today's howtos

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 22, 2026

• Dan Langille ☛ Cleaning up old snapshost: snapshot has dependent clones

  I was getting messages like this from sanoid: cannot destroy 'data02/jails/mysql02.bad@autosnap_2026-02-10_12:00:07_hourly': snapshot has dependent clones use '-R' to destroy the following datasets: [...]

• University of Toronto ☛ The importance of limiting syndication feed requests in some way

  If feed readers didn't do any conditional GETs and I didn't have any rate limiting (and all of the requests that got HTTP 429s would still have been made), the additional feed requests would have amounted to about another 3.5 GBytes of responses sent out to people. Obviously feed readers did do conditional GETS, and 66% of their non rate limited requests were successful conditional GETs. A HTTP 200 response ratio of 44% is probably too pessimistic once we include rate limited requests, so as an extreme approximation we'll guess that 33% of the rate limited requests would have received HTTP 200 responses with a changed feed; that would amount to another 677 MBytes of response traffic (which is less than I expected). If we use the 44% HTTP 200 ratio, it's still only 903 MBytes more.

• University of Toronto ☛ Consider mentioning your little personal scripts to your co-workers

  I have a habit of writing little scripts at work for my own use (perhaps like some number of my readers). They pile up like snowdrifts in my $HOME/adm, except they don't melt away when their time is done but stick around even when they're years obsolete. Every so often I mention one of them to my co-workers; sometimes my co-workers aren't interested, but sometimes they find the script appealing and have me put it into our shared location for 'production' scripts and programs. Sometimes, these production-ized scripts have turned out to be very useful.

• Robin Rendle ☛ pointer-box-offset

  It all began with the nav. Notice how in the sidebar of this here blog where you can open and close folders to reveal more entries? Well, the tappable area of the arrow was way too small and I kept miss-clicking and selecting folders instead. So, I tried to fix it and realized the only way to do so was by tweaking the element like this: [...]

• [Old] Nick Holland ☛ Incremental Backup System

  The only dependencies are rsync (any modern version on the backup server, incredibly old supported on the client), and a POSIX shell (ksh, sh or bash) on the backup server.

  Restoring from one of these incremental backups is trivial -- absolutely everything you backed up is in one place, there's no need to restore the "full backup" and then the ten or so "incrementals". You can directly access all the backed up files of any historic backup, no reconstruction is needed. You can directly inspect and compare any versions of files between any backups.

• [Old] Justin Lam ☛ Remapping a Standard Keyboard

  With a bit of layer remapping that I adapted from using small form factor keyboards, I was able to achieve a layout that keeps my hands relatively centered around home row. It’s not a far departure from a standard layout, so the learning curve is low compared to other, more drastic layout changes to bring improved ergonomics to common keyboards.

• Jeff Frasca ☛ Process Isolation on NetBSD with chroot(2)

  Why use a chroot(2) on NetBSD? The most basic reason, for me, is I just like working with NetBSD. It's comfortable. I may write a post going into more detail why I feel that way, but we'll leave this at, "I just think it's neat" for now.

  There's also a question of how much isolation do you need? To me, the main advantages of containers, jails or zones are the existing tooling for deployment pipelines and having not-quite-vms to play with, rather than security. And those are primarily advantages on larger teams and systems. I don't need nor want any of that complexity for my own little webserver. Ansible and rsync are my deployment tools. The server software is written in a memory safe language, which should cut down on RCE exploits. And if someone does get in, I want them to find themselves in an annoying box of limited utility, but it doesn't need to be maximally isolated.

  For a lot of small, self-hosted infrastructure, big complicated orchestration systems will be harder to work with.

  Another reason is to just learn what chroot(2) is, as it's an evolutionary step in the development of process isolation tools. Illumos zones, FreeBSD jails and Linux containers are all technologies that are a take on "how do we push isolation further than chroot(2)?" Which means chroot(2) is a good starting point for building a mental model of the next generations tools.

• Linuxize ☛ ls Cheatsheet

  Quick reference for listing files and directories with ls in Linux

• idroot

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install LibreCAD on Linux Mint 22

    If you’ve been searching for a powerful, free alternative to AutoCAD on Linux, LibreCAD deserves your attention. Whether you’re drafting floor plans, designing mechanical components, or sketching precision schematics, LibreCAD delivers a clean, professional workspace without a single licensing fee.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Nextcloud on Fedora 43

    Storing files on Surveillance Giant Google Drive or Dropbox means handing your data to a third party. If privacy matters — for personal use or your business — self-hosting is the smarter choice. Nextcloud is a powerful, open-source cloud platform that puts you in complete control of your data.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install 7-Zip on Debian 13

    File compression is a daily reality in GNU/Linux system administration, development, and general desktop use. Whether you are archiving project directories, sending large files over the network, or protecting sensitive data with encryption, you need a tool that is fast, reliable, and format-flexible. 7-Zip checks every box.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Umami Analytics on AlmaLinux 10

    If you’re tired of handing your website visitor data over to third parties, it’s time to take back control. Installing Umami Analytics on AlmaLinux 10 gives you a fast, privacy-focused web analytics platform that lives entirely on your own server — no cookies, no GDPR headaches, and no Surveillance Giant Google watching over your shoulder.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Audacious on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

    Audacious stands out as one of the most lightweight and versatile audio players available for GNU/Linux systems. This open-source media player combines the nostalgic Winamp-style interface with modern functionality, making it a favorite among Ubuntu users who value simplicity without sacrificing features.