AccuWeaver LLC

I ran into a situation where I had a number of resources in a CloudFormation stack that may already exist, or I might want to make creation of those objects optional.

To achieve this it turns out that CloudFormation actually has a nice facility, although it is a bit awkward.

In this particular case, I have a stack that creates a CloudFront distribution for a wildcard domain. The stack includes creating the certificate, but I realized that when I go to production with this, I will have an existing certificate that will be used, so there won’t be a need to create a new one.

So in my stack, I added a parameter for the ARN of an existing certificate which looks like:

  ACMARN:
    Type: String
    Default: ""
    Description: Enter the ARN of an existing certificate in ACM. If this is left empty, we will create a new cert.

ACMARN:

Type: String

Default: ""

Description: Enter the ARN of an existing certificate in ACM. If this is left empty, we will create a new cert.

Notice that I set the default to an empty string, which implies my default scenario, I won’t use an existing certificate, but instead create one.

Then I need a condition statement which I can use later in the stack.

Conditions:
    CreateCertificate: !Equals [!Ref ACMARN, ""]

1 2	Conditions: CreateCertificate: !Equals [!Ref ACMARN, ""]

What this says is give me a condition that will be true if the parameter of ACMARN is equal to an empty string. I named it CreateCertificate to make it descriptive to the action that this will have. So if there is a value in ACMARN, then CreateCertificate will be false.

With that I update my certificate creation in the Resources section to be optional.

  ## Generates the certificate for our zone ...
  ## NOTE: this zone must exist, and the DNS validation must already be there
  WildCardCertificate:
    Type: "AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate"
    # Only create if we didn't get an ARN passed in as a parameter
    Condition: CreateCertificate
    Properties: 
      DomainName: !Sub "*.${WildCardZone}"   
      DomainValidationOptions:
        - DomainName: !Sub "*.${WildCardZone}"
          ValidationDomain: !Sub "${WildCardZone}"

## Generates the certificate for our zone ...

## NOTE: this zone must exist, and the DNS validation must already be there

WildCardCertificate:

Type: "AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate"

# Only create if we didn't get an ARN passed in as a parameter

Condition: CreateCertificate

Properties:

DomainName: !Sub "*.${WildCardZone}"

DomainValidationOptions:

- DomainName: !Sub "*.${WildCardZone}"

ValidationDomain: !Sub "${WildCardZone}"

The “Condition” will only create the certificate if the ARN was not set.

So finally I also need to put a condition in the distribution creation that will use the ARN from the parameter, OR the new certificate, which I use an Fn::If for.

        ## The certificate to use when viewers use HTTPS to request objects.
        ViewerCertificate:
          AcmCertificateArn: 
            Fn::If:
               - CreateCertificate
               - !Ref WildCardCertificate
               - !Ref ACMARN

## The certificate to use when viewers use HTTPS to request objects.

ViewerCertificate:

AcmCertificateArn:

Fn::If:

- CreateCertificate

- !Ref WildCardCertificate

- !Ref ACMARN

A few weeks back, I was walking to the store. It’s a short walk (about 3/4 of a mile) with a very slight grade. I walk a lot, usually a few miles a day, mostly by choosing to walk while waiting for the train, or when going to the market.

This time, when I got almost to the store, I started having some chest pain. I thought maybe I was feeling the precursor to a heart attack, or that maybe that bug from last week had turned into pneumonia. I hadn’t been walking that briskly, and I was really out of breath in addition to the pain (both of which were odd for me, especially since I had walked relatively slowly).

Naturally, I immediately made an appointment to see my doctor (although in hindsight I probably should have gone to the ER). He saw me, had an EKG machine brought in, and didn’t see anything, but referred me to cardiology to get a stress EKG.

Continue reading →

Most of my career was spent in healthcare, working in IT for providers, coordinating third party payments, and being a consumer battling with crazy multi-layered payment systems. I was lucky enough to be healthy in my youth and get by without insurance (although my feet still point in different directions thanks to breaking my ankle and not going for treatment). I have clear experience with seeing how the system is so badly broken, and it seems to me we’re not addressing the actual problems.

I feel like people miss the point of the ACA, which was a first draft at controlling costs and a start to healthcare reform. I also believe that repealing it will do more damage than simply starting to address the shortcomings and work on reforming the actual problem.

Continue reading →

I occasionally run into weird permission problems after a restore of files and folders on my machine, I think it has to do with OSX trying to protect me from myself.

Today I needed to fire up my coding environment on my Mac Mini, so I jumped into the folder for the code that I wanted to update using SourceTree, and did (what I thought was going to be) a quick pull, only to get a weird error message.

I figured it was probably something goofy, so I went to the command line, only to get another weird error:

xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools), missing xcrun at: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/xcrun

1	xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools), missing xcrun at: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin/xcrun

Well, I’ve seen that before, and knew that message was probably because I’ve updated the OS a few times since I last coded. Basically it means the XCode command line tools are missing. Fixing that is easy: just run:

xcode-select --install

1	xcode-select --install

This fires up the Xcode installer, which will ask you if you want to install Xcode, or just the command line tools. In this case I don’t need Xcode, so I chose the latter.

That took a pretty long time (it was on “about a minute left” for at least 10 minutes), which was a bit worrisome, but not all that unusual.

Going back to the command line, I tried to do my “git pull” only to get another error:

fatal: Unable to write new index file

1	fatal: Unable to write new index file

OK, weird – why can’t it write that. Found a few things online that suggested running “git gc” might fix it, so I tried that, but that just gave me this error:

fatal: failed to write ref-pack file
error: failed to run pack-refs

1 2	fatal: failed to write ref-pack file error: failed to run pack-refs

More curious Googling, and finding the suggestion to look at the extended file permissions, so I tried that:

robweaver$ ls -le .git
total 264
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff     50 Sep 19  2015 COMMIT_EDITMSG
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff    802 Apr 29 08:38 FETCH_HEAD
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff     41 Sep 19  2015 HEAD
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff     41 Sep 19  2015 ORIG_HEAD
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+   2 robweaver  staff     68 Jan 14  2014 branches
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff    496 May 11  2015 config
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff     73 Jan 14  2014 description
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+   4 robweaver  staff    136 May  3  2015 hawser
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+  11 robweaver  staff    374 Jan 14  2014 hooks
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff  99575 Sep 25  2015 index
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+   3 robweaver  staff    102 Jan 14  2014 info
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+   4 robweaver  staff    136 Jan 14  2014 logs
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+ 260 robweaver  staff   8840 May 11  2015 objects
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx+   1 robweaver  staff    176 Jan 14  2014 packed-refs
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwxrwxrwx+   6 robweaver  staff    204 May 11  2015 refs
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rwxrwxrwx@   1 robweaver  staff    156 Nov  1  2015 sourcetreeconfig
 0: group:everyone deny delete
 1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity
 2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

robweaver$ ls -le .git

total 264

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 50 Sep 19 2015 COMMIT_EDITMSG

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 802 Apr 29 08:38 FETCH_HEAD

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 41 Sep 19 2015 HEAD

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 41 Sep 19 2015 ORIG_HEAD

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 2 robweaver staff 68 Jan 14 2014 branches

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 496 May 11 2015 config

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 73 Jan 14 2014 description

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 4 robweaver staff 136 May 3 2015 hawser

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 11 robweaver staff 374 Jan 14 2014 hooks

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 99575 Sep 25 2015 index

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 3 robweaver staff 102 Jan 14 2014 info

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 4 robweaver staff 136 Jan 14 2014 logs

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 260 robweaver staff 8840 May 11 2015 objects

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx+ 1 robweaver staff 176 Jan 14 2014 packed-refs

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

drwxrwxrwx+ 6 robweaver staff 204 May 11 2015 refs

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow list,search,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 robweaver staff 156 Nov 1 2015 sourcetreeconfig

0: group:everyone deny delete

1: 4C6F60A2-E302-49BF-A4C9-5EE480973499 allow read,readattr,readextattr,readsecurity

2: user:_spotlight allow read,write,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

Wait, what’s this “group:everyone deny delete” ? Well, no wonder I can’t run stuff that updates these folders. More Googling and I find the right switch for chmod to clear out the extended permissions:

sudo chmod -R -N .git

1	sudo chmod -R -N .git

Note that I had the two flags reversed the first time and the command told me it couldn’t find a file named “-R”. After running the above, the folder permissions looked more normal:

robweaver$ ls -le .git
total 264
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff     50 Sep 19  2015 COMMIT_EDITMSG
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff    802 Apr 29 08:38 FETCH_HEAD
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff     41 Sep 19  2015 HEAD
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff     41 Sep 19  2015 ORIG_HEAD
drwxrwxrwx    2 robweaver  staff     68 Jan 14  2014 branches
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff    496 May 11  2015 config
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff     73 Jan 14  2014 description
drwxrwxrwx    4 robweaver  staff    136 May  3  2015 hawser
drwxrwxrwx   11 robweaver  staff    374 Jan 14  2014 hooks
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff  99575 Sep 25  2015 index
drwxrwxrwx    3 robweaver  staff    102 Jan 14  2014 info
drwxrwxrwx    4 robweaver  staff    136 Jan 14  2014 logs
drwxrwxrwx  260 robweaver  staff   8840 May 11  2015 objects
-rwxrwxrwx    1 robweaver  staff    176 Jan 14  2014 packed-refs
drwxrwxrwx    6 robweaver  staff    204 May 11  2015 refs
-rwxrwxrwx@   1 robweaver  staff    156 Nov  1  2015 sourcetreeconfig

robweaver$ ls -le .git

total 264

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 50 Sep 19 2015 COMMIT_EDITMSG

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 802 Apr 29 08:38 FETCH_HEAD

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 41 Sep 19 2015 HEAD

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 41 Sep 19 2015 ORIG_HEAD

drwxrwxrwx 2 robweaver staff 68 Jan 14 2014 branches

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 496 May 11 2015 config

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 73 Jan 14 2014 description

drwxrwxrwx 4 robweaver staff 136 May 3 2015 hawser

drwxrwxrwx 11 robweaver staff 374 Jan 14 2014 hooks

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 99575 Sep 25 2015 index

drwxrwxrwx 3 robweaver staff 102 Jan 14 2014 info

drwxrwxrwx 4 robweaver staff 136 Jan 14 2014 logs

drwxrwxrwx 260 robweaver staff 8840 May 11 2015 objects

-rwxrwxrwx 1 robweaver staff 176 Jan 14 2014 packed-refs

drwxrwxrwx 6 robweaver staff 204 May 11 2015 refs

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 robweaver staff 156 Nov 1 2015 sourcetreeconfig

And my commands worked as expected.

Sometimes I get my branch in a state where I need to reset things to what is on the server. Most of the time a simple switch of branches is enough to get everything back in shape, but once in a while I need to actually reset to what is in the parent repo.

To reset your local working copy to exactly what is in the remote (typically called origin) do the following:

git fetch
git reset --hard <em>origin/branch</em>
git clean -x -d -f

git fetch

git reset --hard <em>origin/branch</em>

git clean -x -d -f

These should be done in the root of your project.

I needed to do some work on an old Maven project I have that I’ve worked on for years, and when I fired up my handy Netbeans IDE and ran the obligatory “priming build”, I was surprised to get an error on one of the basic Maven plugins. Continue reading →

For testing, sometimes I need to validate web behaviors like redirects on SSL, and one of the reasons I love the Mac is that it gives me a ready to roll Apache server. I actually run a local copy of my web site on my Mac, and have it set up as a virtual host so that I can just browse directly to it. Continue reading →

Two years ago, I moved to Salt Lake City for work. After looking around a bit for a rental property close to my new work, it became clear that I would be better off trying to buy a new home than renting if I could afford to do so. At the time the interest rates and property values in Salt Lake City were very low, so monthly mortgage payments were often cheaper than rental prices.

Sitting at the Salt Lake Roasting Company after we first moved here, we found a really nice real estate agent (Jaral Ferwerda). I worked with him diligently to find a home while my lovely wife was buttoning up our home in California.

After a while, I started to find it very difficult to keep track of all the homes I was seeing. They started to blur together, and I wasn’t really able to figure out which one I liked best.

Continue reading →

I created a WordPress site for a client who needed to support both English and Español versions of their content, which involved using a plugin called MultilingualPress that creates relationships between sites for each language.

I developed the site locally on my server, and then after they created some content, migrated it to their hosting service.

Continue reading →

I get a chuckle over this every time it happens. Something in one of the many synch tools I use does some sort of conversion of birth dates, and I end up with alerts on my Mac that tell me somebody is having a really great birthday:

I also see the opposite where I’ll get a reminder that today is somebody’s second or third birthday.

In the case of the ones where they show up younger, it’s usually because wherever I got their birthdate from originally, they didn’t put in the year. So that usually ends up being the year that the contact was entered into my address book.

But in the case of the incredibly old dates, my address book typically has an 1800’s date, so my guess is it’s some system breaking on a date overrun. I’ve also noticed that sometimes these contacts have two birth dates in my address book (again, some symptom of a synch problem), so for instance Reinald has both a birthday in the 1800’s and one a littler more reasonable than that.

Weaver's Loom

AWS Cloudformation with Optional Resources

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What is that pain in my chest?

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The Healthcare Quandry

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Random bad permissions on OSX

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Reset your branch (Git)

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Maven repositories

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Set up SSL on Mac

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Using Google Sheets and My Maps for making decisions

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Changing the Domain Name on WordPress Multi-site

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How Old Are You ?

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