When you're on a roll, you're on a roll...
Almost done patching this particular old rowboat. This installment deals with quieting this bit of error log noise:
PHP Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in blahblah\components\com_htmlmap\views\htmlmap\tmpl\default_map.php on line 20
You see, it all started in January, when I decided to do a good deed (I should have known better). I set up a YUM repository mirror for Netlabs.org, as OS/2 now uses RPM and YUM for (some) package management (I have a post in draft on that whole issue). It turns out, however, that for reasons which I shall explain, the xml (and related) files in my mirror weren't getting updated, so while I was doing a great job of adding content, I wasn't updating the repo information, so subscribers had no idea.
So, for all of you out there who have come to rely over the past couple of months on my US mirror of the Netlabs YUM repository, I most humbly apologize for the inconvenience. It's fixed now, though.
One of the frustrating things about NetWare has always been its distinct lack of a decent process killer. Part of this was perhaps over-confidence on the part of Drew Major (and others), thinking that we would never need a process killer because there would be no such thing as a runaway process on NetWare. Another (good) reason might be that killing a process can sometimes be as risky as letting it run, even if it runs until the next server restart.
With NetWare 6, we got a fairly useful bash implementation, along with some standard utilities (grep, egrep, fgrep, cat, etc.). We also happened to get kill and killall. Now, the problem with kill is, of course, that one needs a process id to feed it. Naturally, among the things we lack is a port of ps (don't ask me why!). Trying killall results in a slew of public symbol errors (at least for me). So, what to do?
An interesting head scratcher to which I have been returning almost monthly for some time is the distinct lack of ability to rename files based upon a mask at the OS/2 command line (in a minute, I'll explain why this is a fairly regular occurrence). Of course, OS/2's cmd.exe is not alone in that regard; DOS' COMMAND.COM, 4DOS, 4OS2, JdeBP's 32-bit CMD, Windows' CMD, and even the *nix shells with which I'm familiar don't naturally lend themselves to this kind of flexibility (okay, I lied: you can do it with Bash, of course; see below).
Why a monthly occurrence?
I don't normally send paper invoices to clients anymore. Not only does it kill more trees than it's worth (and no, I'm not an environmental zealot; we grow new trees every day - I'm just the guy who has to buy the paper and the laser toner), but the postage has over the years become a major factor in this decision. Anyone who has to regularly bill clients for outstanding balances knows from whence I speak; send the same client a dunning notice for six months, and that $150 bill has just been whittled down to $147.36 ($0.44 * 6 = $2.64; $150 - $2.64 = $147.36). This just adds the insult to the injury.