might be asking yourself as you read through this post is
something like: "Why the heck are you doing this?" That's honestly a good
question. One of the things I want to do with computers is to create art for the
sake of art. h is one of these such projects. h is not a productive tool. You
cannot create anything useful with h. This is an exercise in creating a compiler
and runtime from scratch, based on my past experiences with parsing lojban,
WebAssembly on the server and frustrating marketing around programming tools. I
wanted to create something that deliberately pokes at all of the common ways
that programming languages and tooling are advertised. I wanted to make it a
fully secure tool as well, with an arbitrary limitation of having no memory
usage. Everything is fully functional. There are a few grammar bugs that I'm
calling features.

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@ -1,78 +0,0 @@
---
title: hlang in 30 Seconds
date: 2021-01-04
series: h
tags:
- satire
---
# hlang in 30 Seconds
hlang (the h language) is a revolutionary new use of WebAssembly that enables
single-paridigm programming without any pesky state or memory accessing. The
simplest program you can use in hlang is the h world program:
```
h
```
When run in [the hlang playground](https://h.christine.website/play), you can
see its output:
```
h
```
To get more output, separate multiple h's by spaces:
```
h h h h
```
This returns:
```
h
h
h
h
```
## Internationalization
For internationalization concerns, hlang also supports the Lojbanic h `'`. You can
mix h and `'` to your heart's content:
```
' h '
```
This returns:
```
'
h
'
```
Finally an easy solution to your pesky Lojban internationalization problems!
## Errors
For maximum understandability, compiler errors are provided in Lojban. For
example this error tells you that you have an invalid character at the first
character of the string:
```
h: gentoldra fi'o zvati fe li no
```
Here is an interlinear gloss of that error:
```
h: gentoldra fi'o zvati fe li no
grammar-wrong existing-at second-place use-number 0
```
And now you are fully fluent in hlang, the most exciting programming language
since sliced bread.

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@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: How does into Meditation
date: 2017-12-10
series: when-then-zen
---
# How does into Meditation

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@ -1,164 +0,0 @@
---
title: How HTTP Requests Work
date: 2020-05-19
tags:
- http
- ohgod
- philosophy
---
# How HTTP Requests Work
Reading this webpage is possible because of millions of hours of effort with
tens of thousands of actors across thousands of companies. At some level it's a
minor miracle that this all works at all. Here's a preview into the madness that
goes into hitting enter on christine.website and this website being loaded.
## Beginnings
The user types in `https://christine.website` into the address bar and hits
enter on the keyboard. This sends a signal over USB to the computer and the
kernel polls the USB controller for a new message. It's recognized as from the
keyboard. The input is then sent to the browser through an input driver talking
to a windowing server talking to the browser program.
The browser selects the memory region normally reserved for the address bar. The
browser then parses this string as an [RFC 3986][rfc3986] URI and scrapes out
the protocol (https), hostname (christine.website) and path (/). The browser
then uses this information to create an abstract HTTP request object with the
Host header set to christine.website, HTTP method (GET), and path set to the
path. This request object then passes through various layers of credential
storage and middleware to add the appropriate cookies and other headers in order
to tell my website what language it should localize the response to, what
compression methods the browser understands, and what browser is being used to
make the request.
[rfc3986]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986
## Connections
The browser then checks if it has a connection to christine.website open
already. If it does not, then it creates a new one. It creates a new connection
by figuring out what the IP address of christine.website is using [DNS][dns]. A
DNS request is made over [UDP][udp] on port 53 to the DNS server configured in
the operating system (such as 8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1 or 75.75.75.75). The UDP
connection is created using operating system-dependent system calls and a DNS
request is sent.
[udp]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol
[dns]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System
The packet that was created then is destined for the DNS server and added to the
operating system's output queue. The operating system then looks in its routing
table to see where the packet should go. If the packet matches a route, it is
queued for output to the relevant network card. The network card layer then
checks the ARP table to see what [mac address][macaddress] the
[ethernet][ethernet] frame should be sent to. If the ARP table doesn't have a
match, then an arp probe is broadcasted to every node on the local network. Then
the driver waits for an arp response to be sent to it with the correct IP -> MAC
address mapping. The driver then uses this information to send out the ethernet
frame to the node that matches the IP address in the routing table. From there
the packet is validated on the router it was sent to. It then unwraps the packet
to the IP layer to figure out the destination network interface to use. If this
router also does NAT termination, it creates an entry in the NAT table for
future use for a site-configured amount of time (for UDP at least). It then
passes the packet on to the correct node and this process is repeated until it
gets to the remote DNS server.
[macaddress]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
[ethernet]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet
The DNS server then unwraps the ethernet frame into an IP packet and then as a
UDP packet and a DNS request. It checks its database for a match and if one is
not found, it attempts to discover the correct name server to contact by using a
NS record query to its upstreams or the authoritative name server for the
WEBSITE namespace. This then creates another process of ethernet frames and UDP
packets until it reaches the upstream DNS server which hopefully should reply
with the correct address. Once the DNS server gets the information that is
needed, it sends this back the results to the client as a wire-format DNS
response.
UDP is unreliable by design, so this packet may or may not survive the entire
round trip. It may take one or more retries for the DNS information to get to
the remote server and back, but it usually works the first time. The response to
this request is cached based on the time-to-live specified in the DNS response.
The response also contains the IP address of christine.website.
## Security
The protocol used in the URL determines which TCP port the browser connects to.
If it is http, it uses port 80. If it is https, it uses port 443. The user
specified HTTPS, so port 443 on whatever IP address DNS returned is dialed using
the operating system's network stack system calls. The [TCP][tcp] three-way
handshake is started with that target IP address and port. The client sends a
SYN packet, the server replies with a SYN ACK packet and the client replies with
an ACK packet. This indicates that the entire TCP session is active and data can
be transferred and read through it.
[tcp]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol
However, this data is UNENCRYPTED by default. [Transport Layer Security][tls] is
used to encrypt this data so prying eyes can't look into it. TLS has its own
handshake too. The session is established by sending a TLS ClientHello packet
with the domain name (christine.website), the list of ciphers the client
supports, any application layer protocols the client supports (like HTTP/2) and
the list of TLS versions that the client supports. This information is sent over
the wire to the remote server using that entire long and complicated process
that I spelled out for how DNS works, except a TCP session requires the other
side to acknowledge when data is successfully received. The server on the other
end replies with a ClientHelloResponse that contains a HTTPS certificate and the
list of protocols and ciphers the server supports. Then they do an [encryption
session setup rain dance][tlsraindance] that I don't completely understand and
the resulting channel is encrypted with cipher (or encrypted) text written and
read from the wire and a session layer translates that cipher text to clear text
for the other parts of the browser stack.
[tls]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security
[tlsraindance]: https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-happens-in-a-tls-handshake/
The browser then uses the information in the ClientHelloResponse to decide how
to proceed from here.
## HTTP
If the browser notices the server supports HTTP/2 it sets up a HTTP/2 session
(with a handshake that involves a few roundtrips like what I described for DNS)
and creates a new stream for this request. The browser then formats the request
as HTTP/2 wire format bytes (binary format) and writes it to the HTTP/2 stream,
which writes it to the HTTP/2 framing layer, which writes it to the encryption
layer, which writes it to the network socket and sends it over the internet.
If the browser notices the server DOES NOT support HTTP/2, it formats the
request as HTTP/1.1 wire formatted bytes and writes it to the encryption layer,
which writes it to the network socket and sends it over the internet using that
complicated process I spelled out for DNS.
This then hits the remote load balancer which parses the client HTTP request and
uses site-local configuration to select the best application server to handle
the response. It then forwards the client's HTTP request to the correct server
by creating a TCP session to that backend, writing the HTTP request and waiting
for a response over that TCP session. Depending on site-local configuration
there may be layers of encryption involved.
## Application Server
Now, the request finally gets to the application server. This TCP session is
accepted by the application server and the headers are read into memory. The
path is read by the application server and the correct handler is chosen. The
HTML for the front page of christine.website is rendered and written to the TCP
session and travels to the load balancer, gets encrypted with TLS, the encrypted
HTML gets sent back over the internet to your browser and then your browser
decrypts it and starts to parse and display the website. The browser will run
into places where it needs more resources (such as stylesheets or images), so it will
make additional HTTP requests to the load balancer to grab those too.
---
The end result is that the user sees the website in all its glory. Given all
these moving parts it's astounding that this works as reliably as it does. Each
of the TCP, ARP and DNS requests also happen at each level of the stack. There
are layers upon layers upon layers of interacting protocols and implementations.
This is why it is hard to reliably put a website on the internet. If there is a
god, they are surely the one holding all these potentially unreliable systems
together to make everything appear like it is working.

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@ -1,574 +0,0 @@
---
title: "How I Start: Nix"
date: 2020-03-08
series: howto
tags:
- nix
- rust
---
# How I Start: Nix
[Nix][nix] is a tool that helps people create reproducible builds. This means that
given a known input, you can get the same output on other machines. Let's build
and deploy a small Rust service with Nix. This will not require the Rust compiler
to be installed with [rustup][rustup] or similar.
[nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/
[rustup]: https://rustup.rs
- Setting up your environment
- A new project
- Setting up the Rust compiler
- Serving HTTP
- A simple package build
- Shipping it in a docker image
## Setting up your environment
The first step is to install Nix. If you are using a Linux machine, run this
script:
```console
$ curl https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh
```
This will prompt you for more information as it goes on, so be sure to follow
the instructions carefully. Once it is done, close and re-open your shell. After
you have done this, `nix-env` should exist in your shell. Try to run it:
```console
$ nix-env
error: no operation specified
Try 'nix-env --help' for more information.
```
Let's install a few other tools to help us with development. First, let's
install [lorri][lorri] to help us manage our development shell:
[lorri]: https://github.com/target/lorri
```
$ nix-env --install --file https://github.com/target/lorri/archive/master.tar.gz
```
This will automatically download and build lorri for your system based on the
latest possible version. Once that is done, open another shell window (the lorri
docs include ways to do this more persistently, but this will work for now) and run:
```console
$ lorri daemon
```
Now go back to your main shell window and install [direnv][direnv]:
[direnv]: https://direnv.net
```console
$ nix-env --install direnv
```
Next, follow the [shell setup][direnvsetup] needed for your shell. I personally
use `fish` with [oh my fish][omf], so I would run this:
[direnvsetup]: https://direnv.net/docs/hook.html
[omf]: https://github.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish
```console
$ omf install direnv
```
Finally, let's install [niv][niv] to help us handle dependencies for the
project. This will allow us to make sure that our builds pin _everything_ to a
specific set of versions, including operating system packages.
[niv]: https://github.com/nmattia/niv
```console
$ nix-env --install niv
```
Now that we have all of the tools we will need installed, let's create the
project.
# A new project
Go to your favorite place to put code and make a new folder. I personally prefer
`~/code`, so I will be using that here:
```console
$ cd ~/code
$ mkdir helloworld
$ cd helloworld
```
Let's set up the basic skeleton of the project. First, initialize niv:
```console
$ niv init
```
This will add the latest versions of `niv` itself and the packages used for the
system to `nix/sources.json`. This will allow us to pin exact versions so the
environment is as predictable as possible. Sometimes the versions of software in
the pinned nixpkgs are too old. If this happens, you can update to the
"unstable" branch of nixpkgs with this command:
```console
$ niv update nixpkgs -b nixpkgs-unstable
```
Next, set up lorri using `lorri init`:
```console
$ lorri init
```
This will create `shell.nix` and `.envrc`. `shell.nix` will be where we define
the development environment for this service. `.envrc` is used to tell direnv
what it needs to do. Let's try and activate the `.envrc`:
```console
$ cd .
direnv: error /home/cadey/code/helloworld/.envrc is blocked. Run `direnv allow`
to approve its content
```
Let's review its content:
```console
$ cat .envrc
eval "$(lorri direnv)"
```
This seems reasonable, so approve it with `direnv allow` like the error message
suggests:
```console
$ direnv allow
```
Now let's customize the `shell.nix` file to use our pinned version of nixpkgs.
Currently, it looks something like this:
```nix
# shell.nix
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
in
pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [
pkgs.hello
];
}
```
This currently imports nixpkgs from the system-level version of it. This means
that different systems could have different versions of nixpkgs on it, and that
could make the `shell.nix` file hard to reproduce between machines. Let's import
the pinned version of nixpkgs that niv created:
```nix
# shell.nix
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
pkgs = import sources.nixpkgs {};
in
pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [
pkgs.hello
];
}
```
And then let's test it with `lorri shell`:
```console
$ lorri shell
lorri: building environment........ done
(lorri) $
```
And let's see if `hello` is available inside the shell:
```console
(lorri) $ hello
Hello, world!
```
You can set environment variables inside the `shell.nix` file. Do so like this:
```nix
# shell.nix
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
pkgs = import sources.nixpkgs {};
in
pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [
pkgs.hello
];
# Environment variables
HELLO="world";
}
```
Wait a moment for lorri to finish rebuilding the development environment and
then let's see if the environment variable shows up:
```console
$ cd .
direnv: loading ~/code/helloworld/.envrc
<output snipped>
$ echo $HELLO
world
```
Now that we have the basics of the environment set up, lets install the Rust
compiler.
# Setting up the Rust compiler
First, add [nixpkgs-mozilla][nixpkgsmoz] to niv:
[nixpkgsmoz]: https://github.com/mozilla/nixpkgs-mozilla
```console
$ niv add mozilla/nixpkgs-mozilla
```
Then create `nix/rust.nix` in your repo:
```nix
# nix/rust.nix
{ sources ? import ./sources.nix }:
let
pkgs =
import sources.nixpkgs { overlays = [ (import sources.nixpkgs-mozilla) ]; };
channel = "nightly";
date = "2020-03-08";
targets = [ ];
chan = pkgs.rustChannelOfTargets channel date targets;
in chan
```
This creates a nix function that takes in the pre-imported list of sources,
creates a copy of nixpkgs with Rust at the nightly version `2020-03-08` overlaid
into it, and exposes the rust package out of it. Let's add this to `shell.nix`:
```nix
# shell.nix
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
rust = import ./nix/rust.nix { inherit sources; };
pkgs = import sources.nixpkgs { };
in
pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [
rust
];
}
```
Then ask lorri to recreate the development environment. This may take a bit to
run because it's setting up everything the Rust compiler requires to run.
```console
$ lorri shell
(lorri) $
```
Let's see what version of Rust is installed:
```console
(lorri) $ rustc --version
rustc 1.43.0-nightly (823ff8cf1 2020-03-07)
```
This is exactly what we expect. Rust nightly versions get released with the
date of the previous day in them. To be extra sure, let's see what the shell
thinks `rustc` resolves to:
```console
(lorri) $ which rustc
/nix/store/w6zk1zijfwrnjm6xyfmrgbxb6dvvn6di-rust-1.43.0-nightly-2020-03-07-823ff8cf1/bin/rustc
```
And now exit that shell and reload direnv:
```console
(lorri) $ exit
$ cd .
direnv: loading ~/code/helloworld/.envrc
$ which rustc
/nix/store/w6zk1zijfwrnjm6xyfmrgbxb6dvvn6di-rust-1.43.0-nightly-2020-03-07-823ff8cf1/bin/rustc
```
And now we have Rust installed at an arbitrary nightly version for _that project
only_. This will work on other machines too. Now that we have our development
environment set up, let's serve HTTP.
## Serving HTTP
[Rocket][rocket] is a popular web framework for Rust programs. Let's use that to
create a small "hello, world" server. We will need to do the following:
[rocket]: https://rocket.rs
- Create the new Rust project
- Add Rocket as a dependency
- Write our "hello world" route
- Test a build of the service with `cargo build`
### Create the new Rust project
Create the new Rust project with `cargo init`:
```console
$ cargo init --vcs git .
Created binary (application) package
```
This will create the directory `src` and a file named `Cargo.toml`. Rust code
goes in `src` and the `Cargo.toml` file configures dependencies. Adding the
`--vcs git` flag also has cargo create a [gitignore][gitignore] file so that the
target folder isn't tracked by git.
[gitignore]: https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore
### Add Rocket as a dependency
Open `Cargo.toml` and add the following to it:
```toml
[dependencies]
rocket = "0.4.3"
```
Then download/build Rocket with `cargo build`:
```console
$ cargo build
```
This will download all of the dependencies you need and precompile Rocket, and it
will help speed up later builds.
### Write our "hello world" route
Now put the following in `src/main.rs`:
```rust
#![feature(proc_macro_hygiene, decl_macro)] // language features needed by Rocket
// Import the rocket macros
#[macro_use]
extern crate rocket;
// Create route / that returns "Hello, world!"
#[get("/")]
fn index() -> &'static str {
"Hello, world!"
}
fn main() {
rocket::ignite().mount("/", routes![index]).launch();
}
```
### Test a build
Rerun `cargo build`:
```console
$ cargo build
```
This will create the binary at `target/debug/helloworld`. Let's run it locally
and see if it works:
```console
$ ./target/debug/helloworld &
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000
Hello, world!
$ fg
<press control-c>
```
The HTTP service works. We have a binary that is created with the Rust compiler
Nix installed.
## A simple package build
Now that we have the HTTP service working, let's put it inside a nix package. We
will need to use [naersk][naersk] to do this. Add naersk to your project with
niv:
[naersk]: https://github.com/nmattia/naersk
```console
$ niv add nmattia/naersk
```
Now let's create `helloworld.nix`:
```
# import niv sources and the pinned nixpkgs
{ sources ? import ./nix/sources.nix, pkgs ? import sources.nixpkgs { }}:
let
# import rust compiler
rust = import ./nix/rust.nix { inherit sources; };
# configure naersk to use our pinned rust compiler
naersk = pkgs.callPackage sources.naersk {
rustc = rust;
cargo = rust;
};
# tell nix-build to ignore the `target` directory
src = builtins.filterSource
(path: type: type != "directory" || builtins.baseNameOf path != "target")
./.;
in naersk.buildPackage {
inherit src;
remapPathPrefix =
true; # remove nix store references for a smaller output package
}
```
And then build it with `nix-build`:
```console
$ nix-build helloworld.nix
```
This can take a bit to run, but it will do the following things:
- Download naersk
- Download every Rust crate your HTTP service depends on into the Nix store
- Run your program's tests
- Build your dependencies into a Nix package
- Build your program with those dependencies
- Place a link to the result at `./result`
Once it is done, let's take a look at the result:
```console
$ du -hs ./result/bin/helloworld
2.1M ./result/bin/helloworld
$ ldd ./result/bin/helloworld
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fffae080000)
libdl.so.2 => /nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x0
0007f3a01666000)
librt.so.1 => /nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/librt.so.1 (0x0
0007f3a0165c000)
libpthread.so.0 => /nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/libpthread
.so.0 (0x00007f3a0163b000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/libgcc_s.so.
1 (0x00007f3a013f5000)
libc.so.6 => /nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/libc.so.6 (0x000
07f3a0123f000)
/nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 => /lib6
4/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f3a0160b000)
libm.so.6 => /nix/store/wx1vk75bpdr65g6xwxbj4rw0pk04v5j3-glibc-2.27/lib/libm.so.6 (0x000
07f3a010a9000)
```
This means that the Nix build created a 2.1 megabyte binary that only depends on
[glibc][glibc], the implementation of the C language standard library that Nix
prefers.
[glibc]: https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/
For repo cleanliness, add the `result` link to the [gitignore][gitignore]:
```console
$ echo 'result*' >> .gitignore
```
## Shipping it in a Docker image
Now that we have a package built, let's ship it in a docker image. nixpkgs
provides [dockerTools][dockertools] which helps us create docker images out of
Nix packages. Let's create `default.nix` with the following contents:
[dockertools]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-pkgs-dockerTools
```nix
{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
pkgs = import sources.nixpkgs { };
helloworld = import ./helloworld.nix { inherit sources pkgs; };
name = "xena/helloworld";
tag = "latest";
in pkgs.dockerTools.buildLayeredImage {
inherit name tag;
contents = [ helloworld ];
config = {
Cmd = [ "/bin/helloworld" ];
Env = [ "ROCKET_PORT=5000" ];
WorkingDir = "/";
};
}
```
And then build it with `nix-build`:
```console
$ nix-build default.nix
```
This will create a tarball containing the docker image information as the result
of the Nix build. Load it into docker using `docker load`:
```console
$ docker load -i result
```
And then run it using `docker run`:
```console
$ docker run --rm -itp 52340:5000 xena/helloworld
```
Now test it using curl:
```console
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:52340
Hello, world!
```
And now you have a docker image you can run wherever you want. The
`buildLayeredImage` function used in `default.nix` also makes Nix put each
dependency of the package into its own docker layer. This makes new versions of
your program very efficient to upgrade on your clusters, realistically this
reduces the amount of data needed for new versions of the program down to what
changed. If nothing but some resources in their own package were changed, only
those packages get downloaded.
This is how I start a new project with Nix. I put all of the code described in
this post in [this GitHub repo][helloworldrepo] in case it helps. Have fun and
be well.
[helloworldrepo]: https://github.com/Xe/helloworld
---
For some "extra credit" tasks, try and see if you can do the following:
- Use the version of [niv][niv] that niv pinned
- Customize the environment of the container by following the [Rocket
configuration documentation](https://rocket.rs/v0.4/guide/configuration/)
- Add some more routes to the program
- Read the [Nix
documentation](https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#chap-writing-nix-expressions) and
learn more about writing Nix expressions
- Configure your editor/IDE to use the `direnv` path

View File

@ -1,558 +0,0 @@
---
title: "How I Start: Rust"
date: 2020-03-15
series: howto
tags:
- rust
- how-i-start
- nix
---
# How I Start: Rust
[Rust][rustlang] is an exciting new programming language that makes it easy to
make understandable and reliable software. It is made by Mozilla and is used by
Amazon, Google, Microsoft and many other large companies.
[rustlang]: https://www.rust-lang.org/
Rust has a reputation of being difficult because it makes no effort to hide what
is going on. I'd like to show you how I start with Rust projects. Let's make a
small HTTP service using [Rocket][rocket].
[rocket]: https://rocket.rs
- Setting up your environment
- A new project
- Testing
- Adding functionality
- OpenAPI specifications
- Error responses
- Shipping it in a docker image
## Setting up your environment
The first step is to install the Rust compiler. You can use any method you like,
but since we are requiring the nightly version of Rust for this project, I
suggest using [rustup][rustup]:
[rustup]: https://rustup.rs/
```console
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- --default-toolchain nightly
```
If you are using [NixOS][nixos] or another Linux distribution with [Nix][nix]
installed, see [this post][howistartnix] for some information on how to set up
the Rust compiler.
[nixos]: https://nixos.org/nixos/
[nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/
[howistartnix]: https://christine.website/blog/how-i-start-nix-2020-03-08
## A new project
[Rocket][rocket] is a popular web framework for Rust programs. Let's use that to
create a small "hello, world" server. We will need to do the following:
[rocket]: https://rocket.rs/
- Create the new Rust project
- Add Rocket as a dependency
- Write the hello world route
- Test a build of the service with `cargo build`
- Run it and see what happens
### Create the new Rust project
Create the new Rust project with `cargo init`:
```console
$ cargo init --vcs git .
Created binary (application) package
```
This will create the directory `src` and a file named `Cargo.toml`. Rust code
goes in `src` and the `Cargo.toml` file configures dependencies. Adding the
`--vcs git` flag also has cargo create a [gitignore][gitignore] file so that the
target folder isn't tracked by git.
[gitignore]: https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore
### Add Rocket as a dependency
Open `Cargo.toml` and add the following to it:
```toml
[dependencies]
rocket = "0.4.4"
```
Then download/build [Rocket][rocket] with `cargo build`:
```console
$ cargo build
```
This will download all of the dependencies you need and precompile Rocket, and it
will help speed up later builds.
### Write our "hello world" route
Now put the following in `src/main.rs`:
```rust
#![feature(proc_macro_hygiene, decl_macro)] // Nightly-only language features needed by Rocket
// Import the rocket macros
#[macro_use]
extern crate rocket;
/// Create route / that returns "Hello, world!"
#[get("/")]
fn index() -> &'static str {
"Hello, world!"
}
fn main() {
rocket::ignite().mount("/", routes![index]).launch();
}
```
### Test a build
Rerun `cargo build`:
```console
$ cargo build
```
This will create the binary at `target/debug/helloworld`. Let's run it locally
and see if it works:
```console
$ ./target/debug/helloworld
```
And in another terminal window:
```console
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000
Hello, world!
$ fg
<press control-c>
```
The HTTP service works. We have a binary that is created with the Rust compiler.
This binary will be available at `./target/debug/helloworld`. However, it could
use some tests.
## Testing
Rocket has support for [unit testing][rockettest] built in. Let's create a tests
module and verify this route in testing.
[rockettest]: https://rocket.rs/v0.4/guide/testing/
### Create a tests module
Rust allows you to nest modules within files using the `mod` keyword. Create a
`tests` module that will only build when testing is requested:
[rustmod]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/mod/visibility.html
```rust
#[cfg(test)] // Only compile this when unit testing is requested
mod tests {
use super::*; // Modules are their own scope, so you
// need to explictly use the stuff in
// the parent module.
use rocket::http::Status;
use rocket::local::*;
#[test]
fn test_index() {
// create the rocket instance to test
let rkt = rocket::ignite().mount("/", routes![index]);
// create a HTTP client bound to this rocket instance
let client = Client::new(rkt).expect("valid rocket");
// get a HTTP response
let mut response = client.get("/").dispatch();
// Ensure it returns HTTP 200
assert_eq!(response.status(), Status::Ok);
// Ensure the body is what we expect it to be
assert_eq!(response.body_string(), Some("Hello, world!".into()));
}
}
```
### Run tests
`cargo test` is used to run tests in Rust. Let's run it:
```console
$ cargo test
Compiling helloworld v0.1.0 (/home/cadey/code/helloworld)
Finished test [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1.80s
Running target/debug/deps/helloworld-49d1bd4d4f816617
running 1 test
test tests::test_index ... ok
```
## Adding functionality
Most HTTP services return [JSON][json] or JavaScript Object Notation as a way to
pass objects between computer programs. Let's use Rocket's [JSON
support][rocketjson] to add a `/hostinfo` route to this app that returns some
simple information:
[json]: https://www.json.org/json-en.html
[rocketjson]: https://api.rocket.rs/v0.4/rocket_contrib/json/index.html
- the hostname of the computer serving the response
- the process ID of the HTTP service
- the uptime of the system in seconds
### Encoding things to JSON
For encoding things to JSON, we will be using [serde][serde]. We will need to
add serde as a dependency. Open `Cargo.toml` and put the following lines in it:
[serde]: https://serde.rs/
```toml
[dependencies]
serde_json = "1.0"
serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
```
This lets us use `#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]` on our Rust structs, which
will allow us to automate away the JSON generation code _at compile time_. For
more information about derivation in Rust, see [here][rustderive].
[rustderive]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/trait/derive.html
Let's define the data we will send back to the client using a [struct][ruststruct].
[ruststruct]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/custom_types/structs.html
```rust
use serde::*;
/// Host information structure returned at /hostinfo
#[derive(Serialize, Debug)]
struct HostInfo {
hostname: String,
pid: u32,
uptime: u64,
}
```
To implement this call, we will need another few dependencies in the `Cargo.toml`
file. We will use [gethostname][gethostname] to get the hostname of the machine
and [psutil][psutil] to get the uptime of the machine. Put the following below
the `serde` dependency line:
[gethostname]: https://crates.io/crates/gethostname
[psutil]: https://crates.io/crates/psutil
```toml
gethostname = "0.2.1"
psutil = "3.0.1"
```
Finally, we will need to enable Rocket's JSON support. Put the following at the
end of your `Cargo.toml` file:
```toml
[dependencies.rocket_contrib]
version = "0.4.4"
default-features = false
features = ["json"]
```
Now we can implement the `/hostinfo` route:
```rust
/// Create route /hostinfo that returns information about the host serving this
/// page.
#[get("/hostinfo")]
fn hostinfo() -> Json<HostInfo> {
// gets the current machine hostname or "unknown" if the hostname doesn't
// parse into UTF-8 (very unlikely)
let hostname = gethostname::gethostname()
.into_string()
.or(|_| "unknown".to_string())
.unwrap();
Json(HostInfo{
hostname: hostname,
pid: std::process::id(),
uptime: psutil::host::uptime()
.unwrap() // normally this is a bad idea, but this code is
// very unlikely to fail.
.as_secs(),
})
}
```
And then register it in the main function:
```rust
fn main() {
rocket::ignite()
.mount("/", routes![index, hostinfo])
.launch();
}
```
Now rebuild the project and run the server:
```console
$ cargo build
$ ./target/debug/helloworld
```
And in another terminal test it with `curl`:
```console
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000
{"hostname":"shachi","pid":4291,"uptime":13641}
```
You can use a similar process for any kind of other route.
## OpenAPI specifications
[OpenAPI][openapi] is a common specification format for describing API routes.
This allows users of the API to automatically generate valid clients for them.
Writing these by hand can be tedious, so let's pass that work off to the
compiler using [okapi][okapi].
[openapi]: https://swagger.io/docs/specification/about/
[okapi]: https://github.com/GREsau/okapi
Add the following line to your `Cargo.toml` file in the `[dependencies]` block:
```toml
rocket_okapi = "0.3.6"
schemars = "0.6"
okapi = { version = "0.3", features = ["derive_json_schema"] }
```
This will allow us to generate OpenAPI specifications from Rocket routes and the
types in them. Let's import the rocket_okapi macros and use them:
```rust
// Import OpenAPI macros
#[macro_use]
extern crate rocket_okapi;
use rocket_okapi::JsonSchema;
```
We need to add JSON schema generation abilities to `HostInfo`. Change:
```rust
#[derive(Serialize, Debug)]
```
to
```rust
#[derive(Serialize, JsonSchema, Debug)]
```
to generate the OpenAPI code for our type.
Next we can add the `/hostinfo` route to the OpenAPI schema:
```rust
/// Create route /hostinfo that returns information about the host serving this
/// page.
#[openapi]
#[get("/hostinfo")]
fn hostinfo() -> Json<HostInfo> {
// ...
```
Also add the index route to the OpenAPI schema:
```rust
/// Create route / that returns "Hello, world!"
#[openapi]
#[get("/")]
fn index() -> &'static str {
"Hello, world!"
}
```
And finally update the main function to use openapi:
```rust
fn main() {
rocket::ignite()
.mount("/", routes_with_openapi![index, hostinfo])
.launch();
}
```
Then rebuild it and run the server:
```console
$ cargo build
$ ./target/debug/helloworld
```
And then in another terminal:
```console
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/openapi.json
```
This should return a large JSON object that describes all of the HTTP routes and
the data they return. To see this visually, change main to this:
```rust
use rocket_okapi::swagger_ui::{make_swagger_ui, SwaggerUIConfig};
fn main() {
rocket::ignite()
.mount("/", routes_with_openapi![index, hostinfo])
.mount(
"/swagger-ui/",
make_swagger_ui(&SwaggerUIConfig {
url: Some("../openapi.json".to_owned()),
urls: None,
}),
)
.launch();
}
```
Then rebuild and run the service:
```console
$ cargo build
$ ./target/debug/helloworld
```
And [open the swagger UI](http://127.0.0.1:8000/swagger-ui/) in your favorite
browser. This will show you a graphical display of all of the routes and the
data types in your service. For an example, see
[here](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/swagger-ui/index.html).
## Error responses
Earlier in the /hostinfo route we glossed over error handling. Let's correct
this using the [okapi error type][okapierror]. Let's use the
[OpenAPIError][okapierror] type in the helloworld function:
[okapierror]: https://docs.rs/rocket_okapi/0.3.6/rocket_okapi/struct.OpenApiError.html
```rust
/// Create route /hostinfo that returns information about the host serving
/// this page.
#[openapi]
#[get("/hostinfo")]
fn hostinfo() -> Result<Json<HostInfo>> {
match gethostname::gethostname().into_string() {
Ok(hostname) => Ok(Json(HostInfo {
hostname: hostname,
pid: std::process::id(),
uptime: psutil::host::uptime().unwrap().as_secs(),
})),
Err(_) => Err(OpenApiError::new(format!(
"hostname does not parse as UTF-8"
))),
}
}
```
When the `into_string` operation fails (because the hostname is somehow invalid
UTF-8), this will result in a non-200 response with the `"hostname does not parse
as UTF-8"` message.
## Shipping it in a docker image
Many deployment systems use [Docker][docker] to describe a program's environment
and dependencies. Create a `Dockerfile` with the following contents:
```Dockerfile
# Use the minimal image
FROM rustlang/rust:nightly-slim AS build
# Where we will build the program
WORKDIR /src/helloworld
# Copy source code into the container
COPY . .
# Build the program in release mode
RUN cargo build --release
# Create the runtime image
FROM ubuntu:18.04
# Copy the compiled service binary
COPY --from=build /src/helloworld/target/release/helloworld /usr/local/bin/helloworld
# Start the helloworld service on container boot
CMD ["usr/local/bin/helloworld"]
```
And then build it:
```console
$ docker build -t xena/helloworld .
```
And then run it:
```console
$ docker run --rm -itp 8000:8000 xena/helloworld
```
And in another terminal:
```console
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000
Hello, world!
```
From here you can do whatever you want with this service. You can deploy it to
Kubernetes with a manifest that would look something like [this][k8shack].
[k8shack]: https://clbin.com/zSPDs
---
This is how I start a new Rust project. I put all of the code described in this
post in [this GitHub repo][helloworldrepo] in case it helps. Have fun and be
well.
[helloworldrepo]: https://github.com/Xe/helloworld
---
For some "extra credit" tasks, try and see if you can do the following:
- Customize the environment of the container by following the [Rocket
configuration documentation](https://rocket.rs/v0.4/guide/configuration/) and
docker [environment variables][dockerenvvars]
- Use Rocket's [templates][rockettemplate] to make the host information show up
in HTML
- Add tests for the `/hostinfo` route
- Make a route that always returns errors, what does it look like?
[dockerenvvars]: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#env
[rockettemplate]: https://api.rocket.rs/v0.4/rocket_contrib/templates/index.html
Many thanks to [Coleman McFarland](https://coleman.codes/) for proofreading this
post.

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@ -1,193 +0,0 @@
---
title: "How Mara Works"
date: 2020-09-30
tags:
- avif
- webp
- markdown
---
# How Mara Works
Recently I introduced Mara to this blog and I didn't explain much of the theory
and implementation behind them in order to proceed with the rest of the post.
There was actually a significant amount of engineering that went into
implementing Mara and I'd like to go into detail about this as well as explain
how I implemented them into this blog.
## Mara's Background
Mara is an anthropomorphic shark. They are nonbinary and go by they/she
pronouns. Mara enjoys hacking, swimming and is a Chaotic Good Rogue in the
tabletop games I've played her in. Mara was originally made to help test my
upcoming tabletop game The Source, and I have used them in a few solitaire
tabletop sessions (click
[here](http://cetacean.club/journal/mara-castle-charon.gmi) to read the results
of one of these).
[I use a hand-soldered <a href="https://www.ergodox.io/">Ergodox</a> with the <a
href="https://www.artofchording.com/">stenographer</a> layout so I can dab on
the haters at 200 words per minute!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## The Theory
My blogposts have a habit of getting long, wordy and sometimes pretty damn dry.
I notice that there are usually a few common threads in how this becomes the
case, so I want to do these three things to help keep things engaging.
1. I go into detail. A lot of detail. This can make paragraphs long and wordy
because there is legitimately a lot to cover. [fasterthanlime's Cool Bear's
Hot Tip](https://fasterthanli.me/articles/image-decay-as-a-service) is a good
way to help Amos focus on the core and let another character bring up the
finer details that may go off the core of the message.
2. I have been looking into how to integrate concepts from [The Socratic
method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method) into my posts. The
Socratic method focuses on dialogue/questions and answers between
interlocutors as a way to explore a topic that can be dry or vague.
3. [Soatok's
blog](https://soatok.blog/2020/09/12/edutech-spyware-is-still-spyware-proctorio-edition/)
was an inspiration to this. Soatok dives into deep technical topics that can
feel like a slog, and inserts some stickers between paragraphs to help keep
things upbeat and lively.
I wanted to make a unique way to help break up walls of text using the concepts
of Cool Bear's Hot Tip and the Socratic method with some furry art sprinkled in
and I eventually arrived at Mara.
[Fun fact! My name was originally derived from a <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(demon)">Buddhist conceptual demon of
forces antagonistic to enlightenment</a> which is deliciously ironic given that
my role is to help people understand things now.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## How Mara is Implemented
I write my blogposts in
[Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/), specifically a
dialect that has some niceties from [GitHub flavored
markdown](https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/#GitHub-flavored-markdown)
as parsed by [comrak](https://docs.rs/comrak). Mara's interjections are actually
specially formed links, such as this:
[Hi! I am saying something!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```markdown
[Hi! I am saying something!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```
Notice how the destination URL doesn't actually exist. It's actually intercepted
in my [markdown parsing
function](https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/b540631792493169bd41f489c18b7369159d12a9/src/app/markdown.rs#L8)
and then a [HTML
template](https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/b540631792493169bd41f489c18b7369159d12a9/templates/mara.rs.html#L1)
is used to create the divs that make up the image and conversation bits. I have
intentionally left this open so I can add more characters in the future. I may
end up making some stickers for myself so I can reply to Mara a-la [this
blogpost by
fasterthanlime](https://fasterthanli.me/articles/so-you-want-to-live-reload-rust)
(search for "What's with the @@GLIBC_2.2.5 suffixes?"). The syntax of the URL is
as follows:
```
conversation://<character>/<mood>[?reply]
```
This will then fetch the images off of my CDN hosted by CloudFlare. However if
you are using Tor to view my site, this may result in not being able to see the
images. I am working on ways to solve this. Please bear with me, this stuff is
hard.
You may have noticed that Mara sometimes has links inside her dialogue.
Understandably, this is something that vanilla markdown does not support.
However, I enabled putting raw HTML in my markdown which lets this work anyways!
Consider this:
[My art was drawn by <a
href="https://selic.re">Selicre</a>!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
In the markdown source, that actually looks like this:
```markdown
[My art was drawn by <a href="https://selic.re">Selicre</a>!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```
This is honestly one of my favorite parts of how this is implemented, though
others I have shown this to say it's kind of terrifying.
### The `<picture>` Element and Image Formats
Something you might notice about the HTML template is that I use the
[`<picture>`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/picture)
element like this:
```html
<picture>
<source srcset="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/@character.to_lowercase()/@(mood).avif" type="image/avif">
<source srcset="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/@character.to_lowercase()/@(mood).webp" type="image/webp">
<img src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/@character.to_lowercase()/@(mood).png" alt="@character is @mood">
</picture>
```
The `<picture>` element allows me to specify multiple versions of the stickers
and have your browser pick the image format that it supports. It is also fully
backwards compatible with browsers that do not support `<picture>` and in those
cases you will see the fallback image in .png format. I went into a lot of
detail about this in [a twitter
thread](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1310358201842401281?s=21),
but in short here are how each of the formats looks next to its filesize
information:
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/mara_png.png)
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/mara_webp.png)
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/mara_avif.png)
The
[avif](https://reachlightspeed.com/blog/using-the-new-high-performance-avif-image-format-on-the-web-today/)
version does have the ugliest quality when blown up, however consider how small
these stickers will appear on the webpages:
[This is how big the stickers will appear, or is it?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
At these sizes most people will not notice any lingering artifacts unless they
look closely. However at about 5-6 kilobytes per image I think the smaller
filesize greatly wins out. This helps keep page loads fast, which is something I
want to optimize for as it makes people think my website loads quickly.
I go into a lot more detail on the twitter thread, but the commands I use to get
the webp and avif versions of the stickers are as follows:
```shell
#!/bin/sh
cwebp \
$1.png \
-o $1.webp
avifenc \
$1.png \
-o $1.avif \
-s 0 \
-d 8 \
--min 48 \
--max 48 \
--minalpha 48 \
--maxalpha 48
```
I plan to automate this further in the future, but for the scale I am at this
works fine. These stickers are then uploaded to my cloud storage bucket and
CloudFlare provides a CDN for them so they can load very quickly.
---
Anyways, this is how Mara is implemented and some of the challenges that went
into developing them as a feature (while leaving the door open for other
characters in the future). Mara is here to stay and I have gotten a lot of
positive feedback about her.
As a side note, for those of you that are not amused that I am choosing to have
Mara (and consequentially furry art in general) as a site feature, I can only
hope that you can learn to respect that as an independent blogger I am free to
implement my blog (and the content that I am choosing to provide _FOR FREE_ even
though I've gotten requests to make it paid content) as I see fit. Further
complaints will only increase the amount of furry art in future posts.
Be well all.

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@ -1,139 +0,0 @@
---
title: How to Send Email with Nim
date: 2019-08-28
series: howto
tags:
- nim
- email
---
# How to Send Email with Nim
Nim offers an [smtp][nimsmtp] module, but it is a bit annoying to use out of the
box. This blogpost hopes to be a mini-tutorial on the basics of how to use the
smtp library and give developers best practices for handling outgoing email in
ways that Google or iCloud will accept.
## SMTP in a Nutshell
[SMTP][SMTPrfc], or the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is the backbone of how
email works. It's a very simple line-based protocol, and there are wrappers for
it in almost every programming language. Usage is pretty simple:
- The client connects to the server
- The client authenticates itself with the server
- The client signals that it would like to create an outgoing message to the server
- The client sends the raw contents of the message to the server
- The client ends the message
- The client disconnects
Unfortunately, the devil is truly in the details here. There are a few things
that _absolutely must_ be present in your emails in order for services like
GMail to accept them. They are:
- The `From` header specifying where the message was sent from
- The Mime-Version that your code is using (if you aren't sure, put `1.0` here)
- The Content-Type that your code is sending to users (probably `text/plain`)
For a more complete example, let's create a `Mailer` type and a constructor:
```nim
# mailer.nim
import asyncdispatch, logging, smtp, strformat, strutils
type Mailer* = object
address: string
port: Port
myAddress: string
myName: string
username: string
password: string
proc newMailer*(address, port, myAddress, myName, username, password: string): Mailer =
result = Mailer(
address: address,
port: port.parseInt.Port,
myAddress: myAddress,
myName: myName,
username: username,
password: password,
)
```
And let's write a `mail` method to send out email:
```nim
proc mail(m: Mailer, to, toName, subject, body: string) {.async.} =
let
toList = @[fmt"{toName} <{to}>"]
msg = createMessage(subject, body, toList, @[], [
("From", fmt"{m.myName} <{m.myAddress}"),
("MIME-Version", "1.0"),
("Content-Type", "text/plain"),
])
var client = newAsyncSmtp(useSsl = true)
await client.connect(m.address, m.port)
await client.auth(m.username, m.password)
await client.sendMail(m.myAddress, toList, $msg)
info "sent email to: ", to, " about: ", subject
await client.close()
```
Breaking this down, you can clearly see the parts of the SMTP connection as I
laid out before. The `Mailer` creates a new transient SMTP connection,
authenticates with the remote server, sends the properly formatted email to
the server and then closes the connection cleanly.
If you want to test this code, I suggest testing it with a freely available
email provider that offers TLS/SSL-encrypted SMTP support. This also means that
you need to compile this code with `--define: ssl`, so create `config.nims` and
add the following:
```nimscript
--define: ssl
```
Here's a little wrapper using [cligen][cligen]:
```nim
when isMailModule:
import cligen, os
let
smtpAddress = getEnv("SMTP_ADDRESS")
smtpPort = getEnv("SMTP_PORT")
smtpMyAddress = getEnv("SMTP_MY_ADDRESS")
smtpMyName = getEnv("SMTP_MY_NAME")
smtpUsername = getEnv("SMTP_USERNAME")
smtpPassword = getEnv("SMTP_PASSWORD")
proc sendAnEmail(to, toName, subject, body: string) =
let m = newMailer(smtpAddress, smtpPort, smtpMyAddress, smtpMyName, smtpUsername, smtpPassword)
waitFor m.mail(to, toName, subject, body)
dispatch(sendAnEmail)
```
Usage is simple:
```console
$ nim c -r mailer.nim --help
Usage:
sendAnEmail [required&optional-params]
Options(opt-arg sep :|=|spc):
-h, --help print this cligen-erated help
--help-syntax advanced: prepend,plurals,..
-t=, --to= string REQUIRED set to
--toName= string REQUIRED set toName
-s=, --subject= string REQUIRED set subject
-b=, --body= string REQUIRED set body
```
I hope this helps, this module is going to be used in my future post on how to
create an application using Nim's [Jester][jester] framework.
[nimsmtp]: https://nim-lang.org/docs/smtp.html
[SMTPrfc]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5321
[jester]: https://github.com/dom96/jester
[cligen]: https://github.com/c-blake/cligen

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@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: How to Automate Discord Message Posting With Webhooks and Cron
date: 2018-03-29
series: howto
---
# How to Automate Discord Message Posting With Webhooks and Cron

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@ -1,809 +0,0 @@
---
title: How to Use User Mode Linux
date: 2019-07-07
series: howto
---
# How to Use User Mode Linux
[User Mode Linux](http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net) is a port of the
[Linux kernel](https://www.kernel.org) to itself. This allows you to run a
full blown Linux kernel as a normal userspace process. This is used by kernel
developers for testing drivers, but is also useful as a generic isolation layer
similar to virtual machines. It provides slightly more isolation than [Docker](https://www.docker.com),
but slightly less isolation than a full-blown virtual machine like KVM or
VirtualBox.
In general, this may sound like a weird and hard to integrate tool, but it does
have its uses. It is an entire Linux kernel running as a normal user. This
allows you to run potentially untrusted code without affecting the host machine.
It also allows you to test experimental system configuration changes without
having to reboot or take its services down.
Also, because this kernel and its processes are isolated from the host machine,
this means that processes running inside a user mode Linux kernel will _not_ be
visible to the host machine. This is unlike a Docker container, where processes
in those containers are visible to the host. See this (snipped) pstree output
from one of my servers:
```
containerd─┬─containerd-shim─┬─tini─┬─dnsd───19*[{dnsd}]
│ │ └─s6-svscan───s6-supervise
│ └─10*[{containerd-shim}]
├─containerd-shim─┬─tini─┬─aerial───21*[{aerial}]
│ │ └─s6-svscan───s6-supervise
│ └─10*[{containerd-shim}]
├─containerd-shim─┬─tini─┬─s6-svscan───s6-supervise
│ │ └─surl
│ └─9*[{containerd-shim}]
├─containerd-shim─┬─tini─┬─h───13*[{h}]
│ │ └─s6-svscan───s6-supervise
│ └─10*[{containerd-shim}]
├─containerd-shim─┬─goproxy───14*[{goproxy}]
│ └─9*[{containerd-shim}]
└─32*[{containerd}]
```
Compare it to the user mode Linux pstree output:
```
linux─┬─5*[linux]
└─slirp
```
With a Docker container, I can see the names of the processes being run in the
guest from the host. With a user mode Linux kernel, I cannot do this. This means
that monitoring tools that function using [Linux's auditing subsystem](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-the-linux-auditing-system-on-centos-7)
_cannot_ monitor processes running inside the guest. This could be a two-edged
sword in some edge scenarios.
This post represents a lot of research and brute-force attempts at trying to do
this. I have had to assemble things together using old resources, reading kernel
source code, intense debugging of code that was last released when I was in
elementary school, tracking down a Heroku buildpack with a pre-built binary for
a tool I need and other hackery that made people in IRC call me magic. I hope
that this post will function as reliable documentation for doing this with a
modern kernel and operating system.
## Setup
Setting up user mode Linux is done in a few steps:
- Installing host dependencies
- Downloading Linux
- Configuring Linux
- Building the kernel
- Installing the binary
- Setting up the guest filesystem
- Creating the kernel command line
- Setting up networking for the guest
- Running the guest kernel
I am assuming that you are wanting to do this on Ubuntu or another Debian-like
system. I have tried to do this from Alpine (my distro of choice), but I have
been unsuccessful as the Linux kernel seems to have glibc-isms hard-assumed in
the user mode Linux drivers. I plan to report these to upstream when I have
debugged them further.
### Installing Host Dependencies
Ubuntu requires at least the following packages installed to build the Linux
kernel (assuming a completely fresh install):
- `build-essential`
- `flex`
- `bison`
- `xz-utils`
- `wget`
- `ca-certificates`
- `bc`
- `linux-headers-4.15.0-47-generic` (though any kernel version will do)
You can install these with the following command (as root or running with sudo):
```
apt-get -y install build-essential flex bison xz-utils wget ca-certificates bc \
linux-headers-4.15.0-47-generic
```
Additionally, running the menu configuration program for the Linux kernel will
require installing `libncurses-dev`. Please make sure it's installed using the
following command (as root or running with sudo):
```
apt-get -y install libncurses-dev
```
### Downloading the Kernel
Set up a location for the kernel to be downloaded and built. This will require
approximately 1.3 gigabytes of space to run, so please make sure that there is
at least this much space free.
Head to [kernel.org](https://www.kernel.org) and get the download URL of the
latest stable kernel. As of the time of writing this post, this URL is the
following:
```
https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/linux-5.1.16.tar.xz
```
Download this file with `wget`:
```
wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/linux-5.1.16.tar.xz
```
And extract it with `tar`:
```
tar xJf linux-5.1.16.tar.xz
```
Now enter the directory created by the tarball extraction:
```
cd linux-5.1.16
```
### Configuring the Kernel
The kernel build system is a bunch of [Makefiles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makefile)
with a _lot_ of custom tools and scripts to automate builds. Open the interactive
configuration program:
```
make ARCH=um menuconfig
```
It will build some things and then present you with a dialog interface. You can
enable settings by pressing `Space` or `Enter` when `<Select>` is highlighted on
the bottom of the screen. You can change which item is selected in the upper
dialog with the and down arrow keys. You can change which item is highlighted on
the bottom of the screen with the left and right arrow keys.
When there is a `--->` at the end of a feature name, that means it is a submenu.
You can enter a submenu using the `Enter` key. If you enter a menu you can exit
it with `<Exit>`.
Enable the following settings with `<Select>`, making sure there is a `[*]` next
to them:
```
UML-specific Options:
- Host filesystem
Networking support (enable this to get the submenu to show up):
- Networking options:
- TCP/IP Networking
UML Network devices:
- Virtual network device
- SLiRP transport
```
Then exit back out to a shell by selecting `<Exit>` until there is a dialog
asking you if you want to save your configuration. Select `<Yes>` and hit
`Enter`.
I encourage you to play around with the build settings after reading through
this post. You can learn a lot about Linux at a low level by changing flags and
seeing how they affect the kernel at runtime.
### Building the Kernel
The Linux kernel is a large program with a lot of things going on. Even with
this rather minimal configuration, it can take a while on older hardware. Build
the kernel with the following command:
```
make ARCH=um -j$(nproc)
```
This will tell `make` to use all available CPU cores/hyperthreads to build the
kernel. The `$(nproc)` at the end of the build command tells the shell to paste
in the output of the `nproc` command (this command is part of `coreutils`, which
is a default package in Ubuntu).
After a while, the kernel will be built to `./linux`.
### Installing the Binary
Because user mode Linux builds a normal binary, you can install it like you would
any other command line tool. Here's the configuration I use:
```
mkdir -p ~/bin
cp linux ~/bin/linux
```
If you want, ensure that `~/bin` is in your `$PATH`:
```
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
```
### Setting up the Guest Filesystem
Create a home for the guest filesystem:
```
mkdir -p $HOME/prefix/uml-demo
cd $HOME/prefix
```
Open [alpinelinux.org](https://alpinelinux.org). Click on [Downloads](https://alpinelinux.org/downloads).
Scroll down to where it lists the `MINI ROOT FILESYSTEM`. Right-click on the
`x86_64` link and copy it. As of the time of writing this post, the latest URL
for this is:
```
http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.10/releases/x86_64/alpine-minirootfs-3.10.0-x86_64.tar.gz
```
Download this tarball to your computer:
```
wget -O alpine-rootfs.tgz http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.10/releases/x86_64/alpine-minirootfs-3.10.0-x86_64.tar.gz
```
Now enter the guest filesystem folder and extract the tarball:
```
cd uml-demo
tar xf ../alpine-rootfs.tgz
```
This will create a very minimal filesystem stub. Because of how this is being
run, it will be difficult to install binary packages from Alpine's package
manager `apk`, but this should be good enough to work as a proof of concept.
The tool [`tini`](https://github.com/krallin/tini) will be needed in order to
prevent the guest kernel from having its memory used up by [zombie processes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_process).
Install it by doing the following:
```
wget -O tini https://github.com/krallin/tini/releases/download/v0.18.0/tini-static
chmod +x tini
```
### Creating the Kernel Command Line
The Linux kernel has command line arguments like most other programs. To view
what command line options are compiled into the user mode kernel, run `--help`:
```
linux --help
User Mode Linux v5.1.16
available at http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/
--showconfig
Prints the config file that this UML binary was generated from.
iomem=<name>,<file>
Configure <file> as an IO memory region named <name>.
mem=<Amount of desired ram>
This controls how much "physical" memory the kernel allocates
for the system. The size is specified as a number followed by
one of 'k', 'K', 'm', 'M', which have the obvious meanings.
This is not related to the amount of memory in the host. It can
be more, and the excess, if it's ever used, will just be swapped out.
Example: mem=64M
--help
Prints this message.
debug
this flag is not needed to run gdb on UML in skas mode
root=<file containing the root fs>
This is actually used by the generic kernel in exactly the same
way as in any other kernel. If you configure a number of block
devices and want to boot off something other than ubd0, you
would use something like:
root=/dev/ubd5
--version
Prints the version number of the kernel.
umid=<name>
This is used to assign a unique identity to this UML machine and
is used for naming the pid file and management console socket.
con[0-9]*=<channel description>
Attach a console or serial line to a host channel. See
http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/old/input.html for a complete
description of this switch.
eth[0-9]+=<transport>,<options>
Configure a network device.
aio=2.4
This is used to force UML to use 2.4-style AIO even when 2.6 AIO is
available. 2.4 AIO is a single thread that handles one request at a
time, synchronously. 2.6 AIO is a thread which uses the 2.6 AIO
interface to handle an arbitrary number of pending requests. 2.6 AIO
is not available in tt mode, on 2.4 hosts, or when UML is built with
/usr/include/linux/aio_abi.h not available. Many distributions don't
include aio_abi.h, so you will need to copy it from a kernel tree to
your /usr/include/linux in order to build an AIO-capable UML
nosysemu
Turns off syscall emulation patch for ptrace (SYSEMU).
SYSEMU is a performance-patch introduced by Laurent Vivier. It changes
behaviour of ptrace() and helps reduce host context switch rates.
To make it work, you need a kernel patch for your host, too.
See http://perso.wanadoo.fr/laurent.vivier/UML/ for further
information.
uml_dir=<directory>
The location to place the pid and umid files.
quiet
Turns off information messages during boot.
hostfs=<root dir>,<flags>,...
This is used to set hostfs parameters. The root directory argument
is used to confine all hostfs mounts to within the specified directory
tree on the host. If this isn't specified, then a user inside UML can
mount anything on the host that's accessible to the user that's running
it.
The only flag currently supported is 'append', which specifies that all
files opened by hostfs will be opened in append mode.
```
This is a lot of output, but it explains the options available in detail. Let's
start up a kernel with a very minimal set of options:
```
linux \
root=/dev/root \
rootfstype=hostfs \
rootflags=$HOME/prefix/uml-demo \
rw \
mem=64M \
init=/bin/sh
```
This tells the guest kernel to do the following things:
- Assume the root filesystem is the pseudo-device `/dev/root`
- Select [hostfs](http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/hostfs.html) as the root filesystem driver
- Mount the guest filesystem we have created as the root device
- In read-write mode
- Use only 64 megabytes of ram (you can get away with far less depending on what you are doing, but 64 MB seems to be a happy medium)
- Have the kernel automatically start `/bin/sh` as the `init` process
Run this command, you should get something like the following output:
```
Core dump limits :
soft - 0
hard - NONE
Checking that ptrace can change system call numbers...OK
Checking syscall emulation patch for ptrace...OK
Checking advanced syscall emulation patch for ptrace...OK
Checking environment variables for a tempdir...none found
Checking if /dev/shm is on tmpfs...OK
Checking PROT_EXEC mmap in /dev/shm...OK
Adding 32137216 bytes to physical memory to account for exec-shield gap
Linux version 5.1.16 (cadey@kahless) (gcc version 7.4.0 (Ubuntu 7.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1)) #30 Sun Jul 7 18:57:19 UTC 2019
Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 23898
Kernel command line: root=/dev/root rootflags=/home/cadey/dl/uml/alpine rootfstype=hostfs rw mem=64M init=/bin/sh
Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Memory: 59584K/96920K available (2692K kernel code, 708K rwdata, 588K rodata, 104K init, 244K bss, 37336K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
NR_IRQS: 15
clocksource: timer: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x1cd42e205, max_idle_ns: 881590404426 ns
Calibrating delay loop... 7479.29 BogoMIPS (lpj=37396480)
pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Checking that host ptys support output SIGIO...Yes
Checking that host ptys support SIGIO on close...No, enabling workaround
devtmpfs: initialized
random: get_random_bytes called from setup_net+0x48/0x1e0 with crng_init=0
Using 2.6 host AIO
clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
futex hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 6144 bytes)
NET: Registered protocol family 16
clocksource: Switched to clocksource timer
NET: Registered protocol family 2
tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
console [stderr0] disabled
mconsole (version 2) initialized on /home/cadey/.uml/tEwIjm/mconsole
Checking host MADV_REMOVE support...OK
workingset: timestamp_bits=62 max_order=14 bucket_order=0
Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 254)
io scheduler noop registered (default)
io scheduler bfq registered
loop: module loaded
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Initialized stdio console driver
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 1 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 2 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 3 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 4 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 5 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 6 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 7 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 8 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 9 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 10 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 11 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 12 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 13 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 14 : Configuration failed
Using a channel type which is configured out of UML
setup_one_line failed for device 15 : Configuration failed
Console initialized on /dev/tty0
console [tty0] enabled
console [mc-1] enabled
Failed to initialize ubd device 0 :Couldn't determine size of device's file
VFS: Mounted root (hostfs filesystem) on device 0:11.
devtmpfs: mounted
This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
Run /bin/sh as init process
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
random: fast init done
/ #
```
This gives you a _very minimal_ system, without things like `/proc` mounted, or
a hostname assigned. Try the following commands:
- `uname -av`
- `cat /proc/self/pid`
- `hostname`
To exit this system, type in `exit` or press Control-d. This will kill the shell,
making the guest kernel panic:
```
/ # exit
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00000000
fish: “./linux root=/dev/root rootflag…” terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)
```
This kernel panic happens because the Linux kernel always assumes that its init
process is running. Without this process running, the system cannot function
anymore and exits. Because this is a user mode process, this results in the
process sending itself `SIGABRT`, causing it to exit.
### Setting up Networking for the Guest
This is about where things get really screwy. Networking for a user mode Linux
system is where the "user mode" facade starts to fall apart. Networking at the
_system_ level is usually limited to _privileged_ execution modes, for very
understandable reasons.
#### The slirp Adventure
However, there's an ancient and largely unmaintained tool called [slirp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slirp)
that user mode Linux can interface with. It acts as a user-level TCP/IP stack
and does not rely on any elevated permissions to run. This tool was first
released in _1995_, and its last release was made in _2006_. This tool is old
enough that compilers have changed so much in the meantime that the software
has effectively [rotten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot).
So, let's install slirp from the Ubuntu repositories and test running it:
```
sudo apt-get install slirp
/usr/bin/slirp
Slirp v1.0.17 (BETA)
Copyright (c) 1995,1996 Danny Gasparovski and others.
All rights reserved.
This program is copyrighted, free software.
Please read the file COPYRIGHT that came with the Slirp
package for the terms and conditions of the copyright.
IP address of Slirp host: 127.0.0.1
IP address of your DNS(s): 1.1.1.1, 10.77.0.7
Your address is 10.0.2.15
(or anything else you want)
Type five zeroes (0) to exit.
[autodetect SLIP/CSLIP, MTU 1500, MRU 1500, 115200 baud]
SLiRP Ready ...
fish: “/usr/bin/slirp” terminated by signal SIGSEGV (Address boundary error)
```
Oh dear. Let's [install the debug symbols](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Debug%20Symbol%20Packages)
for slirp and see if we can tell what's going on:
```
sudo apt-get install gdb slirp-dbgsym
gdb /usr/bin/slirp
GNU gdb (Ubuntu 8.1-0ubuntu3) 8.1.0.20180409-git
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from /usr/bin/slirp...Reading symbols from /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/c6/2e75b69581a1ad85f72ac32c0d7af913d4861f.debug...done.
done.
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/bin/slirp
Slirp v1.0.17 (BETA)
Copyright (c) 1995,1996 Danny Gasparovski and others.
All rights reserved.
This program is copyrighted, free software.
Please read the file COPYRIGHT that came with the Slirp
package for the terms and conditions of the copyright.
IP address of Slirp host: 127.0.0.1
IP address of your DNS(s): 1.1.1.1, 10.77.0.7
Your address is 10.0.2.15
(or anything else you want)
Type five zeroes (0) to exit.
[autodetect SLIP/CSLIP, MTU 1500, MRU 1500, 115200 baud]
SLiRP Ready ...
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
ip_slowtimo () at ip_input.c:457
457 ip_input.c: No such file or directory.
```
It fails at [this line](https://github.com/Pradeo/Slirp/blob/master/src/ip_input.c#L457).
Let's see the detailed stacktrace to see if anything helps us:
```
(gdb) bt full
#0 ip_slowtimo () at ip_input.c:457
fp = 0x55784a40
#1 0x000055555556a57c in main_loop () at ./main.c:980
so = <optimized out>
so_next = <optimized out>
timeout = {tv_sec = 0, tv_usec = 0}
ret = 0
nfds = 0
ttyp = <optimized out>
ttyp2 = <optimized out>
best_time = <optimized out>
tmp_time = <optimized out>
#2 0x000055555555b116 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffdc58) at ./main.c:95
No locals.
```
So it's failing [in its main loop](https://github.com/Pradeo/Slirp/blob/master/src/main.c#L972)
while it is trying to check if any timeouts occured. This is where I had to give
up trying to debug this further. Let's see if building it from source works. I
re-uploaded the tarball from [Sourceforge](http://slirp.sourceforge.net) because
downloading tarballs from Sourceforge from the command line is a pain.
```
cd ~/dl
wget https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/slirp-1.0.16.tar.gz
tar xf slirp-1.0.16.tar.gz
cd slirp-1.0.16/src
./configure --prefix=$HOME/prefix/slirp
make
```
This spews warnings about undefined inline functions. This then fails to link
the resulting binary. It appears that at some point between the release of this
software and the current day, gcc stopped creating symbols for inline functions
in intermediate compiled files. Let's try to globally replace the `inline`
keyword with an empty comment to see if that works:
```
vi slirp.h
:6
a
<enter>
#define inline /**/
<escape>
:wq
make
```
Nope. That doesn't work either. It continues to fail to find the symbols for
those inline functions.
This is when I gave up. I started searching GitHub for [Heroku buildpacks](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks)
that already had this implemented or done. My theory was that a Heroku
buildpack would probably include the binaries I needed, so I searched for a bit
and found [this buildpack](https://github.com/sleirsgoevy/heroku-buildpack-uml).
I downloaded it and extracted `uml.tar.gz` and found the following files:
```
total 6136
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 79744 Dec 10 2017 ifconfig*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 373 Dec 13 2017 init*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 149688 Dec 10 2017 insmod*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 66600 Dec 10 2017 route*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 181056 Jun 26 2015 slirp*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 5786592 Dec 15 2017 uml*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 cadey cadey 211 Dec 13 2017 uml_run*
```
That's a slirp binary! Does it work?
```
./slirp
Slirp v1.0.17 (BETA) FULL_BOLT
Copyright (c) 1995,1996 Danny Gasparovski and others.
All rights reserved.
This program is copyrighted, free software.
Please read the file COPYRIGHT that came with the Slirp
package for the terms and conditions of the copyright.
IP address of Slirp host: 127.0.0.1
IP address of your DNS(s): 1.1.1.1, 10.77.0.7
Your address is 10.0.2.15
(or anything else you want)
Type five zeroes (0) to exit.
[autodetect SLIP/CSLIP, MTU 1500, MRU 1500]
SLiRP Ready ...
```
It's not immediately crashing, so I think it should be good! Let's copy this
binary to `~/bin/slirp`:
```
cp slirp ~/bin/slirp
```
Just in case the person who created this buildpack takes it down, I have
[mirrored it](https://git.xeserv.us/mirrors/heroku-buildpack-uml).
#### Configuring Networking
Now let's configure networking on our guest. [Adjust your kernel command line](http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/old/networking.html):
```
linux \
root=/dev/root \
rootfstype=hostfs \
rootflags=$HOME/prefix/uml-demo \
rw \
mem=64M \
eth0=slirp,,$HOME/bin/slirp \
init=/bin/sh
```
We should get that shell again. Let's enable networking:
```
mount -t proc proc proc/
mount -t sysfs sys sys/
ifconfig eth0 10.0.2.14 netmask 255.255.255.240 broadcast 10.0.2.15
route add default gw 10.0.2.2
```
The first two commands set up `/proc` and `/sys`, which are required for
`ifconfig` to function. The `ifconfig` command sets up the network interface
to communicate with slirp. The route command sets the kernel routing table
to force all traffic over the slirp tunnel. Let's test with a DNS query:
```
nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8
Server: 8.8.8.8
Address 1: 8.8.8.8 dns.google
Name: google.com
Address 1: 172.217.12.206 lga25s63-in-f14.1e100.net
Address 2: 2607:f8b0:4006:81b::200e lga25s63-in-x0e.1e100.net
```
That works!
Let's automate this with a shell script:
```
#!/bin/sh
# init.sh
mount -t proc proc proc/
mount -t sysfs sys sys/
ifconfig eth0 10.0.2.14 netmask 255.255.255.240 broadcast 10.0.2.15
route add default gw 10.0.2.2
echo "networking set up"
exec /tini /bin/sh
```
and mark it executable:
```
chmod +x init.sh
```
and then change the kernel command line:
```
linux \
root=/dev/root \
rootfstype=hostfs \
rootflags=$HOME/prefix/uml-demo \
rw \
mem=64M \
eth0=slirp,,$HOME/bin/slirp \
init=/init.sh
```
Then re-run it:
```
SLiRP Ready ...
networking set up
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8
Server: 8.8.8.8
Address 1: 8.8.8.8 dns.google
Name: google.com
Address 1: 172.217.12.206 lga25s63-in-f14.1e100.net
Address 2: 2607:f8b0:4004:800::200e iad30s09-in-x0e.1e100.net
```
And networking works reliably!
## Dockerfile
So that you can more easily test this, I have created a [Dockerfile](https://github.com/Xe/furry-happiness)
that automates most of these steps and should result in a working setup. I have
a [pre-made kernel configuration](https://github.com/Xe/furry-happiness/blob/master/uml.config)
that should do everything outlined in this post, but this post outlines a more
minimal setup.
---
I hope this post is able to help you understand how to do this. This became a bit
of a monster, but this should be a comprehensive guide on how to build, install
and configure user mode Linux for modern operating systems. Next steps from here
should include installing services and other programs into the guest system.
Since Docker container images are just glorified tarballs, you should be able to
extract an image with `docker export` and then set the root filesystem location
in the guest kernel to that location. Then run the command that the Dockerfile
expects via a shell script.
Special thanks to rkeene of #lobsters on Freenode. Without his help with
attempting to debug slirp, I wouldn't have gotten this far. I have no idea how
his Slackware system works fine with slirp but my Ubuntu and Alpine systems
don't, and why the binary he gave me also didn't work; but I got something
working and that's good enough for me.

View File

@ -1,437 +0,0 @@
---
title: I was Wrong about Nix
date: 2020-02-10
tags:
- nix
- witchcraft
---
# I was Wrong about Nix
From time to time, I am outright wrong on my blog. This is one of those times.
In my [last post about Nix][nixpost], I didn't see the light yet. I think I do
now, and I'm going to attempt to clarify below.
[nixpost]: https://christine.website/blog/thoughts-on-nix-2020-01-28
Let's talk about a more simple scenario: writing a service in Go. This service
will depend on at least the following:
- A Go compiler to build the code into a binary
- An appropriate runtime to ensure the code will run successfully
- Any data files needed at runtime
A popular way to model this is with a Dockerfile. Here's the Dockerfile I use
for my website (the one you are reading right now):
```
FROM xena/go:1.13.6 AS build
ENV GOPROXY https://cache.greedo.xeserv.us
COPY . /site
WORKDIR /site
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 go test -v ./...
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOBIN=/root go install -v ./cmd/site
FROM xena/alpine
EXPOSE 5000
WORKDIR /site
COPY --from=build /root/site .
COPY ./static /site/static
COPY ./templates /site/templates
COPY ./blog /site/blog
COPY ./talks /site/talks
COPY ./gallery /site/gallery
COPY ./css /site/css
HEALTHCHECK CMD wget --spider http://127.0.0.1:5000/.within/health || exit 1
CMD ./site
```
This fetches the Go compiler from [an image I made][godockerfile], copies the
source code to the image, builds it (in a way that makes the resulting binary a
[static executable][staticbin]), and creates the runtime environment for it.
[godockerfile]: https://github.com/Xe/dockerfiles/blob/master/lang/go/Dockerfile
[staticbin]: https://oddcode.daveamit.com/2018/08/16/statically-compile-golang-binary/
Let's let it build and see how big the result is:
```
$ docker build -t xena/christinewebsite:example1 .
<output omitted>
$ docker images | grep xena
xena/christinewebsite example1 4b8ee64969e8 24 seconds ago 111MB
```
Investigating this image with [dive][dive], we see the following:
[dive]: https://github.com/wagoodman/dive
- The package manager is included in the image
- The package manager's database is included in the image
- An entire copy of the C library is included in the image (even though the
binary was _statically linked_ to specifically avoid this)
- Most of the files in the docker image are unrelated to my website's
functionality and are involved with the normal functioning of Linux systems
Granted, [Alpine Linux][alpine] does a good job at keeping this chaff to a
minimum, but it is still there, still needs to be updated (causing all of my
docker images to be rebuilt and applications to be redeployed) and still takes
up space in transfer quotas and on the disk.
[alpine]: https://alpinelinux.org
Let's compare this to the same build process but done with Nix. My Nix setup is
done in a few phases. First I use [niv][niv] to manage some dependencies a-la
git submodules that don't hate you:
[niv]: https://github.com/nmattia/niv
```
$ nix-shell -p niv
[nix-shel]$ niv init
<writes nix/*>
```
Now I add the tool [vgo2nix][vgo2nix] in niv:
[vgo2nix]: https://github.com/adisbladis/vgo2nix
```
[nix-shell]$ niv add adisbladis/vgo2nix
```
And I can use it in my shell.nix:
```nix
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { };
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
vgo2nix = (import sources.vgo2nix { });
in pkgs.mkShell { buildInputs = [ pkgs.go pkgs.niv vgo2nix ]; }
```
And then relaunch nix-shell with vgo2nix installed and convert my [go modules][gomod]
dependencies to a Nix expression:
[gomod]: https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Modules
```
$ nix-shell
<some work is done to compile things, etc>
[nix-shell]$ vgo2nix
<writes deps.nix>
```
Now that I have this, I can follow the [buildGoPackage
instructions][buildgopackage] from the upstream nixpkgs documentation and create
`site.nix`:
[buildgopackage]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#ssec-go-legacy
```
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
with pkgs;
assert lib.versionAtLeast go.version "1.13";
buildGoPackage rec {
name = "christinewebsite-HEAD";
version = "latest";
goPackagePath = "christine.website";
src = ./.;
goDeps = ./deps.nix;
allowGoReference = false;
preBuild = ''
export CGO_ENABLED=0
buildFlagsArray+=(-pkgdir "$TMPDIR")
'';
postInstall = ''
cp -rf $src/blog $bin/blog
cp -rf $src/css $bin/css
cp -rf $src/gallery $bin/gallery
cp -rf $src/static $bin/static
cp -rf $src/talks $bin/talks
cp -rf $src/templates $bin/templates
'';
}
```
And this will do the following:
- Download all of the needed dependencies and place them in the system-level Nix
store so that they are not downloaded again
- Set the `CGO_ENABLED` environment variable to `0` so the Go compiler emits a
static binary
- Copy all of the needed files to the right places so that the blog, gallery and
talks features can load all of their data
- Depend on nothing other than a working system at runtime
This Nix build manifest doesn't just work on Linux. It works on my mac too. The
dockerfile approach works great for Linux boxes, but (unlike what the me of a
decade ago would have hoped) the whole world just doesn't run Linux on their
desktops. The real world has multiple OSes and Nix allows me to compensate.
So, now that we have a working _cross-platform_ build, let's see how big it
comes out as:
```
$ readlink ./result-bin
/nix/store/ayvafpvn763wwdzwjzvix3mizayyblx5-christinewebsite-HEAD-bin
$ du -hs result-bin/
89M ./result-bin/
$ du -hs result-bin/
11M ./result-bin/bin
888K ./result-bin/blog
40K ./result-bin/css
44K ./result-bin/gallery
77M ./result-bin/static
28K ./result-bin/talks
64K ./result-bin/templates
```
As expected, most of the build results are static assets. I have a lot of larger
static assets including an entire copy of TempleOS, so this isn't too
surprising. Let's compare this to on the mac:
```
$ du -hs result-bin/
91M result-bin/
$ du -hs result-bin/*
14M result-bin/bin
872K result-bin/blog
36K result-bin/css
40K result-bin/gallery
77M result-bin/static
24K result-bin/talks
60K result-bin/templates
```
Which is damn-near identical save some macOS specific crud that Go has to deal
with.
I mentioned this is used for Docker builds, so let's make `docker.nix`:
```nix
{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { inherit system; };
callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith pkgs;
site = callPackage ./site.nix { };
dockerImage = pkg:
pkgs.dockerTools.buildImage {
name = "xena/christinewebsite";
tag = pkg.version;
contents = [ pkg ];
config = {
Cmd = [ "/bin/site" ];
WorkingDir = "/";
};
};
in dockerImage site
```
And then build it:
```
$ nix-build docker.nix
<output omitted>
$ docker load -i result
c6b1d6ce7549: Loading layer [==================================================>] 95.81MB/95.81MB
$ docker images | grep xena
xena/christinewebsite latest 0d1ccd676af8 50 years ago 94.6MB
```
And the output is 16 megabytes smaller.
The image age might look weird at first, but it's part of the reproducibility
Nix offers. The date an image was built is something that can change with time
and is actually a part of the resulting file. This means that an image built one
second after another has a different cryptographic hash. It helpfully pins all
images to Unix timestamp 0, which just happens to be about 50 years ago.
Looking into the image with `dive`, the only packages installed into this image
are:
- The website and all of its static content goodness
- IANA portmaps that Go depends on as part of the [`net`][gonet] package
- The standard list of [MIME types][mimetypes] that the [`net/http`][gonethttp]
package needs
- Time zone data that the [`time`][gotime] package needs
[gonet]: https://godoc.org/net
[gonethttp]: https://godoc.org/net/http
[gotime]: https://godoc.org/time
And that's it. This is _fantastic_. Nearly all of the disk usage has been
eliminated. If someone manages to trick my website into executing code, that
attacker cannot do anything but run more copies of my website (that will
immediately fail and die because the port is already allocated).
This strategy pans out to more complicated projects too. Consider a case where a
frontend and backend need to be built and deployed as a unit. Let's create a new
setup using niv:
```
$ niv init
```
Since we are using [Elm][elm] for this complicated project, let's add the
[elm2nix][elm2nix] tool so that our Elm dependencies have repeatable builds, and
[gruvbox-css][gcss] for some nice simple CSS:
[elm]: https://elm-lang.org
[elm2nix]: https://github.com/cachix/elm2nix
[gcss]: https://github.com/Xe/gruvbox-css
```
$ niv add cachix/elm2nix
$ niv add Xe/gruvbox-css
```
And then add it to our `shell.nix`:
```
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
elm2nix = (import sources.elm2nix { });
in
pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [
pkgs.elmPackages.elm
pkgs.elmPackages.elm-format
elm2nix
];
}
```
And then enter `nix-shell` to create the Elm boilerplate:
```
$ nix-shell
[nix-shell]$ cd frontend
[nix-shell:frontend]$ elm2nix init > default.nix
[nix-shell:frontend]$ elm2nix convert > elm-srcs.nix
[nix-shell:frontend]$ elm2nix snapshot
```
And then we can edit the generated Nix expression:
```
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
gcss = (import sources.gruvbox-css { });
# ...
buildInputs = [ elmPackages.elm gcss ]
++ lib.optional outputJavaScript nodePackages_10_x.uglify-js;
# ...
cp -rf ${gcss}/gruvbox.css $out/public
cp -rf $src/public/* $out/public/
# ...
outputJavaScript = true;
```
And then test it with `nix-build`:
```
$ nix-build
<output omitted>
```
And now create a `name.nix` for your Go service like I did above. The real
magic comes from the `docker.nix` file:
```
{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
let
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { inherit system; };
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
backend = import ./backend.nix { };
frontend = import ./frontend/default.nix { };
in
pkgs.dockerTools.buildImage {
name = "xena/complicatedservice";
tag = "latest";
contents = [ backend frontend ];
config = {
Cmd = [ "/bin/backend" ];
WorkingDir = "/public";
};
};
```
Now both your backend and frontend services are built with the dependencies in
the Nix store and shipped as a repeatable Docker image.
Sometimes it might be useful to ship the dependencies to a service like
[Cachix][cachix] to help speed up builds.
[cachix]: https://cachix.org
You can install the cachix tool like this:
```
$ nix-env -iA cachix -f https://cachix.org/api/v1/install
```
And then follow the steps at [cachix.org][cachix] to create a new binary cache.
Let's assume you made a cache named `teddybear`. When you've created a new
cache, logged in with an API token and created a signing key, you can pipe
nix-build to the Cachix client like so:
```
$ nix-build | cachix push teddybear
```
And other people using that cache will benefit from your premade dependency and
binary downloads.
To use the cache somewhere, install the Cachix client and then run the
following:
```
$ cachix use teddybear
```
I've been able to use my Go, Elm, Rust and Haskell dependencies on other
machines using this. It's saved so much extra download time.
## tl;dr
I was wrong about Nix. It's actually quite good once you get past the
documentation being baroque and hard to read as a beginner. I'm going to try and
do what I can to get the documentation improved.
As far as getting started with Nix, I suggest following these posts:
- Nix Pills: https://nixos.org/nixos/nix-pills/
- Nix Shorts: https://github.com/justinwoo/nix-shorts
- NixOS: For Developers: https://myme.no/posts/2020-01-26-nixos-for-development.html
Also, I really suggest trying stuff as a vehicle to understand how things work.
I got really far by experimenting with getting [this Discord bot I am writing in
Rust][withinbot] working in Nix and have been very pleased with how it's turned
out. I don't need to use `rustup` anymore to manage my Rust compiler or the
language server. With a combination of [direnv][direnv] and [lorri][lorri], I
can avoid needing to set up language servers or the like _at all_. I can define
them as part of the _project environment_ and then trust the tools I build on
top of to take care of that for me.
[withinbot]: https://github.com/Xe/withinbot
[direnv]: https://direnv.net
[lorri]: https://github.com/target/lorri
Give Nix a try. It's worth at least that much in my opinion.

View File

@ -1,93 +0,0 @@
---
title: Instant Pot Spaghetti
date: 2020-02-03
series: recipes
tags:
- instant-pot
---
# Instant Pot Spaghetti
This is based on [this recipe][source], but made only with things you can find
in Costco. My fiancé and I have made this at least weekly for the last 8 months
and we love how it turns out.
[source]: https://kristineskitchenblog.com/instant-pot-spaghetti/
## Recipe
### Ingredients
- 1/2 kg ground beef (pre-cooked, or see section on browning it)
- 3 1/4 cups water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- a small amount of pepper
- 4 heaping teaspoons of garlic
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 kg spaghetti noodles
- 1 jar of pasta sauce (about 870ml)
If you want it to be more spicy, add more pepper. Too much can make it hard to
eat. Only experiment with the pepper amount after you've made this and decided
there's not enough pepper.
### Preparation
Put the ground beef in the instant pot. Put the water in the instant pot. Put
the salt in the instant pot. Put the pepper in the instant pot. Put the garlic
in the instant pot. Put the butter in the instant pot.
Stir for about 30 seconds, or until the garlic looks like it's distributed about
evenly in the pot.
Take the spaghetti noodles and break them in half. Place about a third of one
half one direction, the second third another, and the last yet another. Repeat
this for the other half of the pasta. This helps to not clump it together when
it's cooking.
Look at the package of spaghetti noodles. It should say something like "Ready in
X minutes" with a large number. Take that number and subtract two from it. If
you have a pasta that says it's cooked for 7 minutes, you will cook it for 5
minutes. If you have a pasta that says it's cooked for 9 minutes, you will cook
it for 7 minutes.
Put the lid on the instant pot, seal it and ensure the pressure release valve is
set to "sealing". Hit the "manual" button and select the number you figured out
above.
Leave the instant pot alone for 10 minutes after it is done. This lets the
pressure release naturally.
Use your serving utensil to open the pressure release valve. Stir and wait 3-5
minutes to serve. This makes 5 servings, but could be extended to more if you
carefully ration it.
Serve hot with salt or parmesan cheese.
## Browning Ground Beef
Browing ground beef is the act of cooking it all the way through so it is safe
to eat. It's called "browing" it because the ground beef will turn a grayish
brown when it is fully cooked.
### Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- The ground beef you want to brown
### Preparation
Take the lid off of the instant pot. Cover the bottom of the pan in olive oil.
Sprinkle the salt over the olive oil. Place the ground beef in the instant pot
on top of the olive oil and salt.
Press the "sauté" button on your instant pot and use a spatula to break the
ground beef into smaller chunks while it warms up. Mix the ground beef while it
cooks. The goal is to make sure that all of the red parts turn grayish brown.
This will take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.
If you are using this ground beef for the above spaghetti recipe, you don't need
to remove it from the instant pot. You can store extra ground beef in the fridge
for use later.

View File

@ -20,7 +20,9 @@ img {
}
</style>
<center>
![](/static/img/ios_profiles.png)
</center>
- Go up a level to General
- Select About
@ -28,7 +30,9 @@ img {
- Each root that has been installed via a profile will be listed below the heading Enable Full Trust For Root Certificates
- Users can toggle on/off trust for each root:
<center>
![](/static/img/ios_cert_trust.png)
</center>
Please understand that by doing this, users will potentially be vulnerable to a
[HTTPS man in the middle attack a-la Superfish](https://slate.com/technology/2015/02/lenovo-superfish-scandal-why-its-one-of-the-worst-consumer-computing-screw-ups-ever.html). Please ensure that you have appropriate measures in place to keep the signing key for the CA safe.

View File

@ -1,22 +1,19 @@
---
title: "iPad Smart Keyboard: French Accents/Ligatures"
date: 2019-05-10
series: howto
---
# iPad Smart Keyboard: French Accents/Ligatures
The following is the results of both blind googling and brute forcing the keyboard space. If this is incomplete, please let me know so that can be fixed.
| Accent/Ligature | How to type | Example |
| :-------------- | :---------- | :------ |
| é (acute) | Alt-e | entrée |
| è (grave) | Alt-` | fières |
| ï (umlat) | Alt-u | naïve |
| ç (cedelia) | Alt-c | français |
| œ (oe ligature) | Alt-q | œuf |
| û (circumflex) | Alt-i | hôtel |
| « (left quote) | Alt-\\ | «salut!» |
| » (right quote) | Alt-Shift-\\ | «salut!» |
| Accent/Ligature | How to type | Example |
| :-------------- | :---------- | :------ |
| é (acute) | Alt-e | entrée |
| è (grave) | Alt-` | fières |
| ï (umlat) | Alt-u | naïve |
| ç (cedelia) | Alt-c | français |
| œ (oe ligature) | Alt-q | œuf |
| û (circumflex) | Alt-i | hôtel |
You can also type a forward facing accent on most arbitrary characters by typing it and then pressing Alt-Shift-e. Circumflêxes can be done postfix with Alt-Shift-i too. Thís dóesńt work on every letter, unfortunately. However it does work for enough of them. Not enough for Esperanto's `ĉu` however.

View File

@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
---
title: "IRCv3.2 CHGHOST Extension"
date: "2013-10-04"
---
# IRCv3.2 CHGHOST Extension
The chghost client capability allows a server to directly inform clients about a
host or user change without having to send a fake quit and join. This capability
MUST be referred to as `chghost` at capability negotiation time.
When enabled, clients will get the CHGHOST message to designate the host of a
user changing for clients on common channels with them.
The CHGHOST message is one of the following:
:nick!user@host CHGHOST user new.host.goes.here
This message represents that the user identified by nick!user@host has changed
host to another value. The first parameter is the user of the client. The
second parameter is the new host the client is using.
On irc daemons with support for changing the user portion of a client, the
second form may appear:
:nick!user@host CHGHOST newuser host
If specified, a client may also have their user and host changed at the same
time:
:nick!user@host CHGHOST newuser new.host.goes.here
This second and third form should only be seen on IRC daemons that support
changing the user field of a user.
In order to take full advantage of the CHGHOST message, clients must be modified
to support it. The proper way to do so is this:
1. Enable the chghost capability at capability negotiation time during the
login handshake.
2. Update the user and host portions of data structures and process channel
users as appropriate.
## Examples
In this example, `tim!~toolshed@backyard` gets their username changed to `b` and
their hostname changed to `ckyard`:
:tim!~toolshed@backyard CHGHOST b ckyard
In this example, `tim!b@ckyard` gets their username changed to `~toolshed` and
their hostname changed to `backyard`:
:tim!b@ckyard CHGHOST ~toolshed backyard
## Errata
A previous version of this specification did not include any examples, which made
it unclear as to whether the de-facto `~` prefix should be included on CHGHOST
messages. The new examples make clear that it should be included.

View File

@ -1,391 +0,0 @@
---
title: How I set up an IRC daemon on Kubernetes
date: 2019-12-21
series: howto
tags:
- irc
- kubernetes
---
# How I set up an IRC daemon on Kubernetes
[IRC][rfc1459]. It's one of the last bastions of the old internet, and still an actively developed and researched protocol. Historically, IRC daemons have been notoriously annoying to set up and maintain. I have created an IRC daemon running on top of Kubernetes, which will hopefully help remove a lot of the pain points for my personal usage. Here's how I did it.
[rfc1459]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1459
IRC is a simple protocol and only has a few major moving parts. IRC is made up of networks of servers that federate together as one logical unit. IRC is scalable from networks spanning one server to hundreds (though realistically you're not likely to find more than about 10 servers in a network).
At its core, IRC daemons are a pub-sub protocol that also has a distributed state layer on top of it. TCP connections can either represent individual users or server trunking. Each user has their own state (nickname, ident and "real name"). Users can join channels which can have their own state (modes, topic, timestamp and ban lists). Some servers have a limit of the number of channels you can join.
So, with this in mind, let's start with a simple IRC daemon in a docker container. I chose [ngircd][ngircd] for this because it's packaged in Alpine Linux. Let's create the configuration file ngircd.conf:
[ngircd]: https://ngircd.barton.de/index.php.en
```ini
[Global]
Name = seaworld.yolo-swag.com
AdminInfo1 = ShadowNET Main Server
AdminInfo2 = New York, New York, USA
AdminInfo3 = Cadey Ratio <me@christine.website>
Info = Hosted on Kubernetes!
Listen = 0.0.0.0
MotdFile = /shadownet/motd
Network = ShadowNET
Ports = 6667
ServerGID = 65534
ServerUID = 65534
[Limits]
MaxJoins = 50
MaxNickLength = 31
MaxListSize = 100
PingTimeout = 120
PongTimeout = 20
[Options]
AllowedChannelTypes = #&+
AllowRemoteOper = yes
CloakUserToNick = yes
DNS = no
Ident = no
IncludeDir = /shadownet/secret
MorePrivacy = yes
NoticeBeforeRegistration = yes
OperCanUseMode = yes
OperChanPAutoOp = yes
PAM = no
PAMIsOptional = yes
RequireAuthPing = yes
# WebircPassword is set in secrets
[Channel]
Name = #lobby
Topic = Welcome to the new ShadowNET!
Modes = tn
[Channel]
Name = #help
Topic = Get help with ShadowNET | Ping an oper for help
Modes = tn
[Channel]
Name = #opers
Topic = Oper hideout
Modes = tnO
```
This is mostly based on the default settings in the example configuration file with a few glaring exceptions:
* The server name is `seaworld.yolo-swag.com`, which will show up when users are connecting
* My information is filled out for the admin information (which is shown when a user does /ADMIN in their client)
* It has a lot of privacy-enhancing features set up
* It disables the need to authenticate with PAM before being allowed to connect to the IRC server
* Some default channel names are reserved
So, let's create a dockerfile for this:
```dockerfile
FROM xena/alpine
COPY motd /shadownet/motd
COPY ngircd.conf /shadownet/ngircd.conf
RUN apk --no-cache add ngircd
COPY run.sh /
CMD ["/run.sh"]
```
`motd` is a plain text file that is used as the "message of the day" when users connect. Servers usually list their rules here. My motd has some ascii art and has this extra info:
```
The *new* irc.yolo-swag.com!
Connect on irc.within.website port 6667 or r4qrvdln2nvqyfbq.onion:6667
Rules:
- Don't do things that make me have to write more rules here
- This rule makes you breathe manually
```
Now you can build and push this image to the [docker hub][shadownetircd].
[shadownetircd]: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/shadownet/ircd
You may have noticed earlier that a comment in the config file mentioned [webirc][webirc]. This is important for us because IRC server normally assume that the remote host information in socket calls is accurate. My Kubernetes setup has at least one level of TCP proxying at work, so this cannot pan out. Webirc offers an authenticated mechanism to let a proxy server lie about user IP addresses. My nginx-ingress setup uses the [haproxy PROXY protocol][haproxyproxy] to let underlying services know client IP addresses. So what we need is an adaptor from haproxy PROXY protocol to webirc. I hacked one up:
[haproxyproxy]: https://www.haproxy.com/blog/haproxy/proxy-protocol/
```go
package main
import (
"crypto/md5"
"flag"
"fmt"
"io"
"log"
"net"
"strings"
"github.com/armon/go-proxyproto"
"github.com/facebookgo/flagenv"
_ "github.com/joho/godotenv/autoload"
irc "gopkg.in/irc.v3"
)
var (
webircPassword = flag.String("webirc-password", "", "the password for WEBIRC")
webircIdent = flag.String("webirc-ident", "snet", "the ident for WEBIRC")
webircHost = flag.String("webirc-host", "", "the host to connect to for WEBIRC")
port = flag.String("port", "5667", "port to listen on for PROXY traffic")
)
func main() {
flagenv.Parse()
flag.Parse()
list, err := net.Listen("tcp", ":"+*port)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
log.Printf("now listening on port %s, forwarding traffic to %s", *port, *webircHost)
proxyList := &proxyproto.Listener{Listener: list}
for {
conn, err := proxyList.Accept()
if err != nil {
log.Println(err)
continue
}
go dataTo(conn)
}
}
func dataTo(conn net.Conn) {
defer conn.Close()
ip, _, err := net.SplitHostPort(conn.RemoteAddr().String())
if err != nil {
log.Printf("what, can't split remote address: %v", err)
ev := irc.Message{
Command: "QUIT",
Params: []string{
"***",
err.Error(),
},
}
fmt.Fprintln(conn, ev.String())
return
}
peer, err := net.Dial("tcp", *webircHost)
if err != nil {
log.Println(*webircHost, err)
}
defer peer.Close()
spip := strings.Split(ip, ".")
hostname := strings.Join([]string{
"snet",
Hash("snet", spip[0])[:8],
Hash("snet", spip[0] + spip[1])[:8],
Hash("snet", spip[0] + spip[1] + spip[2] + spip[3])[:8],
}, ".")
ev := irc.Message{
Command: "WEBIRC",
Params: []string{
*webircPassword,
*webircIdent,
ip,
hostname,
},
}
log.Println(ev.String())
fmt.Fprintf(peer, "%s\r\n", ev.String())
go io.Copy(conn, peer)
io.Copy(peer, conn)
}
// Hash is a simple wrapper around the MD5 algorithm implementation in the
// Go standard library. It takes in data and a salt and returns the hashed
// representation.
func Hash(data string, salt string) string {
output := md5.Sum([]byte(data + salt))
return fmt.Sprintf("%x", output)
}
```
This proxies connections from incoming TCP sockets to the IRC server. It also creates a fancy hostname for ngircd to use when people do a /whois on users. ngircd does have its own cloaking mechanism (which I am not using here), but I figure doing the splitting on IP address classes will make a more easy way to reliably ban users from channels.
Now, let's build this as a docker image and push it to the [docker hub][proxy2webirc]:
[proxy2webirc]: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/shadownet/proxy2webirc
```dockerfile
FROM xena/go:1.13.5 AS build
WORKDIR /shadownet
COPY go.mod .
COPY go.sum .
ENV GOPROXY https://cache.greedo.xeserv.us
RUN go mod download
COPY cmd ./cmd
RUN GOBIN=/shadownet/bin go install ./cmd/proxy2webirc
FROM xena/alpine
COPY --from=build /shadownet/bin/proxy2webirc /usr/local/bin/proxy2webirc
CMD ["/usr/local/bin/proxy2webirc"]
```
And now we get to wire this all up in a kubernetes manifest. Let's create a namespace:
```yaml
# 00_namespace.yml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
name: ircd
```
And now we need to create the secrets that the IRC daemon will use when operating. We need the webirc password and a few operator blocks. Let's make a script to create operator blocks:
```sh
#!/bin/sh
# scripts/makeoper.sh
echo "[Operator]
Name = $1
Password = $(uuidgen)"
```
Then let's use it to create a few operator configs:
```console
$ scripts/makeoper.sh Cadey >> opers.conf
$ scripts/makeoper.sh h >> opers.conf
```
And then create the webirc password:
```console
$ echo "[Options]
WebircPassword = $(uuidgen)" >> webirc.conf
```
And then let's load these into a yaml file:
```yaml
# 01_secrets.yml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: config
namespace: ircd
type: Opaque
stringData:
opers.conf: |
<contents of opers.conf>
webirc.conf: |
<contents of webirc.conf>
```
Now all we need is the irc daemon deployment itself that ties this all together:
```yaml
# 02_ircd.yml
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: ircd
namespace: ircd
labels:
app: ircd
spec:
replicas: 1
template:
metadata:
name: ircd
labels:
app: ircd
spec:
containers:
- name: proxystrip
image: shadownet/proxy2webirc:latest
imagePullPolicy: Always
ports:
- containerPort: 5667
name: proxiedirc
protocol: TCP
env:
- name: WEBIRC_HOST
value: 127.0.0.1:6667
- name: WEBIRC_PASSWORD
value: <password from webirc.conf>
- name: ircd
image: shadownet/ircd:latest
imagePullPolicy: Always
volumeMounts:
- name: secretconfig
mountPath: "/shadownet/secret"
restartPolicy: Always
volumes:
- name: secretconfig
secret:
secretName: config
selector:
matchLabels:
app: ircd
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
name: ircd
namespace: ircd
labels:
app: ircd
spec:
ports:
- port: 6667
targetPort: 5667
protocol: TCP
selector:
app: ircd
type: NodePort
```
This will set up our IRC daemon to read the secrets from the filesystem at `/shadownet/secret`, which was configured as the `IncludeDir` in the ngircd config above.
At this point, your IRC daemon is ready to go and can be applied to your cluster whenever you want, however it may be interesting to set up a tor onion address for the IRC server. Using the [tor operator][toroperator], we can create a private key locally, load it as a kubernetes secret and then activate the tor hidden service:
[toroperator]: https://github.com/kragniz/tor-controller
```console
$ openssl genrsa -out private_key 1024
$ kubectl create secret -n ircd generic ircd-tor-key --from-file=private_key
```
Now apply this manifest:
```yaml
# 03_onion.yml
apiVersion: tor.k8s.io/v1alpha1
kind: OnionService
metadata:
name: ircd
spec:
version: 2
selector:
app: ircd
ports:
- targetPort: 6667
publicPort: 6667
privateKeySecret:
name: ircd-tor-key
key: private_key
```
Now, you should be able to let users connect to your IRC server to their heart's content. If you want to join the IRC server I've set up, point your IRC client at `irc.within.website`. I'll be in `#lobby`.

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@ -1,160 +0,0 @@
---
title: Kubernetes Pondering
date: 2020-12-31
tags:
- k8s
- kubernetes
- soyoustart
- kimsufi
- digitalocean
- vultr
---
# Kubernetes Pondering
Right now I am using a freight train to mail a letter when it comes to hosting
my web applications. If you are reading this post on the day it comes out, then
you are connected to one of a few replicas of my site code running across at
least 3 machines in my Kubernetes cluster. This certainly _works_, however it is
not very ergonomic and ends up being quite expensive.
I think I made a mistake when I decided to put my cards into Kubernetes for my
personal setup. It made sense at the time (I was trying to learn Kubernetes and
I am cursed into learning by doing), however I don't think it is really the best
choice available for my needs. I am not a large company. I am a single person
making things that are really targeted for myself. I would like to replace this
setup with something more at my scale. Here are a few options I have been
exploring combined with their pros and cons.
Here are the services I currently host on my Kubernetes cluster:
- [this site](/)
- [my git server](https://tulpa.dev)
- [hlang](https://h.christine.website)
- A few personal services that I've been meaning to consolidate
- The [olin demo](https://olin.within.website/)
- The venerable [printer facts server](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club)
- A few static websites
- An IRC server (`irc.within.website`)
My goal in evaluating other options is to reduce cost and complexity. Kubernetes
is a very complicated system and requires a lot of hand-holding and rejiggering
to make it do what you want. NixOS, on the other hand, is a lot simpler overall
and I would like to use it for running my services where I can.
Cost is a huge factor in this. My Kubernetes setup is a money pit. I want to
prioritize cost reduction as much as possible.
## Option 1: Do Nothing
I could do nothing about this and eat the complexity as a cost of having this
website and those other services online. However over the year or so I've been
using Kubernetes I've had to do a lot of hacking at it to get it to do what I
want.
I set up the cluster using Terraform and Helm 2. Helm 3 is the current
(backwards-incompatible) release, and all of the things that are managed by Helm
2 have resisted being upgraded to Helm 3.
I'm going to say something slightly controversial here, but YAML is a HORRIBLE
format for configuration. I can't trust myself to write unambiguous YAML. I have
to reference the spec constantly to make sure I don't have an accidental
Norway/Ontario bug. I have a Dhall package that takes away most of the pain,
however it's not flexible enough to describe the entire scope of what my
services need to do (IE: pinging Google/Bing to update their indexes on each
deploy), and I don't feel like putting in the time to make it that flexible.
[This is the regex for determining what is a valid boolean value in YAML:
`y|Y|yes|Yes|YES|n|N|no|No|NO|true|True|TRUE|false|False|FALSE|on|On|ON|off|Off|OFF`.
This can bite you eventually. See the <a
href="https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/">Norway
Problem</a> for more information.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
I have a tor hidden service endpoint for a few of my services. I have to use an
[unmaintained tool](https://github.com/kragniz/tor-controller) to manage these
on Kubernetes. It works _today_, but the Kubernetes operator API could change at
any time (or the API this uses could be deprecated and removed without much
warning) and leave me in the dust.
I could live with all of this, however I don't really think it's the best idea
going forward. There's a bunch of services that I added on top of Kubernetes
that are dangerous to upgrade and very difficult (if not impossible) to
downgrade when something goes wrong during the upgrade.
One of the big things that I have with this setup that I would have to rebuild
in NixOS is the continuous deployment setup. However I've done that before and
it wouldn't really be that much of an issue to do it again.
NixOS fixes all the jank I mentioned above by making my specifications not have
to include the version numbers of everything the system already provides. You
can _actually trust the package repos to have up to date packages_. I don't
have to go around and bump the versions of shims and pray they work, because
with NixOS I don't need them anymore.
## Option 2: NixOS on top of SoYouStart or Kimsufi
This is a doable option. The main problem here would be doing the provision
step. SoYouStart and Kimsufi (both are offshoot/discount brands of OVH) have
very little in terms of customization of machine config. They work best when you
are using "normal" distributions like Ubuntu or CentOS and leave them be. I
would want to run NixOS on it and would have to do several trial and error runs
with a tool such as [nixos-infect](https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect) to
assimilate the server into running NixOS.
With this option I would get the most storage out of any other option by far. 4
TB is a _lot_ of space. However, SoYouStart and Kimsufi run decade-old hardware
at best. I would end up paying a lot for very little in the CPU department. For
most things I am sure this would be fine, however some of my services can have
CPU needs that might exceed what second-generation Xeons can provide.
SoYouStart and Kimsufi have weird kernel versions though. The last SoYouStart
dedi I used ran Fedora and was gimped with a grsec kernel by default. I had to
end up writing [this gem of a systemd service on
boot](https://github.com/Xe/dotfiles/blob/master/ansible/roles/soyoustart/files/conditional-kexec.sh)
which did a [`kexec`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kexec) to boot into a
non-gimped kernel on boot. It was a huge hack and somehow worked every time. I
was still afraid to reboot the machine though.
Sure is a lot of ram for the cost though.
## Option 3: NixOS on top of Digital Ocean
This shares most of the problems as the SoYouStart or Kimsufi nodes. However,
nixos-infect is known to have a higher success rate on Digital Ocean droplets.
It would be really nice if Digital Ocean let you upload arbitrary ISO files and
go from there, but that is apparently not the world we live in.
8 GB of ram would be _way more than enough_ for what I am doing with these
services.
## Option 4: NixOS on top of Vultr
Vultr is probably my top pick for this. You can upload an arbitrary ISO file,
kick off your VPS from it and install it like normal. I have a little shell
server shared between some friends built on top of such a Vultr node. It works
beautifully.
The fact that it has the same cost as the Digital Ocean droplet just adds to the
perfection of this option.
## Costs
Here is the cost table I've drawn up while comparing these options:
| Option | Ram | Disk | Cost per month | Hacks |
| :--------- | :----------------- | :------------------------------------ | :-------------- | :----------- |
| Do nothing | 6 GB (4 GB usable) | Not really usable, volumes cost extra | $60/month | Very Yes |
| SoYouStart | 32 GB | 2x2TB SAS | $40/month | Yes |
| Kimsufi | 32 GB | 2x2TB SAS | $35/month | Yes |
| Digital Ocean | 8 GB | 160 GB SSD | $40/month | On provision |
| Vultr | 8 GB | 160 GB SSD | $40/month | No |
I think I am going to go with the Vultr option. I will need to modernize some of
my services to support being deployed in NixOS in order to do this, however I
think that I will end up creating a more robust setup in the process. At least I
will create a setup that allows me to more easily maintain my own backups rather
than just relying on DigitalOcean snapshots and praying like I do with the
Kubernetes setup.
Thanks farcaller, Marbles, John Rinehart and others for reviewing this post
prior to it being published.

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@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
---
title: kalama pali pi kulupu Kala
date: 2020-10-12
tags:
- 100DaysToOffload
---
# kalama pali pi kulupu Kala
I've wanted to write a novel for a while, and I think I've finally got a solid
idea for it. I want to write about the good guys winning against an oppressive
system. I've been letting the ideas and thoughts marinate in my heart for a long
time; these short stories are how I am exploring the world and other related
concepts. I want to use language as a tool in this world. So here is my take on
a creation myth for the main species of this world, the Kala (the title of this
post roughly translates to "creation story of the Kala").
This is day 2 of my 100 days to offload.
---
In the beginning, the gods roamed the skies. Pali, Sona and Soweli talked and
talked about their plans.
tenpo wan la sewi li lon e sewi. sewi Pali en sewi Sona en sewi Soweli li toki.
Soweli went down to the world Pali had created. Animals of all kinds followed
them as Soweli moved about the earth.
sewi Soweli li tawa e sike. soweli li kama e sike.
Sona followed and went towards the whales. Sona took a liking to how graceful
they were in the water, and decided to have them be the arbiters of knowledge.
Sona also reshaped them to look like the gods did. The Kala people resulted.
sewi Sona li tawa e soweli sike. sewi Sona li tawa e kala suli. sewi Sona li
lukin li pona e kala suli. sewi Sona li pana e sona e kon tawa kala suli. sewi
Sona li pali e jan kama kala suli. kulupu Kala li lon.
Pali had created the entire world, so Pali fell into a deep slumber in the
ocean.
tenpo pini la sewi Pali li pali e sike. sewi Pali li lape lon telo suli.
Soweli had created all of the animals on the whole world, so Soweli fell asleep
in Soweli mountain.
tenpo pini la sewi Soweli li pali e soweli ale. sewi Soweli li lape e nena Soweli.
Sona lifted themselves into the skies to watch the Kala from above. Sona keeps
an eye on us to make sure we are using their gift responsibly.
sewi Sona li tawa e sewi. sewi Sona li lukin e kulupu Kala. kulupu Kala li jo
sona li jo toki. kulupu Kala li pona e sewi Sona.

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@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
---
title: "Land 1: Syscalls & File I/O"
date: 2018-06-18
series: olin
tags:
- wasm
---
# Land 1: Syscalls & File I/O

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@ -2,8 +2,6 @@
title: Let it Snow
date: 2018-12-17
for: the lols
tags:
- fluff
---
# Let it Snow

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@ -2,8 +2,6 @@
title: "Life Update - Montréal"
date: "2019-05-16"
for: "Vic"
tags:
- personal
---
# Life Update - Montréal

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@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
---
title: "Introducing ln: The Natural Logging Library"
date: 2019-06-04
---
# Introducing ln: The Natural Logging Library
Logging is a very annoyingly complicated topic in programming. Sometimes you log too much and your log servers run out of space or need to only have a week's retention. Sometimes you log too little and are left recreating things from scratch when support tickets come in. Sometimes this means you need to go recreate the problem using your logging infrastructure to get the same error patterns.
Basically it's a mess. A lot of the popular Go libraries around it are [zero-allocation nanosecond scale](https://christine.website/blog/experimental-rilkef-2018-11-30) things that offer a lot of flexibility and speed, but ultimately make this entire endeavor painful more than it needs to be. None of them also seem to offer contextual storage of key->value fields. This means you have to pass a partially constructed logger around instead of the global one Just Doing The Right Thing.
So let's talk about my solution for this called [`ln`](https://github.com/Xe/ln), the [natural logging library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_logarithm). `ln` is based on the idea of structured logging. `ln` uses key->value pairs like this:
```
// F ields for logging
f := ln.F{
"azure_diamond": "hunter2",
"meme_source": "http://bash.org/?244321",
}
ln.Log(ctx, f)
```
and this prints something like:
```
time="2009-11-10T23:00:00Z" azure_diamond=hunter2 meme_source="http://bash.org/?244321"
```
Simple, right?
You can also put a MUTABLE key->value F into a context:
```
func main() {
ctx := context.Background()
f := ln.F{
"azure_diamond": "hunter2",
"meme_source": "http://bash.org/?244321",
}
ctx = ln.WithF(ctx, f)
doSomethingElse(ctx)
ln.Log(ctx)
}
func doSomethingElse(ctx context.Context) {
ln.WithF(ctx, ln.F{
"hi": "mom",
})
}
```
And this [yields](https://play.golang.org/p/0-3-qPA7d6Y):
```
time="2009-11-10T23:00:00Z" azure_diamond=hunter2 meme_source="http://bash.org/?244321" hi=mom
```
---
This blogpost was converted from [this tweetstorm](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1129917083364597760).

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@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
---
title: "ln - The Natural Log Function"
date: 2020-10-17
tags:
- golang
- go
---
# ln - The Natural Log Function
One of the most essential things in software is a good interface for logging
data to places. Logging is a surprisingly hard problem and there are many
approaches to doing it. This time, we're going to talk about my favorite logging
library in Go that uses my favorite function I've ever written in Go.
Today we're talking about [ln](https://github.com/Xe/ln), the natural log
function. ln works with key value pairs and logs them to somewhere. By default
it logs things to standard out. Here is how you use it:
```go
package main
import (
"context"
"within.website/ln"
)
func main() {
ctx := context.Background()
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Fmt("hello %s", "world"), ln.F{"demo": "usage"})
}
```
ln works with key value pairs called [F](https://godoc.org/within.website/ln#F).
This type allows you to log just about _anything_ you want, including custom
data types with an [Fer](https://godoc.org/within.website/ln#Fer). This will let
you annotate your data types so that you can automatically extract the important
information into your logs while automatically filtering out passwords or other
secret data. Here's an example:
```go
type User struct {
ID int
Username string
Password []byte
}
func (u User) F() ln.F {
return ln.F{
"user_id": u.ID,
"user_name": u.Username,
}
}
```
Then if you create that user somehow, you can log the ID and username without
logging the password on accident:
```go
var theDude User = abides()
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Info("created new user"), theDude)
```
This will create a log line that looks something like this:
```
level=info msg="created new user" user_name="The Dude" user_id=1337
```
[You can also put values in contexts! See <a
href="https://github.com/Xe/ln/blob/master/ex/http.go#L21">here</a> for more
detail on how this works.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
The way this is all glued together is that F itself is an Fer, meaning that the
Log/Error functions take a variadic set of Fers. This is where my favorite Go
function comes into play, it is the implementation of the Fer interface for F.
Here is that function verbatim:
```go
// F makes F an Fer
func (f F) F() F {
return f
}
```
I love how this function looks like some kind of abstract art. This function
holds this library together.
If you end up using ln for your projects in the future, please let me know what
your experience is like. I would love to make this library the best it can
possibly be. It is not a nanosecond scale zero allocation library (I think those
kind of things are a bit of a waste of time, because most of the time your
logging library is NOT going to be your bottleneck), but it is designed to have
very usable defaults and solve the problem good enough that you shouldn't need
to care. There are a few useful tools in the
[ex](https://godoc.org/within.website/ln/ex) package nested in ln. The biggest
thing is the HTTP middleware, which has saved me a lot of effort when writing
web services in Go.

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@ -2,11 +2,6 @@
title: Introducing Lokahi
date: 2018-02-08
github_issue: https://github.com/Xe/lokahi/issues/15
tags:
- hackweek
- release
- go
- monitoring
---
# Introducing Lokahi

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@ -1,373 +0,0 @@
---
title: "mapatei"
date: "2019-09-22"
series: conlangs
tags:
- mapatei
- protolang
---
# mapatei
I've been working on a project in the [Conlang Critic][conlangcritic] Discord with some friends for a while now, and I'd like to summarize what we've been doing and why here. We've been working on creating a constructed language (conlang) with the end goal of each of us going off and evolving it in our own separate ways. Our goal in this project is really to create a microcosm of the natural process of language development.
## Why
One of the questions you, as the reader, might be asking is "why?" To which I say "why not?" This is a tool I use to define, explore and challenge my fundamental understanding of reality. I don't expect anything I do with this tool to be useful to anyone other than myself. I just want to create something by throwing things at the wall and seeing what makes sense for _me_. If other people like it or end up benefitting from it I consider that icing on the cake.
A language is a surprisingly complicated thing. There's lots of nuance and culture encoded into it, not even counting things like metaphors and double-meanings. Creating my own languages lets me break that complicated thing into its component parts, then use that understanding to help increase my knowledge of natural languages.
So, like I mentioned earlier, I've been working on a conlang with some friends, and here's what we've been creating.
## mapatei grammar
mapatei is the language spoken by a primitive culture of people we call maparaja (people of the language). It is designed to be very simple to understand, speak and learn.
### Phonology
The phonology of mapltapei is simple. It has 5 vowels and 17 consonants. The sounds are written mainly in [International Phonetic Alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet).
#### Vowels
The vowels are:
| International Phonetic Alphabet | Written as | Description / Bad Transcription for English speakers |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| a | a | unstressed "ah" |
| aː | ā | stressed "AH" |
| e | e | unstressed "ayy" |
| eː | ē | stressed "AYY" |
| i | i | unstressed "ee" |
| iː | ī | stressed "EE" |
| o | o | unstressed "oh" |
| oː | ō | stressed "OH" |
| u | u | unstressed "ooh" |
| uː | ū | stressed "OOH" |
The long vowels (anything with the funny looking bar/macron on top of them) also mark for stress, or how "intensely" they are spoken.
#### Consonants
The consonants are:
| International Phonetic Alphabet | Written as | Description / Bad Transcription for English speakers |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| m | m | the m in mother |
| n | n | the n in money |
| ᵐb | mb | a combination of the m in mother and the b in baker |
| ⁿd | nd | as in handle |
| ᵑg | ng | as in finger |
| p | p | the p in spool |
| t | t | the t in stool |
| k | k | the k in school |
| pʰ | ph | the ph in pool |
| tʰ | th | the th in tool |
| kʰ | kh | the kh in cool |
| ɸ~f | f | the f in father |
| s | s | the s in sock |
| w | w | the w in water |
| l | l | the l in lie |
| j | j or y | the y in young |
| r~ɾ | r | the r in rhombus |
### Word Structure
The structure of words is based on syllables. Syllables are formed of a pair of maybe a consonant and always a vowel. There can be up to two consecutive vowels in a word, but each vowel gets its own syllable. If a word is stressed, it can only ever be stressed on the first syllable.
Here are some examples of words and their meanings (the periods in the words mark the barriers between syllables):
| mapatei word | Intentional Phonetic Alphabet | Meaning |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| ondoko | o.ⁿdo.ko | pig |
| māo | maː.o | cat |
| ameme | a.me.me | to kill/murder |
| ero | e.ro | can, to be able to |
| ngōe | ᵑgoː.e | I/me |
| ke | ke | cold |
| ku | ku | fast |
There are only a few parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, determiners, numerals, prepositions and interjections.
### Nouns
Nouns describe things, people, animals, animate objects (such as plants or body parts) and abstract concepts (such as days). Nouns in mapatei are divided into four classes (this is similar to how languages like French handle the concept of grammatical gender): human, animal, animate and inanimate.
Here are some examples of a few nouns, their meaning and their noun class:
| mapatei word | International Phonetic Alphabet | Class | Meaning |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| okha | o.kʰa | human | female human, woman |
| awu | a.wu | animal | dog |
| fōmbu | (ɸ~f)oː.ᵐbu | animate | name |
| ipai | i.pa.i | inanimate | salt |
Nouns can also be singular or plural. Plural nouns are marked with the -ja suffix. See some examples:
| singular mapatei word | plural mapatei word | International Phonetic Alphabet | Meaning |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| ra | raja | ra.ja | person / people |
| meko | mekoja | me.ko.ja | ant / ants |
| kindu | kinduja | kiː.ⁿdu.ja | liver / livers |
| fīfo | fīfoja | (ɸ~f)iː.(ɸ~f)o.ja | moon / moons |
### Pronouns
Pronouns are nouns that replaces a noun or noun phrase with a special meaning. Examples of pronouns in English are words like I, me, or you. This is to avoid duplication of people's names or the identity of the speaker vs the listener.
| Pronouns | singular | plural | Rough English equivalent |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1st person | ngōe | tha | I/me, we |
| 2nd person | sīto | khē | you, y'all |
| 3rd person human | rā | foli | he/she, they |
| 3rd person animal | mi | wāto | they |
| 3rd person animate | sa | wāto | they |
| 3rd person inanimate | li | wāto | they |
### Verbs
Verbs describe actions, existence or occurrence. Verbs in mapatei are conjugated in terms of tense (or when the thing being described has/will happen/ed in relation to saying the sentence) and the number of the subject of the sentence.
Verb endings:
| Verbs | singular | plural |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| past | -fu | -phi |
| present | | -ja |
| future | māu $verb | māu $verb-ja |
For example, consider the verb ōwo (oː.wo) for to love:
| ōwo - to love | singular | plural |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| past | ōwofu | ōwophi |
| present | ōwo | ōwoja |
| future | māu ōwo | māu ōwoja |
### Determiners
Determiners are words that can function both as adjectives and adverbs in English do. A determiner gives more detail or context about a noun/verb. Determiners follow the things they describe, like French or Toki Pona. Determiners must agree with the noun they are describing in class and number.
| Determiners | singular | plural |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| human | -ra | -fo |
| animal | -mi | -wa |
| animate | -sa | -to |
| inanimate | -li | -wato |
See these examples:
a big human: ra sura
moving cats: māoja wuwa
a short name: fōmbu uwiisa
long days: lundoseja khāngandiwato
Also consider the declensions for uri (u.ri), or dull
| uri | singular | plural |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| human | urira | urifo |
| animal | urimi | uriwa |
| animate | urisa | urito |
| inanimate | urili | uriwato |
### Numerals
There are two kinds of numerals in mapltatei, cardinal (counting) and ordinal (ordering) numbers. Numerals are always in [seximal](<https://www.seximal.net>).
| cardinal (base 6) | mapatei |
| :--- | :--- |
| 0 | fangu |
| 1 | āre |
| 2 | mawo |
| 3 | piru |
| 4 | kīfe |
| 5 | tamu |
| 10 | rupe |
| 11 | rupe jo āre |
| 12 | rupe jo mawo |
| 13 | rupe jo piru |
| 14 | rupe jo kīfe |
| 15 | rupe jo tamu |
| 20 | mawo rupe |
| 30 | piru rupe |
| 40 | kīfe rupe |
| 50 | tamu rupe |
| 100 | theli |
Ordinal numbers are formed by reduplicating (or copying) the first syllable of cardinal numbers and decline similarly for case. Remember that only the first syllable can be stressed, so any reduplicated syllable must become unstressed.
| ordinal (base 6) | mapatei |
| :--- | :--- |
| 0th | fangufa |
| 1st | ārea |
| 2nd | mawoma |
| 3rd | pirupi |
| 4th | kīfeki |
| 5th | tamuta |
| 10th | ruperu |
| 11th | ruperu jo ārea |
| 12th | ruperu jo mawoma |
| 13th | ruperu jo pirupi |
| 14th | ruperu jo kīfeki |
| 15th | ruperu jo tamuki |
| 20th | mawoma ruperu |
| 30th | pirupi ruperu |
| 40th | kīfeki ruperu |
| 50th | tamuta ruperu |
| 100th | thelithe |
Cardinal numbers are optionally declined for case when used as determiners with the following rules:
| Numeral Class | suffix |
| :--- | :--- |
| human | -ra |
| animal | -mi |
| animate | -sa |
| inanimate | -li |
Numeral declension always happens last, so the inanimate nifth (seximal 100 or decimal 36) is thelitheli.
Here's a few examples:
three pigs: ondoko pirumi
the second person: ra mawomara
one tree: kho āremi
the nifth day: lundose thelitheli
### Prepositions
Prepositions mark any other details about a sentence. In essence, they add information to verbs that would otherwise lack that information.
fa: with, adds an auxiliary possession to a sentence
ri: possession, sometimes indicates ownership
I eat with my wife: wā ngōe fa epi ri ngōe
ngi: the following phrase is on top of the thing being described
ka: then (effect)
ēsa: if/whether
If I set this dog on the rock, then the house is good: ēsa adunga ngōe pā āwu ngi, ka iri sare eserili
### Interjections
Interjections have the following meanings:
Usually they act like vocatives and have free word order. As a determiner they change meta-properties about the noun/verb like negation.
wo: no, not
| English | mapatei |
| :--- | :--- |
| No! Don't eat that! | wo! wā wo ūto |
| I don't eat ants | wā wo ngōe mekoja |
### Word Order
mapltapei has a VSO word order for sentences. This means that the verb comes first, followed by the subject, and then the object.
| English | mapatei | gloss |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| the/a child runs | kepheku rako | kepheku.VERB rako.NOUN.human |
| The child gave the fish a flower | indofu rako ora āsu | indo.VERB.past rako.NOUN.human ora.NOUN.animal āsu.NOUN.animate |
| I love you | ōwo ngōe sīto | ōwo.VERB ngōe.PRN sīto.PRN |
| I do not want to eat right now | wā wo ngōe oko mbeli | wā.VERB wo.INTERJ ngōe.PRN oko.PREP mbeli.DET.singular.inanimate |
| I have a lot of love, and I'm happy about it | urii ngōe erua fomboewato, jo iri ngōe phajera lo li | urii.VERB ngōe.PRN eruaja.NOUN.plural.inanimate fomboewato.DET.plural.inanimate, jo.CONJ iri.VERB ngōe.PRN phajera.DET.singular.human lo.PREP li.PRN |
| The tree I saw yesterday is gone now | pōkhufu kho ngōe, oko iri māndosa mbe | pōkhu.VERB.past kho.NOUN.animate ngōe.PRM, oko.PREP iri.VERB māndo.DET.animate mbe.PRN |
## Code
As I mentioned earlier, I've been working on some code [here](<https://github.com/Xe/mapatei/tree/master/src/mapatei>) to handle things like making sure words are valid. This includes a word validator which I am very happy with.
Words are made up of syllables, which are made up of letters. In code:
```
type
  Letter* = object of RootObj
    case isVowel*: bool
    of true:
      stressed*: bool
    of false: discard
    value*: string
  Syllable* = object of RootObj
    consonant*: Option[Letter]
    vowel*: Letter
    stressed*: bool
  Word* = ref object
    syllables*: seq[Syllable]
```
Letters are parsed out of strings using [this code](<https://github.com/Xe/mapatei/blob/92a429fa9a509af5df5b55810bda03061f21475c/src/mapatei/letters.nim#L35-L89>). It's an interator, so users have to manually loop over it:
```
import unittest
import mapatei/letters
let words = ["pirumi", "kho", "lundose", "thelitheli", "fōmbu"]
suite "Letter":
  for word in words:
    test word:
      for l in word.letters:
       discard l
```
This test loops over the given words (taken from the dictionary and enlightening test cases) and makes sure that letters can be parsed out of them.
Next, syllables are made out of letters, so syllables are parsed using a [finite state machine](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine>) with the following transition rules:
| Present state | Next state for vowel | Next state for consonant | Next state for end of input |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Init | Vowel/stressed | Consonant | Illegal |
| Consonant | Vowel/stressed | End | Illegal |
| Vowel | End | End | End |
Some other hacking was done [in the code](<https://github.com/Xe/mapatei/blob/92a429fa9a509af5df5b55810bda03061f21475c/src/mapatei/syllable.nim#L36-L76>), but otherwise it is a fairly literal translation of that truth table.
And finally we can check to make sure that each word only has a head-initial stressed syllable:
```
type InvalidWord* = object of Exception
proc parse*(word: string): Word =
  var first = true
  result = Word()
  for syll in word.syllables:
    if not first and syll.stressed:
      raise newException(InvalidWord, "cannot have a stressed syllable here")
    if first:
      first = false
    result.syllables.add syll
```
And that's enough to validate every word in the [dictionary](<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HSGS8J8IsRzU0e8hyujGO5489CMzmHPZSBbNCtOJUAg>). Future extensions will include automatic conjugation/declension as well as going from a stream of words to an understanding of sentences.
## Useful Resources Used During This
Creating a language from scratch is surprisingly hard work. These resources helped me a lot though.
- [Polyglot](https://draquet.github.io/PolyGlot/) to help with dictionary management
- [Awkwords](http://akana.conlang.org/tools/awkwords/) to help with word creation
- These lists of core concepts: [list 1](https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/4571123) and [list 2](https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/4664475)
- The conlang critic [discord](https://discord.gg/AxEmeDa)
---
Thanks for reading this! I hope this blogpost helps to kick off mapatei development into unique and more fleshed out derivative conlangs. Have fun!
Special thanks to jan Misali for encouraging this to happen.
[conlangcritic]: https://www.youtube.com/user/HBMmaster8472

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@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Mara: Sh0rk of Justice: Version 1.0.0 Released"
date: 2020-12-28
tags:
- gameboy
- gbstudio
- indiedev
---
# Mara: Sh0rk of Justice: Version 1.0.0 Released
Over the long weekend I found out about a program called [GB Studio](https://www.gbstudio.dev).
It's a simple drag-and-drop interface that you can use to make homebrew games for the
[Nintendo Game Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy). I was intrigued and I had
some time, so I set out to make a little top-down adventure game. After a few days of
tinkering I came up with an idea and created Mara: Sh0rk of Justice.
[You made a game about me? :D](conversation://Mara/hacker)
> Guide Mara through the spooky dungeon in order to find all of its secrets. Seek out
> the secrets of the spooks! Defeat the evil mage! Solve the puzzles! Find the items
> of power! It's up you to save us all, Mara!
You can play it in an `<iframe>` on itch.io!
<iframe frameborder="0" src="https://itch.io/embed/866982?dark=true" width="552" height="167"><a href="https://withinstudios.itch.io/mara-sh0rk-justice">Mara: Sh0rk of Justice by Within</a></iframe>
## Things I Learned
Game development is hard. Even with tools that help you do it, there's a limit to how
much you can get done at once. Everything links together. You really need to test
things both in isolation and as a cohesive whole.
I cannot compose music to save my life. I used free-to-use music assets from the
[GB Studio Community Assets](https://github.com/DeerTears/GB-Studio-Community-Assets)
pack to make this game. I think I managed to get everything acceptable.
GB Studio is rather inflexible. It feels like it's there to really help you get
started from a template. Even though you can make the whole game from inside GB
Studio, I probably should have ejected the engine to source code so I could
customize some things like the jump button being weird in platforming sections.
Pixel art is an art of its own. I used a lot of free to use assets from itch.io for
the tileset and a few NPC's. The rest was created myself using
[Aseprite](https://www.aseprite.org). Getting Mara's walking animation to a point
that I thought was acceptable was a chore. I found a nice compromise though.
---
Overall I'm happy with the result as a whole. Try it out, see how you like it and
please do let me know what I can improve on for the future.

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---
title: "maybedoer: the Maybe Monoid for Go"
date: 2020-05-23
tags:
- go
- golang
- monoid
---
# maybedoer: the Maybe Monoid for Go
I recently posted (a variant of) this image of some Go source code to Twitter
and it spawned some interesting conversations about what it does, how it works
and why it needs to exist in the first place:
![the source code of package maybedoer](/static/blog/maybedoer.png)
This file is used to sequence functions that could fail together, allowing you
to avoid doing an `if err != nil` check on every single fallible function call.
There are two major usage patterns for it.
The first one is the imperative pattern, where you call it like this:
```go
md := new(maybedoer.Impl)
var data []byte
md.Maybe(func(context.Context) error {
var err error
data, err = ioutil.ReadFile("/proc/cpuinfo")
return err
})
// add a few more maybe calls?
if err := md.Error(); err != nil {
ln.Error(ctx, err, ln.Fmt("cannot munge data in /proc/cpuinfo"))
}
```
The second one is the iterative pattern, where you call it like this:
```go
func gitPush(repoPath, branch, to string) maybedoer.Doer {
return func(ctx context.Context) error {
// the repoPath, branch and to variables are available here
return nil
}
}
func repush(ctx context.Context) error {
repoPath, err := ioutil.TempDir("", "")
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("error making checkout: %v", err)
}
md := maybedoer.Impl{
Doers: []maybedoer.Doer{
gitConfig, // assume this is implemented
gitClone(repoPath, os.Getenv("HEROKU_APP_GIT_REPO")), // and this too
gitPush(repoPath, "master", os.Getenv("HEROKU_GIT_REMOTE")),
},
}
err = md.Do(ctx)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("error repushing Heroku app: %v", err)
}
return nil
}
```
Both of these ways allow you to sequence fallible actions without having to
write `if err != nil` after each of them, making this easily scale out to
arbitrary numbers of steps. The design of this is inspired by a package used at
a previous job where we used it to handle a lot of fiddly fallible actions that
need to happen one after the other.
However, this version differs because of the `Doers` element of
`maybedoer.Impl`. This allows you to specify an entire process of steps as long
as those steps don't return any values. This is very similar to how Haskell's
[`Data.Monoid.First`](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.14.0.0/docs/Data-Monoid.html#t:First)
type works, except in Go this is locked to the `error` type (due to the language
not letting you describe things as precisely as you would need to get an analog
to `Data.Monoid.First`). This is also similar to Rust's `and_then` combinator.
If we could return values from these functions, this would make `maybedoer`
closer to being a monad in the Haskell sense. However we can't so we are locked
to one specific instance of a monoid. I would love to use this for a pointer (or
pointer-like) reference to any particular bit of data, but `interface{}` doesn't
allow this because `interface{}` matches _literally everything_:
```go
var foo = []interface{
1,
3.4,
"hi there",
context.Background(),
errors.New("this works too!"),
}
```
This could mean that if we changed the type of a Doer to be:
```go
type Doer func(context.Context) interface{}
```
Then it would be difficult to know how to handle returns from the function.
Arguably we could write some mechanism to check if it is an error:
```go
result := do(ctx)
if result != nil {
switch result.(type) {
case error:
return result // result is of type error magically
default:
md.return = result
}
}
```
But then it would be difficult to know how to pipe the result into the next
function, unless we change Doer's type to be:
```go
type Doer func(context.Context, interface{}) interface{}
```
Which would require code that looks like this:
```go
func getNumber(ctx context.Context, _ interface{}) interface{} {
return 2
}
func double(ctx context.Context, num interface{}) interface{} {
switch num.(type) {
case int:
return 2+2
default:
return fmt.Errorf("wanted num to be an int, got: %T", num)
}
return nil
}
```
But this kind of repetition would be required for _every function_. I don't
really know what the best way to solve this in a generic way would be, but I'm
fairly sure that these fundamental limitations in Go prevent this package from
being genericized to handle function outputs and inputs beyond what you can do
with currying (and maybe clever pointer usage).
I would love to be proven wrong though. If anyone can take this [source code
under the MIT license](/static/blog/maybedoer.go) and prove me wrong, I will
stand corrected and update this blogpost with the solution.
This kind of thing is more easy to solve in Rust with its
[Result](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/) type; and arguably this entire
problem solved in the Go package is irrelevant in Rust because this solution is
in the standard library of Rust.

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@ -1,397 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Minicompiler: Lexing"
date: 2020-10-29
series: rust
tags:
- rust
- templeos
- compiler
---
# Minicompiler: Lexing
I've always wanted to make my own compiler. Compilers are an integral part of
my day to day job and I use the fruits of them constantly. A while ago while I
was browsing through the TempleOS source code I found
[MiniCompiler.HC][minicompiler] in the `::/Demos/Lectures` folder and I was a
bit blown away. It implements a two phase compiler from simple math expressions
to AMD64 bytecode (complete with bit-banging it to an array that the code later
jumps to) and has a lot to teach about how compilers work. For those of you that
don't have a TempleOS VM handy, here is a video of MiniCompiler.HC in action:
[minicompiler]: https://github.com/Xe/TempleOS/blob/master/Demo/Lectures/MiniCompiler.HC
<video controls width="100%">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/minicompiler/tmp.YDcgaHSb3z.webm"
type="video/webm">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/minicompiler/tmp.YDcgaHSb3z.mp4"
type="video/mp4">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
</video>
You put in a math expression, the compiler builds it and then spits out a bunch
of assembly and runs it to return the result. In this series we are going to be
creating an implementation of this compiler that targets [WebAssembly][wasm].
This compiler will be written in Rust and will use only the standard library for
everything but the final bytecode compilation and execution phase. There is a
lot going on here, so I expect this to be at least a three part series. The
source code will be in [Xe/minicompiler][Xemincompiler] in case you want to read
it in detail. Follow along and let's learn some Rust on the way!
[wasm]: https://webassembly.org/
[Xemincompiler]: https://github.com/Xe/minicompiler
[Compilers for languages like C are built on top of the fundamentals here, but
they are _much_ more complicated.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Description of the Language
This language uses normal infix math expressions on whole numbers. Here are a
few examples:
- `2 + 2`
- `420 * 69`
- `(34 + 23) / 38 - 42`
- `(((34 + 21) / 5) - 12) * 348`
Ideally we should be able to nest the parentheses as deep as we want without any
issues.
Looking at these values we can notice a few patterns that will make parsing this
a lot easier:
- There seems to be only 4 major parts to this language:
- numbers
- math operators
- open parentheses
- close parentheses
- All of the math operators act identically and take two arguments
- Each program is one line long and ends at the end of the line
Let's turn this description into Rust code:
## Bringing in Rust
Make a new project called `minicompiler` with a command that looks something
like this:
```console
$ cargo new minicompiler
```
This will create a folder called `minicompiler` and a file called `src/main.rs`.
Open that file in your editor and copy the following into it:
```rust
// src/main.rs
/// Mathematical operations that our compiler can do.
#[derive(Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
enum Op {
Mul,
Div,
Add,
Sub,
}
/// All of the possible tokens for the compiler, this limits the compiler
/// to simple math expressions.
#[derive(Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
enum Token {
EOF,
Number(i32),
Operation(Op),
LeftParen,
RightParen,
}
```
[In compilers, "tokens" refer to the individual parts of the language you are
working with. In this case every token represents every possible part of a
program.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
And then let's start a function that can turn a program string into a bunch of
tokens:
```rust
// src/main.rs
fn lex(input: &str) -> Vec<Token> {
todo!("implement this");
}
```
[Wait, what do you do about bad input such as things that are not math expressions?
Shouldn't this function be able to fail?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
You're right! Let's make a little error type that represents bad input. For
creativity's sake let's call it `BadInput`:
```rust
// src/main.rs
use std::error::Error;
use std::fmt;
/// The error that gets returned on bad input. This only tells the user that it's
/// wrong because debug information is out of scope here. Sorry.
#[derive(Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct BadInput;
// Errors need to be displayable.
impl fmt::Display for BadInput {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "something in your input is bad, good luck")
}
}
// The default Error implementation will do here.
impl Error for BadInput {}
```
And then let's adjust the type of `lex()` to compensate for this:
```rust
// src/main.rs
fn lex(input: &str) -> Result<Vec<Token>, BadInput> {
todo!("implement this");
}
```
So now that we have the function type we want, let's start implementing `lex()`
by setting up the result and a loop over the characters in the input string:
```rust
// src/main.rs
fn lex(input: &str) -> Result<Vec<Token>, BadInput> {
let mut result: Vec<Token> = Vec::new();
for character in input.chars() {
todo!("implement this");
}
Ok(result)
}
```
Looking at the examples from earlier we can start writing some boilerplate to
turn characters into tokens:
```rust
// src/main.rs
// ...
for character in input.chars() {
match character {
// Skip whitespace
' ' => continue,
// Ending characters
';' | '\n' => {
result.push(Token::EOF);
break;
}
// Math operations
'*' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Mul)),
'/' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Div)),
'+' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Add)),
'-' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Sub)),
// Parentheses
'(' => result.push(Token::LeftParen),
')' => result.push(Token::RightParen),
// Numbers
'0' | '1' | '2' | '3' | '4' | '5' | '6' | '7' | '8' | '9' => {
todo!("implement number parsing")
}
// Everything else is bad input
_ => return Err(BadInput),
}
}
// ...
```
[Ugh, you're writing `Token::` and `Op::` a lot. Is there a way to simplify
that?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
Yes! enum variants can be shortened to their names with a `use` statement like
this:
```rust
// src/main.rs
// ...
use Op::*;
use Token::*;
match character {
// ...
// Math operations
'*' => result.push(Operation(Mul)),
'/' => result.push(Operation(Div)),
'+' => result.push(Operation(Add)),
'-' => result.push(Operation(Sub)),
// Parentheses
'(' => result.push(LeftParen),
')' => result.push(RightParen),
// ...
}
// ...
```
Which looks a _lot_ better.
[You can use the `use` statement just about anywhere in your program. However to
keep things flowing nicer, the `use` statement is right next to where it is
needed in these examples.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now we can get into the fun that is parsing numbers. When he wrote MiniCompiler,
Terry Davis used an approach that is something like this (spacing added for readability):
```c
case '0'...'9':
i = 0;
do {
i = i * 10 + *src - '0';
src++;
} while ('0' <= *src <= '9');
*num=i;
```
This sets an intermediate variable `i` to 0 and then consumes characters from
the input string as long as they are between `'0'` and `'9'`. As a neat side
effect of the numbers being input in base 10, you can conceptualize `40` as `(4 *
10) + 2`. So it multiplies the old digit by 10 and then adds the new digit to
the resulting number. Our setup doesn't let us get that fancy as easily, however
we can emulate it with a bit of stack manipulation according to these rules:
- If `result` is empty, push this number to result and continue lexing the
program
- Pop the last item in `result` and save it as `last`
- If `last` is a number, multiply that number by 10 and add the current number
to it
- Otherwise push the node back into `result` and push the current number to
`result` as well
Translating these rules to Rust, we get this:
```rust
// src/main.rs
// ...
// Numbers
'0' | '1' | '2' | '3' | '4' | '5' | '6' | '7' | '8' | '9' => {
let num: i32 = (character as u8 - '0' as u8) as i32;
if result.len() == 0 {
result.push(Number(num));
continue;
}
let last = result.pop().unwrap();
match last {
Number(i) => {
result.push(Number((i * 10) + num));
}
_ => {
result.push(last);
result.push(Number(num));
}
}
}
// ...
```
[This is not the most robust number parsing code in the world, however it will
suffice for now. Extra credit if you can identify the edge
cases!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
This should cover the tokens for the language. Let's write some tests to be sure
everything is working the way we think it is!
## Testing
Rust has a [robust testing
framework](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch11-00-testing.html) built into the
standard library. We can use it here to make sure we are generating tokens
correctly. Let's add the following to the bottom of `main.rs`:
```rust
#[cfg(test)] // tells the compiler to only build this code when tests are being run
mod tests {
use super::{Op::*, Token::*, *};
// registers the following function as a test function
#[test]
fn basic_lexing() {
assert!(lex("420 + 69").is_ok());
assert!(lex("tacos are tasty").is_err());
assert_eq!(
lex("420 + 69"),
Ok(vec![Number(420), Operation(Add), Number(69)])
);
assert_eq!(
lex("(30 + 560) / 4"),
Ok(vec![
LeftParen,
Number(30),
Operation(Add),
Number(560),
RightParen,
Operation(Div),
Number(4)
])
);
}
}
```
This test can and probably should be expanded on, but when we run `cargo test`:
```console
$ cargo test
Compiling minicompiler v0.1.0 (/home/cadey/code/Xe/minicompiler)
Finished test [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.22s
Running target/debug/deps/minicompiler-03cad314858b0419
running 1 test
test tests::basic_lexing ... ok
test result: ok. 1 passed; 0 failed; 0 ignored; 0 measured; 0 filtered out
```
And hey presto! We verified that all of the parsing is working correctly. Those
test cases should be sufficient to cover all of the functionality of the
language.
---
This is it for part 1. We covered a lot today. Next time we are going to run a
validation pass on the program, convert the infix expressions to reverse polish
notation and then also get started on compiling that to WebAssembly. This has
been fun so far and I hope you were able to learn from it.
Special thanks to the following people for reviewing this post:
- Steven Weeks
- sirpros
- Leonora Tindall
- Chetan Conikee
- Pablo
- boopstrap
- ash2x3

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@ -1,110 +0,0 @@
---
title: MrBeast is Postmodern Gold
date: 2019-06-05
tags:
- mrbeast
- postmodern
- youtube
---
Author's note: I've been going through a lot lately. This Monday I was in the emergency room after having a panic attack. I have a folder of writing in my notes that I use to help work off steam. I don't know why, but writing this article really helped me feel better. I can only hope it helps make your day feel better too.
# MrBeast is Postmodern Gold
The year is 2019. Politicians have fallen asleep at the wheel. Capitalism controls large segments of the hearts and minds of the populace. Social class is increasingly only a construct. Popularity is becoming irrelevant. Money has no value. The ultimate expendability of entire groups of people is as obvious as the sunrise and sunset. Nothing feels real. There's no real reason for people to get up and continue, yet life goes on. Somehow, even after a decade of aid and memes, children in Africa are _still_ starving.
The next generation has grown up with technology and advertising. Entire swaths of the market know to ignore the very advertising that keeps the de-facto utilities (though the creators of those services will insist that it's a free choice to use them) they use to communicate with friends alive. You have to unplug your cigarette (that your friend got you hooked to) to charge your book. Marketing has driven postmodernism to a whole new level that leads McDonalds to ask Wendys if they are okay after Wendys posts cryptic/confusing messages. Companies that just want to do business get blocked away by racist policies set by people who all but have died since. What can be done about this? Who should we turn to for quality entertainment to help quench this generational angst against a nameless, faceless machine that controls nearly all of functional civilization?
Enter [MrBeast](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA). This youtuber has reached new levels of content purely by making capitalism itself the content. With his crew of people and their peculiar views on life, they do a good job at making some quality content for this hyper-capitalist world that they have found themselves in.
One of the main ways that YouTube creators have been under fire lately is because of politically or otherwise topically charged content. MrBeast is completely devoid of anything close to politically sensitive or insensitive. It's literally content about money and how it gets spent on things that get filmed and posted to YouTube in an effort to create more AdSense revenue in order to get even more money.
I don't really know if there is a proper way to categorize this YouTuber. He really brings a unique feeling into everything he does with such a wholesome overall experience. Sponsorship money gets donated to twitch streamers and he makes videos of their reactions. He bought a house and had his friends put their hands on it, with the last one touching it to get the house. He went to every single Wal-Mart in the continental united states. He drove a lego car around his local town until he got pulled over by the cops. And yes like the YouTuber legend goes, he started many years ago doing Minecraft Let's Plays as a screechy-voiced teenager.
## Gluttony
Consider videos like [this one](https://youtu.be/7zi0bi-RDj4) where they spend an absurd amount of money eating five star meal food. "This first steak is called 'Kobe (pronounced /ko.bi/) beef' and we wanted to experience it because it cost [USD]$1000 and we wanted to see if it was worth the price." Then they eat the steak and act like it's no big deal, joking that each section of the meat is worth $30-40. "Alright bros, I'm PewDiePie and we just ate kobe (pronounced /ko.bei/) beef.
Then they go to another place (which has walls that are obviously plywood spray-painted black) and he offers one of his friends $100 to eat some random grasshopper. Chris eats it almost immediately. Everyone else in the room freaks out a little, commenting on the crunch sound. "That's pretty good". Garrett turns it down. Chandler also eats it without much hesitation, later commenting on the crunch of the chitin shell of the bug.
Then MrBeast offers a plate of crickets and grasshoppers to the three. He offers eating it for $1000. Chris sounds like he's open to eating it, but offers the rest a chance. Garrett IMMEDIATELY turns it down. Chandler eats all of them at once. He has some issues chewing them (again with the crunch eeeeugh), but Chandler easily eats it all; instantly becoming a thousand dollars richer.
The room gags and laughs, the friendship between the boys $1200 stronger.
Then they go get goose liver served on rice and a hundred year old egg. Uh-oh, both of these are delicacies. How will they react?
The goose liver comes out first. MrBeast eats the hors d'œuvre in one bite. Chris has some trouble, but manages to take it down. Chandler is heaving. His friends cheer him on with loving words of compassion like "you don't like liver?"
What.
The "century egg" comes out. They make the mistake of smelling it. Oh no. MrBeast eats it just fine. Chandler spits a $500 item of food into the trash after gagging. Chris ejects it into his napkin while MrBeast chants his name. Chris gags while his friends act like they are congratulating him. "It's like someone hocked a loogie into your mouth."
Before you ask, no, this isn't an initiation stunt. They literally do this kind of stuff on a regular basis. Remember that money is the content here; so the fact that all of this stuff costs ridiculous amounts of money is the main reason for these videos to be created.
Later in the video, they drive to New York to eat gold-plated tomahawk steak. I've actually had tomahawk steak once and it was really good (thanks Uncle Marc). Where else to eat a golden steak than the golden steak?
"This is the most expensive restaurant we can find. If I don't spend $10,000 all of you can punch me; because we will spend $10,000. What's that name?"
Nobody can pronounce "Nurs-et", the name of the restaurant. "None of us knew how to pronounce it, so it must be good."
What.
It was good though.
## Foolishness
In another video of his, he gets [his friends to spend 24 hours in a horrific mockup of an "insane asylum"](https://youtu.be/nuM0Z4a7kMs). For a first in these challenges, they split into two teams: Team Red and Team Black. Four of his crew are put into straitjackets with no other instructions.
They start predictably acting like a stereotypical American view of insane people. Twitching as they talk to the camera. Rolling around on the floor. "What is time?" Chandler is banging his head against the wall.
> MrBeast: "Chris, how long do you think you're gonna last?
> Chris: "Banana sundae."
"Insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome."
Much like Survivor, there's cutaways to the individual teams as they plan out their high level strategy for the "game". What. There is no strategy needed, they just need to sit in a room and be quiet for 24 hours. Reminds me of that one quote by Blaise Pascal in Pensées:
> All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
And no, these people can't sit quietly in a room. You see them dancing back and forth in a line in front of the camera. They get locked into the room and the time-lapse shows 10 minutes of them walking around in circles.
The door gets yelled at. MrBeast notes the absurdity of the thing. The bright, unforgiving white walls of the asylum pierce the darkness of my room as I write this article.
> "Help. Me. I. Need...I don't need anything~"
> "Y'all got any beans? Y'all got any baked beans?"
- Chris
They raise someone on Chandler's shoulders, not a small accomplishment considering they don't have access to their arms. Someone speaks into the security camera: "Hello? I'm about to fall please go back down."
MrBeast attempts to go into the room, go do snow angels and not say a single thing. The occupants have other plans, yelling when the door opens to alert eachother. They crowd around MrBeast, making it impossible to do his chosen task. They pin MrBeast to a corner and he tries to escape but then there's a problem. The people won't let him leave. He manages to get out.
Later MrBeast gets an idea to mess with the people. He gets a megaphone and puts it into siren mode, expecting them to not be able to turn it off. He is proven wrong almost instantly. They used their feet to turn it off. Then they start making noise with it. The megaphone is retrieved using the most heinous of weapons, an umbrella. A layer of duct tape is added and the experiment is repeated. They still manage to turn it off. They used their teeth. Low-light conditions didn't stop them. Not having their hands didn't stop them. Can anything stop these mad lads?
They attempt to retrieve the sound emitter again. The prisoners break it in retaliation. MrBeast seems okay with that, yet disappointed. However he suffers a casualty on his way out. MrBeast attempted to push back chandler using the holy umbrella. Chandler took the umbrella from him with nothing but his tied up arms.
What.
What is this video about again? What is the purpose? These people are getting money or something for being the last person standing? What is going on?
Oh, right, this is a challenge. The last two people to be in the room together win some amount of money.
Well the people are screaming for entertainment. That's not unexpected, but that's just how it goes I guess. Quality. Content.
> Let's have a dance party and then Chandler can poop. Rate who dances better in the comments section.
- MrBeast, 10:22-ish
What.
8 hours in, Chandler somehow dislocated his entire right arm. You can see it hanging there obviously out of place. It looks like he's in massive pain. He tore a muscle. He was pulled out of the challenge. Another challenge lost by Chandler.
Chris drops out at 14 hours. The two winners are unsure what to do with themselves and their winnings. What are they again? Five grand? Chandler tore his shoulder out of socket and Chris risked ear damage for...FIVE GRAND?
What. Just what.
The entire channel is full of this stuff. I could go on for hours.
---
Also MrBeast if you're reading this add me on Fortnite. I'd love to play some Duos with you and shitpost about the price of bananas.

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@ -1,92 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Book Release: Musings from Within"
date: 2020-07-28
tags:
- release
- book
- musingsfromwithin
---
# Book Release: Musings from Within
I am happy to announce that I have successfully created an eBook compilation of
the best of the posts on this blog plus a bunch of writing I have never before
made public, and the result is now available for purchase on
[itch.io](https://withinstudios.itch.io/musings-from-within) and the Kindle
Store (TODO(Xe): add kindle link here when it gets approved) for USD$5. This
book is the product of 5 years of effort writing, getting better at writing,
failing at writing and everything inbetween.
I have collected the following essays, poems, recipes and stories:
- Against Label Permanence
- A Letter to Those Who Bullied Me
- All There is is Now
- Alone
- Barrier
- Bricks
- Chaos Magick Debugging
- Chicken Stir Fry
- Creators Mission
- Death
- Died to Save Me
- Don't Look Into the Light
- Every Koan Ever
- Final Chapter
- Gratitude
- h
- How HTTP Requests Work
- Humanity
- I Love
- Instant Pot Quinoa Taco Bowls
- Instant Pot Spaghetti
- I Put Words on this Webpage so You Have to Listen to Me Now
- I Remember
- It Is Free
- Listen to Your Rubber Duck
- MrBeast is Postmodern Gold
- My Experience Cursing Out God
- Narrative of Sickness
- One Day
- Plurality-Driven Development
- Practical Kasmakfa
- Questions
- Second Go Around
- Self
- Sorting Time
- Tarot for Hackers
- The Gears and The Gods
- The Origin of h
- The Service is Already Down
- The Story of Hol
- The Sumerian Creation Myth
- Toast Sandwich Recipe
- Untitled Cyberpunk Furry Story
- We Exist
- What Its Like to Be Me
- When Then Zen
- When Then Zen: Anapana
- When Then Zen: Wonderland Immersion
- You Are Fine
Most of these are available on this site, but a good portion of them are not
available anywhere else. There's poetry about shamanism, stories about
reincarnation, koans and more.
I am also uploading eBook files to my [Patreon](https://patreon.com/cadey) page,
anyone who supports me for $1 or more has [immediate
access](https://www.patreon.com/posts/39825969)
to the DRM-free ePub, MOBIPocket and PDF files of this book.
If you are facing financial difficulties, want to read my book and just simply
cannot afford it, please [contact me](/contact) and I will send you my book free
of charge.
Feedback and reviews of this book are more than welcome. If you decide to tweet
or toot about it, please use the hashtag `#musingsfromwithin` so I can collect
them into future updates to the description of the store pages, as well as
assemble them below.
Enjoy the book! My hope is that you get as much from it as I've gotten from
writing these things for the last 5 or so years. Here's to five more. I'll
likely create another anthology/collection of them at that point.

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@ -5,9 +5,7 @@ date: 2019-03-14
# My Career So Far in Dates/Titles/Salaries
Let this be inspiration to whoever is afraid of trying, failing and being fired.
Every single one of these jobs has taught me lessons I've used daily in my
career.
Let this be inspiration to whoever is afraid of trying, failing and being fired. Every single one of these jobs has taught me lessons I've used daily in my career.
## First Jobs
@ -19,14 +17,11 @@ I don't have exact dates on these, but my first jobs were:
I ended up walking out on the delivery job, but that's a story for another day.
Most of what I learned from these jobs were the value of labor and when to just
shut up and give people exactly what they are asking for. Even if it's what they
might not want.
Most of what I learned from these jobs were the value of labor and when to just shut up and give people exactly what they are asking for. Even if it's what they might not want.
## Salaried Jobs
The following table is a history of my software career by title, date and salary
(company names are omitted).
The following table is a history of my software career by title, date and salary (company names are omitted).
| Title | Start Date | End Date | Days Worked | Days Between Jobs | Salary | How I Left |
|:----- |:---------- |:-------- |:----------- |:----------------- |:------ |:---------- |
@ -40,19 +35,11 @@ The following table is a history of my software career by title, date and salary
| Software Engineer | August 24, 2016 | November 22, 2016 | 90 days | 21 days | $105,000/year | Terminated |
| Consultant | Feburary 13, 2017 | November 13, 2017 | 273 days | 83 days | don't remember | Hired |
| Senior Software Engineer | November 13, 2017 | March 8, 2019 | 480 days | 0 days | $150,000/year | Voulntary quit |
| Senior Site Reliability Expert | May 6, 2019 | October 27, 2020 | 540 days | 48 days | CAD$115,000/year (about USD$ 80k and change) | Voluntary quit |
| Software Designer | December 14, 2020 | *current* | n/a | n/a | CAD$135,000/year (about USD$ 105k and change) | n/a |
| Senior Site Reliability Expert | May 6, 2019 | (will be current) | n/a | n/a | CAD$105,000/year (about USD$ 80k and change) | n/a |
Even though I've been fired three times, I don't regret my career as it's been
thus far. I've been able to work on experimental technology integrating into
phone systems. I've worked in a mixed PHP/Haskell/Erlang/Go/Perl production
environment. I've literally rebuilt most of the tool that was catalytic to my
career a few times over. It's been the ride of a lifetime.
Even though I've been fired three times, I don't regret my career as it's been thus far. I've been able to work on experimental technology integrating into phone systems. I've worked in a mixed PHP/Haskell/Erlang/Go/Perl production environment. I've literally rebuilt most of the tool that was catalytic to my career a few times over. It's been the ride of a lifetime.
Even though I was fired, each of these failures in this chain of jobs enabled me
to succeed the way I have. I can't wait to see what's next out of it. I only
wonder how I can be transformed even more. I really wonder what it's gonna be
like with the company that hired me over the border.
Even though I was fired, each of these failures in this chain of jobs enabled me to succeed the way I have. I can't wait to see what's next out of it. I only wonder how I can be transformed even more. I really wonder what it's gonna be like with the company that hired me over the border.
![](/static/img/my-career.jpeg)
@ -74,8 +61,4 @@ Be well.
.i ko do gleki
```
If you can, please make a blogpost similar to this. Don't include company names.
Include start date, end date, time spent there, time spent job hunting, salary
(if you remember it) and how you left it. Let's [end salary
secrecy](https://thegirlpowercode.com/2018/09/12/is-salary-secrecy-coming-to-an-end/)
one step at a time.
If you can, please make a blogpost similar to this. Don't include company names. Include start date, end date, time spent there, time spent job hunting, salary (if you remember it) and how you left it. Let's [end salary secrecy](https://thegirlpowercode.com/2018/09/12/is-salary-secrecy-coming-to-an-end/) one step at a time.

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@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
title: Narrative of Sickness
date: 2018-08-13
for: awakening
series: magick
---
# Narrative of Sickness

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@ -1,81 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Life Update: New Adventures"
date: 2020-10-24
tags:
- personal
---
# Life Update: New Adventures
Today was my last day at my job, and as of the time that I have published this
post, I am now inbetween jobs. I have had an adventure at Lightspeed, but all
things must come to an end and my adventure has come to an end there. I have a
new job lined up and I will be heading to it soon, but for the meantime I plan
to relax and decompress.
I want to finish that tabletop RPG book I have prototyped out. When I have
something closer to a cohesive book I will post something on my
[patreon](https://www.patreon.com/cadey) so that you all can take a look. Any
and all feedback would be very appreciated. I hope to have it published on my
[Itch page](https://withinstudios.itch.io/) by the end of this year. My target
is on or about $5 for the game manual and supplemental material.
Thanks for reading; no, seriously, thank you. Without people like you that
read and share articles on this blog I would never have gotten to the level of
success that I have now. Additionally, I would like to emphasize that I am fine
as far as new jobs go. I have primary and fallback plans in place, but if they
all somehow fall through I will be sure to put up a note here. Please be sure to
check out [/signalboost](/signalboost) for people to consider when making hiring
decisions.
## May Our Paths Cross Again: My Farewell Letter to Lightspeed
Hey all,
Today is my last day at Lightspeed. Working at Lightspeed has been catalytic to
my career. I have been exposed to so many people from so many backgrounds and
you all have irreparably changed me for the better and given me the space to
thrive. There is passion here, and it is being tapped in order to create
fantastic solutions for our customers to enable them to succeed. I originally
came to Montréal to live with my fiancé and if Covid had struck a week later he
would be my husband.
However, I feel that I have done as much as I can at Lightspeed and our paths
thusly need to divide. I have gotten a fantastic opportunity and I will be
working on technology that will become a foundational part of personal and
professional IP networking over WireGuard for many companies and people. I'm
sorry if this comes as a shock to anyone, I don't mean to cause anyone grief
with this move.
I have been attaching a little poem in Lojban to the signature of my emails,
here is it and its translation:
```
la budza pu cusku lu
<<.i ko do snura .i ko do kanro
.i ko do panpi .i ko do gleki>> li'u
```
> May you be safe. May you be healthy.
> May you be at peace. May you be happy.
- Buddha
I will be reachable on the internet. See https://christine.website/contact to
see contact information that will help you reach out to me. If you can, please
direct replies to me@christine.website, that way I can read them after this
account gets disabled.
I hope I was able to brighten your path.
From my world to yours,
--
Christine Dodrill
https://christine.website
```
la budza pu cusku lu
<<.i ko do snura .i ko do kanro
.i ko do panpi .i ko do gleki>> li'u
```

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@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
---
title: New PGP Key Fingerprint
date: 2021-01-15
---
# New PGP Key Fingerprint
This morning I got an encrypted email, and in the process of trying to decrypt
it I discovered that I had _lost_ my PGP key. I have no idea how I lost it. As
such, I have created a new PGP key and replaced the one on my website with it.
I did the replacement in [this
commit](https://github.com/Xe/site/commit/66233bcd40155cf71e221edf08851db39dbd421c),
which you can see is verified with a subkey of my new key.
My new PGP key ID is `803C 935A E118 A224`. The key with the ID `799F 9134 8118
1111` should not be used anymore. Here are all the subkey fingerprints:
```
Signature key ....: 378E BFC6 3D79 B49D 8C36 448C 803C 935A E118 A224
created ....: 2021-01-15 13:04:28
Encryption key....: 8C61 7F30 F331 D21B 5517 6478 8C5C 9BC7 0FC2 511E
created ....: 2021-01-15 13:04:28
Authentication key: 7BF7 E531 ABA3 7F77 FD17 8F72 CE17 781B F55D E945
created ....: 2021-01-15 13:06:20
General key info..: pub rsa2048/803C935AE118A224 2021-01-15 Christine Dodrill (Yubikey) <me@christine.website>
sec> rsa2048/803C935AE118A224 created: 2021-01-15 expires: 2031-01-13
card-no: 0006 03646872
ssb> rsa2048/8C5C9BC70FC2511E created: 2021-01-15 expires: 2031-01-13
card-no: 0006 03646872
ssb> rsa2048/CE17781BF55DE945 created: 2021-01-15 expires: 2031-01-13
card-no: 0006 03646872
```
I don't really know what the proper way is to go about revoking an old PGP key.
It probably doesn't help that I don't use PGP very often. I think this is the
first encrypted email I've gotten in a year.
Let's hope that I don't lose this key as easily!

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@ -1,317 +0,0 @@
---
title: Nixops Services on Your Home Network
date: 2020-11-09
series: howto
tags:
- nixos
- systemd
---
# Nixops Services on Your Home Network
My homelab has a few NixOS machines. Right now they mostly run services inside
Docker, because that has been what I have done for years. This works fine, but
persistent state gets annoying*. NixOS has a tool called
[Nixops](https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html) that
allows you to push configurations to remote machines. I use this for managing my
fleet of machines, and today I'm going to show you how to create service
deployments with Nixops and push them to your servers.
[Pedantically, Docker offers <a
href="https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html">volumes</a>
to simplify this, but it is very easy to accidentally delete Docker volumes.
Plain disk files like we are going to use today are a bit simpler than docker
volumes, and thusly a bit harder to mess up.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Parts of a Service
For this example, let's deploy a chatbot. To make things easier, let's assume
the following about this chatbot:
- The chatbot has a git repo somewhere
- The chatbot's git repo has a `default.nix` that builds the service and
includes any supporting files it might need
- The chatbot reads its configuration from environment variables which may
contain secret values (API keys, etc.)
- The chatbot stores any temporary files in its current working directory
- The chatbot is "well-behaved" (for some definition of "well-behaved")
I will also need to assume that you have a git repo (or at least a folder) with
all of your configuration similar to [mine](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs).
For this example I'm going to use [withinbot](https://github.com/Xe/withinbot)
as the service we will deploy via Nixops. withinbot is a chatbot that I use on
my own Discord guild that does a number of vital functions including supplying
amusing facts about printers:
```
<Cadey~> ~printerfact
<Within[BOT]> @Cadey~ Printers, especially older printers, do get cancer. Many
times this disease can be treated successfully
```
[To get your own amusing facts about printers, see <a
href="https://printerfacts.cetacean.club">here</a> or for using its API, call <a
href="https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact">`/fact`</a>. This API has no
practical rate limits, but please don't test that.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Service Definition
We will need to do a few major things for defining this service:
1. Add the bot code as a package
1. Create a "services" folder for the service modules
1. Create a user account for the service
1. Set up a systemd unit for the service
1. Configure the secrets using [Nixops
keys](https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html#idm140737322342384)
### Add the Code as a Package
In order for the program to be installed to the remote system, you need to tell
the system how to import it. There's many ways to do this, but the cheezy way is
to add the packages to
[`nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides`](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#sec-customising-packages)
like this:
```nix
nixpkgs.config = {
packageOverrides = pkgs: {
within = {
withinbot = import (builtins.fetchTarball
"https://github.com/Xe/withinbot/archive/main.tar.gz") { };
};
};
};
```
And now we can access it as `pkgs.within.withinbot` in the rest of our config.
[In production circumstances you should probably use <a
href="https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#chap-pkgs-fetchers">a fetcher
that locks to a specific version</a> using unique URLs and hashing, but this
will work enough to get us off the ground in this
example.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### Create a "services" Folder
In your configuration folder, create a folder that you will use for these
service definitions. I made mine in `common/services`. In that folder, create a
`default.nix` with the following contents:
```nix
{ config, lib, ... }:
{
imports = [ ./withinbot.nix ];
users.groups.within = {};
}
```
The group listed here is optional, but I find that having a group like that can
help you better share resources and files between services.
Now we need a folder for storing secrets. Let's create that under the services
folder:
```console
$ mkdir secrets
```
And let's also add a gitignore file so that we don't accidentally commit these
secrets to the repo:
```gitignore
# common/services/secrets/.gitignore
*
```
Now we can put any secrets we want in the secrets folder without the risk of
committing them to the git repo.
### Service Manifest
Let's create `withinbot.nix` and set it up:
```nix
{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
with lib; {
options.within.services.withinbot.enable =
mkEnableOption "Activates Withinbot (the furryhole chatbot)";
config = mkIf config.within.services.withinbot.enable {
};
}
```
This sets up an option called `within.services.withinbot.enable` which will only
add the service configuration if that option is set to `true`. This will allow
us to define a lot of services that are available, but none of their config will
be active unless they are explicitly enabled.
Now, let's create a user account for the service:
```nix
# ...
config = ... {
users.users.withinbot = {
createHome = true;
description = "github.com/Xe/withinbot";
isSystemUser = true;
group = "within";
home = "/srv/within/withinbot";
extraGroups = [ "keys" ];
};
};
# ...
```
This will create a user named `withinbot` with the home directory
`/srv/within/withinbot`, the group `within` and also in the group `keys` so the
withinbot user can read deployment secrets.
Now let's add the deployment secrets to the configuration:
```nix
# ...
config = ... {
users.users.withinbot = { ... };
deployment.keys.withinbot = {
text = builtins.readFile ./secrets/withinbot.env;
user = "withinbot";
group = "within";
permissions = "0640";
};
};
# ...
```
Assuming you have the configuration at `./secrets/withinbot.env`, this will
register the secrets into `/run/keys/withinbot` and also create a systemd
oneshot service named `withinbot-key`. This allows you to add the secret's
existence as a condition for withinbot to run. However, Nixops puts these keys
in `/run`, which by default is mounted using a temporary memory-only filesystem,
meaning these keys will need to be re-added to machines when they are rebooted.
Fortunately, `nixops reboot` will automatically add the keys back after the
reboot succeeds.
Now that we have everything else we need, let's add the service configuration:
```nix
# ...
config = ... {
users.users.withinbot = { ... };
deployment.keys.withinbot = { ... };
systemd.services.withinbot = {
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
after = [ "withinbot-key.service" ];
wants = [ "withinbot-key.service" ];
serviceConfig = {
User = "withinbot";
Group = "within";
Restart = "on-failure"; # automatically restart the bot when it dies
WorkingDirectory = "/srv/within/withinbot";
RestartSec = "30s";
};
script = let withinbot = pkgs.within.withinbot;
in ''
# load the environment variables from /run/keys/withinbot
export $(grep -v '^#' /run/keys/withinbot | xargs)
# service-specific configuration
export CAMPAIGN_FOLDER=${withinbot}/campaigns
# kick off the chatbot
exec ${withinbot}/bin/withinbot
'';
};
};
# ...
```
This will create the systemd configuration for the service so that it starts on
boot, waits to start until the secrets have been loaded into it, runs withinbot
as its own user and in the `within` group, and throttles the service restart so
that it doesn't incur Discord rate limits as easily. This will also put all
withinbot logs in journald, meaning that you can manage and monitor this service
like you would any other systemd service.
## Deploying the Service
In your target server's `configuration.nix` file, add an import of your services
directory:
```nix
{
# ...
imports = [
# ...
/home/cadey/code/nixos-configs/common/services
];
# ...
}
```
And then enable the withinbot service:
```nix
{
# ...
within.services = {
withinbot.enable = true;
};
# ...
}
```
[Make that a block so you can enable multiple services at once like <a
href="https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/e111413e8b895f5a117dea534b17fc9d0b38d268/hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix#L93-L96">this</a>!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now you are free to deploy it to your network with `nixops deploy`:
```console
$ nixops deploy -d hexagone
```
<video controls width="100%">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/nixops/tmp.Tr7HTFFd2c.webm"
type="video/webm">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/nixops/tmp.Tr7HTFFd2c.mp4"
type="video/mp4">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
</video>
And then you can verify the service is up with `systemctl status`:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d hexagone chrysalis -- systemctl status withinbot
● withinbot.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/7ab7jzycpcci4f5wjwhjx3al7xy85ka7-unit-withinbot.service/withinbot.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-11-09 09:51:51 EST; 2h 29min ago
Main PID: 12295 (withinbot)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
Tasks: 13 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 7.9M
CPU: 4.456s
CGroup: /system.slice/withinbot.service
└─12295 /nix/store/qpq281hcb1grh4k5fm6ksky6w0981arp-withinbot-0.1.0/bin/withinbot
Nov 09 09:51:51 chrysalis systemd[1]: Started withinbot.service.
```
---
This basic template is enough to expand out to anything you would need and is
what I am using for my own network. This should be generic enough for most of
your needs. Check out the [NixOS manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/)
for more examples and things you can do with this. The [Nixops
manual](https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html) is also
a good read. It can also set up deployments with VirtualBox, libvirtd, AWS,
Digital Ocean, and even Google Cloud.
The cloud is the limit! Be well.

View File

@ -1,533 +0,0 @@
---
title: "My NixOS Desktop Flow"
date: 2020-04-25
series: howto
---
# My NixOS Desktop Flow
Before I built my current desktop, I had been using a [2013 Mac Pro][macpro2013]
for at least 7 years. This machine has seen me through living in a few cities
(Bellevue, Mountain View and Montreal), but it was starting to show its age. Its
12 core Xeon is really no slouch (scoring about 5 minutes in my "compile the
linux kernel" test), but with Intel security patches it was starting to get
slower and slower as time went on.
[macpro2013]: https://www.apple.com/mac-pro-2013/specs/
So in March (just before the situation started) I ordered the parts for my new
tower and built my current desktop machine. From the start, I wanted it to run
Linux and have 64 GB of ram, mostly so I could write and test programs without
having to worry about ram exhaustion.
When the parts were almost in, I had decided to really start digging into
[NixOS][nixos]. Friends on IRC and Discord had been trying to get me to use it
for years, and I was really impressed with a simple setup that I had in a
virtual machine. So I decided to jump head-first down that rabbit hole, and I'm
honestly really glad I did.
[nixos]: https://nixos.org
NixOS is built on a more functional approach to package management called
[Nix][nix]. Parts of the configuration can be easily broken off into modules
that can be reused across machines in a deployment. If [Ansible][ansible] or
other tools like it let you customize an existing Linux distribution to meet
your needs, NixOS allows you to craft your own Linux distribution around your
needs.
[nix]: https://nixos.org/nix/
[ansible]: https://www.ansible.com/
Unfortunately, the Nix and NixOS documentation is a bit more dense than most
other Linux programs/distributions are, and it's a bit easy to get lost in it.
I'm going to attempt to explain a lot of the guiding principles behind Nix and
NixOS and how they fit into how I use NixOS on my desktop.
## What is a Package?
Earlier, I mentioned that Nix is a _functional_ package manager. This means that
Nix views packages as a combination of inputs to get an output:
![A nix package is the metadata, the source code, the build instructions and
some patches as input to a derivation to create a
package](/static/blog/nix-package.png)
This is how most package managers work (even things like Windows installer
files), but Nix goes a step further by disallowing package builds to access the
internet. This allows Nix packages to be a lot more reproducible; meaning if you
have the same inputs (source code, build script and patches) you should _always_
get the same output byte-for-byte every time you build the same package at the
same version.
### A Simple Package
Let's consider a simple example, my [gruvbox-inspired CSS file][gruvboxcss]'s
[`default.nix`][gcssdefaultnix] file':
[gruvboxcss]: https://github.com/Xe/gruvbox-css
[gcssdefaultnix]: https://github.com/Xe/gruvbox-css/blob/master/default.nix
```nix
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
pname = "gruvbox-css";
version = "latest";
src = ./.;
phases = "installPhase";
installPhase = ''
mkdir -p $out
cp -rf $src/gruvbox.css $out/gruvbox.css
'';
}
```
This creates a package named `gruvbox-css` with the version `latest`. Let's
break this down its `default.nix` line by line:
```nix
{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
```
This creates a function that either takes in the `pkgs` object or tells Nix to
import the standard package library [nixpkgs][nixpkgs] as `pkgs`. nixpkgs
includes a lot of utilities like a standard packaging environment, special
builders for things like snaps and Docker images as well as one of the largest
package sets out there.
[nixpkgs]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/
```nix
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
# ...
}
```
This runs the [`stdenv.mkDerivation`][mkderiv] function with some arguments in an
object. The "standard environment" comes with tools like GCC, bash, coreutils,
find, sed, grep, awk, tar, make, patch and all of the major compression tools.
This means that our package builds can build C/C++ programs, copy files to the
output, and extract downloaded source files by default. You can add other inputs
to this environment if you need to, but for now it works as-is.
[mkderiv]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-using-stdenv
Let's specify the name and version of this package:
```nix
pname = "gruvbox-css";
version = "latest";
```
`pname` stands for "package name". It is combined with the version to create the
resulting package name. In this case it would be `gruvbox-css-latest`.
Let's tell Nix how to build this package:
```nix
src = ./.;
phases = "installPhase";
installPhase = ''
mkdir -p $out
cp -rf $src/gruvbox.css $out/gruvbox.css
'';
```
The `src` attribute tells Nix where the source code of the package is stored.
Sometimes this can be a URL to a compressed archive on the internet, sometimes
it can be a git repo, but for now it's the current working directory `./.`.
This is a CSS file, it doesn't make sense to have to build these, so we skip the
build phase and tell Nix to directly install the package to its output folder:
```shell
mkdir -p $out
cp -rf $src/gruvbox.css $out/gruvbox.css
```
This two-liner shell script creates the output directory (usually exposed as
`$out`) and then copies `gruvbox.css` into it. When we run this through Nix
with`nix-build`, we get output that looks something like this:
```console
$ nix-build ./default.nix
these derivations will be built:
/nix/store/c99n4ixraigf4jb0jfjxbkzicd79scpj-gruvbox-css.drv
building '/nix/store/c99n4ixraigf4jb0jfjxbkzicd79scpj-gruvbox-css.drv'...
installing
/nix/store/ng5qnhwyrk9zaidjv00arhx787r0412s-gruvbox-css
```
And `/nix/store/ng5qnhwyrk9zaidjv00arhx787r0412s-gruvbox-css` is the output
package. Looking at its contents with `ls`, we see this:
```console
$ ls /nix/store/ng5qnhwyrk9zaidjv00arhx787r0412s-gruvbox-css
gruvbox.css
```
### A More Complicated Package
For a more complicated package, let's look at the [build directions of the
website you are reading right now][sitedefaultnix]:
[sitedefaultnix]: https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/master/site.nix
```nix
{ pkgs ? import (import ./nix/sources.nix).nixpkgs }:
with pkgs;
assert lib.versionAtLeast go.version "1.13";
buildGoPackage rec {
pname = "christinewebsite";
version = "latest";
goPackagePath = "christine.website";
src = ./.;
goDeps = ./nix/deps.nix;
allowGoReference = false;
preBuild = ''
export CGO_ENABLED=0
buildFlagsArray+=(-pkgdir "$TMPDIR")
'';
postInstall = ''
cp -rf $src/blog $bin/blog
cp -rf $src/css $bin/css
cp -rf $src/gallery $bin/gallery
cp -rf $src/signalboost.dhall $bin/signalboost.dhall
cp -rf $src/static $bin/static
cp -rf $src/talks $bin/talks
cp -rf $src/templates $bin/templates
'';
}
```
Breaking it down, we see some similarities to the gruvbox-css package from
above, but there's a few more interesting lines I want to point out:
```nix
{ pkgs ? import (import ./nix/sources.nix).nixpkgs }:
```
My website uses a pinned or fixed version of nixpkgs. This allows my website's
deployment to be stable even if nixpkgs changes something that could cause it to
break.
```nix
with pkgs;
```
[With expressions][nixwith] are one of the more interesting parts of Nix.
Essentially, they let you say "everything in this object should be put into
scope". So if you have an expression that does this:
[nixwith]: https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#idm140737321975440
```nix
let
foo = {
ponies = "awesome";
};
in with foo; "ponies are ${ponies}!"
```
You get the result `"ponies are awesome!"`. I use `with pkgs` here to use things
directly from nixpkgs without having to say `pkgs.` in front of a lot of things.
```nix
assert lib.versionAtLeast go.version "1.13";
```
This line will make the build fail if Nix is using any Go version less than
1.13. I'm pretty sure my website's code could function on older versions of Go,
but the runtime improvements are important to it, so let's fail loudly just in
case.
```nix
buildGoPackage {
# ...
}
```
[`buildGoPackage`](https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#ssec-go-legacy) builds a Go
package into a Nix package. It takes in the [Go package path][gopkgpath], list
of dependencies and if the resulting package is allowed to depend on the Go
compiler or not.
[gopkgpath]: https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/GOPATH#directory-layout
It will then compile the Go program (and all of its dependencies) into a binary
and put that in the resulting package. This website is more than just the source
code, it's also got assets like CSS files and the image earlier in the post.
Those files are copied in the `postInstall` phase:
```nix
postInstall = ''
cp -rf $src/blog $bin/blog
cp -rf $src/css $bin/css
cp -rf $src/gallery $bin/gallery
cp -rf $src/signalboost.dhall $bin/signalboost.dhall
cp -rf $src/static $bin/static
cp -rf $src/talks $bin/talks
cp -rf $src/templates $bin/templates
'';
```
This results in all of the files that my website needs to run existing in the
right places.
### Other Packages
For more kinds of packages that you can build, see the [Languages and
Frameworks][nixpkgslangsframeworks] chapter of the nixpkgs documentation.
[nixpkgslangsframeworks]: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#chap-language-support
If your favorite language isn't shown there, you can make your own build script
and do it more manually. See [here][nixpillscustombuilder] for more information
on how to do that.
[nixpillscustombuilder]: https://nixos.org/nixos/nix-pills/working-derivation.html#idm140737320334640
## `nix-env` And Friends
Building your own packages is nice and all, but what about using packages
defined in nixpkgs? Nix includes a few tools that help you find, install,
upgrade and remove packages as well as `nix-build` to build new ones.
### `nix search`
When looking for a package to install, use `$ nix search name` to see if it's
already packaged. For example, let's look for [graphviz][graphviz], a popular
diagramming software:
[graphviz]: https://graphviz.org/
```console
$ nix search graphviz
* nixos.graphviz (graphviz)
Graph visualization tools
* nixos.graphviz-nox (graphviz)
Graph visualization tools
* nixos.graphviz_2_32 (graphviz)
Graph visualization tools
```
There are several results here! These are different because sometimes you may
want some features of graphviz, but not all of them. For example, a server
installation of graphviz wouldn't need X windows support.
The first line of the output is the attribute. This is the attribute that the
package is imported to inside nixpkgs. This allows multiple packages in
different contexts to exist in nixpkgs at the same time, for example with python
2 and python 3 versions of a library.
The second line is a description of the package from its metadata section.
The `nix` tool allows you to do a lot more than just this, but for now this is
the most important thing.
### `nix-env -i`
`nix-env` is a rather big tool that does a lot of things (similar to pacman in
Arch Linux), so I'm going to break things down into separate sections.
Let's pick an instance graphviz from before and install it using `nix-env`:
```console
$ nix-env -iA nixos.graphviz
installing 'graphviz-2.42.2'
these paths will be fetched (5.00 MiB download, 13.74 MiB unpacked):
/nix/store/980jk7qbcfrlnx8jsmdx92q96wsai8mx-gts-0.7.6
/nix/store/fij1p8f0yjpv35n342ii9pwfahj8rlbb-graphviz-2.42.2
/nix/store/jy35xihlnb3az0vdksyg9rd2f38q2c01-libdevil-1.7.8
/nix/store/s895dnwlprwpfp75pzq70qzfdn8mwfzc-lcms-1.19
copying path '/nix/store/980jk7qbcfrlnx8jsmdx92q96wsai8mx-gts-0.7.6' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/s895dnwlprwpfp75pzq70qzfdn8mwfzc-lcms-1.19' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/jy35xihlnb3az0vdksyg9rd2f38q2c01-libdevil-1.7.8' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
copying path '/nix/store/fij1p8f0yjpv35n342ii9pwfahj8rlbb-graphviz-2.42.2' from 'https://cache.nixos.org'...
building '/nix/store/r4fqdwpicqjpa97biis1jlxzb4ywi92b-user-environment.drv'...
created 664 symlinks in user environment
```
And now let's see where the `dot` tool from graphviz is installed to:
```console
$ which dot
/home/cadey/.nix-profile/bin/dot
$ readlink /home/cadey/.nix-profile/bin/dot
/nix/store/fij1p8f0yjpv35n342ii9pwfahj8rlbb-graphviz-2.42.2/bin/dot
```
This lets you install tools into the system-level Nix store without affecting
other user's environments, even if they depend on a different version of
graphviz.
### `nix-env -e`
`nix-env -e` lets you uninstall packages installed with `nix-env -i`. Let's
uninstall graphviz:
```console
$ nix-env -e graphviz
```
Now the `dot` tool will be gone from your shell:
```console
$ which dot
which: no dot in (/run/wrappers/bin:/home/cadey/.nix-profile/bin:/etc/profiles/per-user/cadey/bin:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin:/run/current-system/sw/bin)
```
And it's like graphviz was never installed.
Notice that these package management commands are done at the _user_ level
because they are only affecting the currently logged-in user. This allows users
to install their own editors or other tools without having to get admins
involved.
## Adding up to NixOS
NixOS builds on top of Nix and its command line tools to make an entire Linux
distribution that can be perfectly crafted to your needs. NixOS machines are
configured using a [configuration.nix][confignix] file that contains the
following kinds of settings:
[confignix]: https://nixos.org/nixos/manual/index.html#ch-configuration
- packages installed to the system
- user accounts on the system
- allowed SSH public keys for users on the system
- services activated on the system
- configuration for services on the system
- magic unix flags like the number of allowed file descriptors per process
- what drives to mount where
- network configuration
- ACME certificates
[and so much more](https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html#)
At a high level, machines are configured by setting options like this:
```
# basic-lxc-image.nix
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
networking.hostName = "example-for-blog";
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ wget vim ];
}
```
This would specify a simple NixOS machine with the hostname `example-for-blog`
and with wget and vim installed. This is nowhere near enough to boot an entire
system, but is good enough for describing the base layout of a basic [LXC][lxc]
image.
[lxc]: https://linuxcontainers.org/lxc/introduction/
For a more complete example of NixOS configurations, see
[here](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/hosts) or repositories on
[this handy NixOS wiki page](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Configuration_Collection).
The main configuration.nix file (usually at `/etc/nixos/configuration.nix`) can also
import other NixOS modules using the `imports` attribute:
```nix
# better-vm.nix
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
imports = [
./basic-lxc-image.nix
];
networking.hostName = "better-vm";
services.nginx.enable = true;
}
```
And the `better-vm.nix` file would describe a machine with the hostname
`better-vm` that has wget and vim installed, but is also running nginx with its
default configuration.
Internally, every one of these options will be fed into auto-generated Nix
packages that will describe the system configuration bit by bit.
### `nixos-rebuild`
One of the handy features about Nix is that every package exists in its own part
of the Nix store. This allows you to leave the older versions of a package
laying around so you can roll back to them if you need to. `nixos-rebuild` is
the tool that helps you commit configuration changes to the system as well as
roll them back.
If you want to upgrade your entire system:
```console
$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade
```
This tells nixos-rebuild to upgrade the package channels, use those to create a
new base system description, switch the running system to it and start/restart/stop
any services that were added/upgraded/removed during the upgrade. Every time you
rebuild the configuration, you create a new "generation" of configuration that
you can roll back to just as easily:
```console
$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch --rollback
```
### Garbage Collection
As upgrades happen and old generations pile up, this may end up taking up a lot
of unwanted disk (and boot menu) space. To free up this space, you can use
`nix-collect-garbage`:
```console
$ sudo nix-collect-garbage
< cleans up packages not referenced by anything >
$ sudo nix-collect-garbage -d
< deletes old generations and then cleans up packages not referenced by anything >
```
The latter is a fairly powerful command and can wipe out older system states.
Only run this if you are sure you don't want to go back to an older setup.
## How I Use It
Each of these things builds on top of eachother to make the base platform that I
built my desktop environment on. I have the configuration for [my
shell][xefish], [emacs][xemacs], [my window manager][xedwm] and just about [every
program I use on a regular basis][xecommon] defined in their own NixOS modules so I can
pick and choose things for new machines.
[xefish]: https://github.com/Xe/xepkgs/tree/master/modules/fish
[xemacs]: https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common/users/cadey/spacemacs
[xedwm]: https://github.com/Xe/xepkgs/tree/master/modules/dwm
[xecommon]: https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common
When I want to change part of my config, I edit the files responsible for that
part of the config and then rebuild the system to test it. If things work
properly, I commit those changes and then continue using the system like normal.
This is a little bit more work in the short term, but as a result I get a setup
that is easier to recreate on more machines in the future. It took me a half
hour or so to get the configuration for [zathura][zathura] right, but now I have
[a zathura
module](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common/users/cadey/zathura)
that lets me get exactly the setup I want every time.
[zathura]: https://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/
## TL;DR
Nix and NixOS ruined me. It's hard to go back.

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@ -1,146 +0,0 @@
---
title: Discord Webhooks via NixOS and Systemd Timers
date: 2020-11-30
series: howto
tags:
- nixos
- discord
- systemd
---
# Discord Webhooks via NixOS and Systemd Timers
Recently I needed to set up a Discord message on a cronjob as a part of
moderating a guild I've been in for years. I've done this before using
[cronjobs](/blog/howto-automate-discord-webhook-cron-2018-03-29), however this
time we will be using [NixOS](https://nixos.org/) and [systemd
timers](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Timers). Here's what you
will need to follow along:
- A machine running NixOS
- A [Discord](https://discord.com/) account
- A
[webhook](https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/228383668-Intro-to-Webhooks)
configured for a channel
- A message you want to send to Discord
[If you don't have moderation permissions in any guilds, make your own for
testing! You will need the "Manage Webhooks" permission to create a
webhook.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Setting Up Timers
systemd timers are like cronjobs, except they trigger systemd services instead
of shell commands. For this example, let's create a daily webhook reminder to
check on your Animal Crossing island at 9 am.
Let's create the systemd service at the end of the machine's
`configuration.nix`:
```nix
systemd.services.acnh-island-check-reminder = {
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
script = ''
MESSAGE="It's time to check on your island! Check those stonks!"
WEBHOOK="${builtins.readFile /home/cadey/prefix/secrets/acnh-webhook-secret}"
USERNAME="Domo"
${pkgs.curl}/bin/curl \
-X POST \
-F "content=$MESSAGE" \
-F "username=$USERNAME" \
"$WEBHOOK"
'';
};
```
[This service is a <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/39050387">oneshot</a>
unit, meaning systemd will launch this once and not expect it to always stay
running.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now let's create a timer for this service. We need to do the following:
- Associate the timer with that service
- Assign a schedule to the timer
Add this to the end of your `configuration.nix`:
```nix
systemd.timers.acnh-island-check-reminder = {
wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
partOf = [ "acnh-island-check-reminder.service" ];
timerConfig.OnCalendar = "TODO(Xe): this";
};
```
Before we mentioned that we want to trigger this reminder every morning at 9 am.
systemd timers specify their calendar config in the following format:
```
DayOfWeek Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second
```
So for something that triggers every day at 9 AM, it would look like this:
```
*-*-* 8:00:00
```
[You can ignore the day of the week if it's not
relevant!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
So our final timer definition would look like this:
```nix
systemd.timers.acnh-island-check-reminder = {
wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
partOf = [ "acnh-island-check-reminder.service" ];
timerConfig.OnCalendar = "*-*-* 8:00:00";
};
```
## Deployment and Testing
Now we can deploy this with `nixos-rebuild`:
```console
$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch
```
You should see a line that says something like this in the `nixos-rebuild`
output:
```
starting the following units: acnh-island-check-reminder.timer
```
Let's test the service out using `systemctl`:
```console
$ sudo systemctl start acnh-island-check-reminder.service
```
And you should then see a message on Discord. If you don't see a message, check
the logs using `journalctl`:
```console
$ journalctl -u acnh-island-check-reminder.service
```
If you see an error that looks like this:
```
curl: (26) Failed to open/read local data from file/application
```
This usually means that you tried to do a role or user mention at the beginning
of the message and curl tried to interpret that as a file input. Add a word like
"hey" at the beginning of the line to disable this behavior. See
[here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6408904/send-request-to-curl-with-post-data-sourced-from-a-file)
for more information.
---
Also happy December! My site has the [snow
CSS](https://christine.website/blog/let-it-snow-2018-12-17) loaded for the
month. Enjoy!

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@ -1,332 +0,0 @@
---
title: Encrypted Secrets with NixOS
date: 2021-01-20
series: nixos
tags:
- age
- ed25519
---
# Encrypted Secrets with NixOS
One of the best things about NixOS is the fact that it's so easy to do
configuration management using it. The Nix store (where all your packages live)
has a huge flaw for secret management though: everything in the Nix store is
globally readable. This means that anyone logged into or running code on the
system could read any secret in the Nix store without any limits. This is
sub-optimal if your goal is to keep secret values secret. There have been a few
approaches to this over the years, but I want to describe how I'm doing it.
Here are my goals and implementation for this setup and how a few other secret
management strategies don't quite pan out.
At a high level I have these goals:
* It should be trivial to declare new secrets
* Secrets should never be globally readable in any useful form
* If I restart the machine, I should not need to take manual human action to
ensure all of the services come back online
* GPG should be avoided at all costs
As a side goal being able to roll back secret changes would also be nice.
The two biggest tools that offer a way to help with secret management on NixOS
that come to mind are NixOps and Morph.
[NixOps](https://github.com/NixOS/nixops) is a tool that helps administrators
operate NixOS across multiple servers at once. I use NixOps extensively in my
own setup. It calls deployment secrets "keys" and they are documented
[here](https://hydra.nixos.org/build/115931128/download/1/manual/manual.html#idm140737322649152).
At a high level they are declared like this:
```nix
deployment.keys.example = {
text = "this is a super sekrit value :)";
user = "example";
group = "keys";
permissions = "0400";
};
```
This will create a new secret in `/run/keys` that will contain our super secret
value.
[Wait, isn't `/run` an ephemeral filesystem? What happens when the system
reboots?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
Let's make an example system and find out! So let's say we have that `example`
secret from earlier and want to use it in a job. The job definition could look
something like this:
```nix
# create a service-specific user
users.users.example.isSystemUser = true;
# without this group the secret can't be read
users.users.example.extraGroups = [ "keys" ];
systemd.services.example = {
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
after = [ "example-key.service" ];
wants = [ "example-key.service" ];
serviceConfig.User = "example";
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
script = ''
stat /run/keys/example
'';
};
```
This creates a user called `example` and gives it permission to read deployment
keys. It also creates a systemd service called `example.service` and runs
[`stat(1)`](https://linux.die.net/man/1/stat) to show the permissions of the
service and the key file. It also runs as our `example` user. To avoid systemd
thinking our service failed, we're also going to mark it as a
[oneshot](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/understanding-systemd-units-and-unit-files#the-service-section).
Altogether it could look something like
[this](https://gist.github.com/Xe/4a71d7741e508d9002be91b62248144a). Let's see
what `systemctl` has to report:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example
● example.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/j4a8f6mnaw3v4sz7dqlnz95psh72xglw-unit-example.service/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2021-01-20 20:53:54 UTC; 37s ago
Process: 2230 ExecStart=/nix/store/1yg89z4dsdp1axacqk07iq5jqv58q169-unit-script-example-start/bin/example-start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 2230 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
CPU: 3ms
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: File: /run/keys/example
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Size: 31 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Device: 18h/24d Inode: 37428 Links: 1
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Access: (0400/-r--------) Uid: ( 998/ example) Gid: ( 96/ keys)
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Access: 2021-01-20 20:53:54.010554201 +0000
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Modify: 2021-01-20 20:53:54.010554201 +0000
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Change: 2021-01-20 20:53:54.398103181 +0000
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Birth: -
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa systemd[1]: example.service: Succeeded.
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa systemd[1]: Finished example.service.
```
So what happens when we reboot? I'll force a reboot in my hypervisor and we'll
find out:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example
● example.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/j4a8f6mnaw3v4sz7dqlnz95psh72xglw-unit-example.service/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
```
The service is inactive. Let's see what the status of `example-key.service` is:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example-key
● example-key.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/ikqn64cjq8pspkf3ma1jmx8qzpyrckpb-unit-example-key.service/example-key.service; linked; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (start-pre) since Wed 2021-01-20 20:56:05 UTC; 3min 1s ago
Cntrl PID: 610 (example-key-pre)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
IO: 116.0K read, 0B written
Tasks: 4 (limit: 2374)
Memory: 1.6M
CPU: 3ms
CGroup: /system.slice/example-key.service
├─610 /nix/store/kl6lr3czkbnr6m5crcy8ffwfzbj8a22i-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash -e /nix/store/awx1zrics3cal8kd9c5d05xzp5ikazlk-unit-script-example-key-pre-start/bin/example-key-pre-start
├─619 /nix/store/kl6lr3czkbnr6m5crcy8ffwfzbj8a22i-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash -e /nix/store/awx1zrics3cal8kd9c5d05xzp5ikazlk-unit-script-example-key-pre-start/bin/example-key-pre-start
├─620 /nix/store/kl6lr3czkbnr6m5crcy8ffwfzbj8a22i-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash -e /nix/store/awx1zrics3cal8kd9c5d05xzp5ikazlk-unit-script-example-key-pre-start/bin/example-key-pre-start
└─621 inotifywait -qm --format %f -e create,move /run/keys
Jan 20 20:56:05 pa systemd[1]: Starting example-key.service...
```
The service is blocked waiting for the keys to exist. We have to populate the
keys with `nixops send-keys`:
```console
$ nixops send-keys -d blog-example
pa> uploading key example...
```
Now when we check on `example.service`, we get the following:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example
● example.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/j4a8f6mnaw3v4sz7dqlnz95psh72xglw-unit-example.service/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2021-01-20 21:00:24 UTC; 32s ago
Process: 954 ExecStart=/nix/store/1yg89z4dsdp1axacqk07iq5jqv58q169-unit-script-example-start/bin/example-start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 954 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
CPU: 3ms
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: File: /run/keys/example
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Size: 31 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Device: 18h/24d Inode: 27774 Links: 1
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Access: (0400/-r--------) Uid: ( 998/ example) Gid: ( 96/ keys)
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Access: 2021-01-20 21:00:24.588494730 +0000
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Modify: 2021-01-20 21:00:24.588494730 +0000
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Change: 2021-01-20 21:00:24.606495751 +0000
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Birth: -
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa systemd[1]: example.service: Succeeded.
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa systemd[1]: Finished example.service.
```
This means that NixOps secrets require _manual human intervention_ in order to
repopulate them on server boot. If your server went offline overnight due to an
unexpected issue, your services using those keys could be stuck offline until
morning. This is undesirable for a number of reasons. This plus the requirement
for the `keys` group (which at time of writing was undocumented) to be added to
service user accounts means that while they do work, they are not very
ergonomic.
[You can read secrets from files using something like
`deployment.keys.example.text = "${builtins.readFile ./secrets/example.env}"`,
but it is kind of a pain to have to do that. It would be better to just
reference the secrets by filesystem paths in the first
place.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
On the other hand [Morph](https://github.com/DBCDK/morph) gets this a bit
better. It is sadly even less documented than NixOps is, but it offers a similar
experience via [deployment
secrets](https://github.com/DBCDK/morph/blob/master/examples/secrets.nix). The
main differences that Morph brings to the table are taking paths to secrets and
allowing you to run an arbitrary command on the secret being uploaded. Secrets
are also able to be put anywhere on the disk, meaning that when a host reboots it
will come back up with the most recent secrets uploaded to it.
However, like NixOps, Morph secrets don't have the ability to be rolled back.
This means that if you mess up a secret value you better hope you have the old
information somewhere. This violates what you'd expect from a NixOS machine.
So given these examples, I thought it would be interesting to explore what the
middle path could look like. I chose to use
[age](https://github.com/FiloSottile/age) for encrypting secrets in the Nix
store as well as using SSH host keys to ensure that every secret is decryptable
at runtime by _that machine only_. If you get your hands on the secret
cyphertext, it should be unusable to you.
One of the harder things here will be keeping a list of all of the server host
keys. Recently I added a
[hosts.toml](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/ops/metadata/hosts.toml)
file to my config repo for autoconfiguring my WireGuard overlay network. It was
easy enough to add all the SSH host keys for each machine using a command like
this to get them:
[We will cover how this WireGuard overlay works in a future post.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```console
$ nixops ssh-for-each -d hexagone -- cat /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
firgu....> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIB8+mCR+MEsv0XYi7ohvdKLbDecBtb3uKGQOPfIhdj3C root@nixos
chrysalis> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIGDA5iXvkKyvAiMEd/5IruwKwoymC8WxH4tLcLWOSYJ1 root@chrysalis
lufta....> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIMADhGV0hKt3ZY+uBjgOXX08txBS6MmHZcSL61KAd3df root@lufta
keanu....> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIGDZUmuhfjEIROo2hog2c8J53taRuPJLNOtdaT8Nt69W root@nixos
```
age lets you use SSH keys for decryption, so I added these keys to my
`hosts.toml` and ended up with something like
[this](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/commit/14726e982001e794cd72afa1ece209eed58d3f38#diff-61d1d8dddd71be624c0d718be22072c950ec31c72fded8a25094ea53d94c8185).
Now we can encrypt secrets on the host machine and safely put them in the Nix
store because they will be readable to each target machine with a command like
this:
```shell
age -d -i /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key -o $dest $src
```
From here it's easy to make a function that we can use for generating new
encrypted secrets in the Nix store. First we need to import the host metadata
from the toml file:
```nix
let
cfg = config.within.secrets;
metadata = lib.importTOML ../../ops/metadata/hosts.toml;
mkSecretOnDisk = name:
{ source, ... }:
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
name = "${name}-secret";
phases = "installPhase";
buildInputs = [ pkgs.age ];
installPhase =
let key = metadata.hosts."${config.networking.hostName}".ssh_pubkey;
in ''
age -a -r "${key}" -o $out ${source}
'';
};
```
And then we can generate systemd oneshot jobs with something like this:
```nix
mkService = name:
{ source, dest, owner, group, permissions, ... }: {
description = "decrypt secret for ${name}";
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
script = with pkgs; ''
rm -rf ${dest}
${age}/bin/age -d -i /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key -o ${dest} ${
mkSecretOnDisk name { inherit source; }
}
chown ${owner}:${group} ${dest}
chmod ${permissions} ${dest}
'';
};
```
And from there we just need some [boring
boilerplate](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/crypto/default.nix#L8-L38)
to define a secret type. Then we declare the secret type and its invocation:
```nix
in {
options.within.secrets = mkOption {
type = types.attrsOf secret;
description = "secret configuration";
default = { };
};
config.systemd.services = let
units = mapAttrs' (name: info: {
name = "${name}-key";
value = (mkService name info);
}) cfg;
in units;
}
```
And we have ourself a NixOS module that allows us to:
* Trivially declare new secrets
* Make secrets in the Nix store useless without the key
* Make every secret be transparently decrypted on startup
* Avoid the use of GPG
* Roll back secrets like any other configuration change
Declaring new secrets works like this (as stolen from [the service definition
for the website you are reading right now](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/services/xesite.nix#L35-L41)):
```nix
within.secrets.example = {
source = ./secrets/example.env;
dest = "/var/lib/example/.env";
owner = "example";
group = "nogroup";
permissions = "0400";
};
```
Barring some kind of cryptographic attack against age, this should allow the
secrets to be stored securely. I am working on a way to make this more generic.
This overall approach was inspired by [agenix](https://github.com/ryantm/agenix)
but made more specific for my needs. I hope this approach will make it easy for
me to manage these secrets in the future.

View File

@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Tailscale on NixOS: A New Minecraft Server in Ten Minutes"
date: 2021-01-19
tags:
- link
redirect_to: https://tailscale.com/blog/nixos-minecraft/
---
# Tailscale on NixOS: A New Minecraft Server in Ten Minutes
Check out this post [on the Tailscale
blog](https://tailscale.com/blog/nixos-minecraft/)!

View File

@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
---
title: "Olin: 1: Why"
date: 2018-09-01
series: olin
---
# [Olin][olin]: 1: Why
@ -46,7 +45,7 @@ right code runs as a response. I then have to make sure these things get put
in the right places and then that the right versions of things are running for
each of the relevant services. This doesn't scale very well, not to mention is
hard to secure. This leads to a lot of duplicate infrastructure over time and
as things grow. Not to mention adding in tracing, metrics and log aggregation.
as things grow. Not to mention adding in tracing, metrics and log aggreation.
I would like to change this.
@ -58,7 +57,7 @@ need to be maintained in parallel, so it might be good to get used to that early
on.
You should not have to write ANY code but the bare minimum needed in order to
perform your business logic. You don't need to care about distributed tracing.
perform your buisiness logic. You don't need to care about distributed tracing.
You don't need to care about logging.
I want this project to last decades. I want the binary modules any user of Olin

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