Technologoy Archives - 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

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 →

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 →

Sometimes I find myself working backwards up a tree of errors to fix a problem. Today was a case in point.

Since I’ve been doing a bit of WordPress grooming, I have the development build checked out locally. Previously I had run phpunit against the unit tests included in the code, but for some reason when I tried to run things under NetBeans, it would error out (Bug 247704).

Continue reading →

I don’t usually write about services that I use, but one that I really have been excited about is Square Cash.

Square Cash is an application by Square that uses email to do secure cash transfers. I have been using it for a while now, mostly to send money to friends when I need to pay them back for buying lunch (or when they need to pay me back). It is extremely simple to use, and is free.

It is extremely simple to use, all you need is a bank debit card, and you can start texting your friends money (or asking for money from them.

And right now, if you follow this link https://square.com/cash/D28b8Q, both you and I will get a buck deposited in the bank.

Once in a while, I run across a situation where I need to import data from a spreadsheet into a database.

If the data is to update a single table, this is pretty straight forward. On the other hand, if the data is modeled as a set of tables it gets a bit more messy. Continue reading →

If your organization is like most, they will have sites that use a self-signed (or untrusted authority) certificate.

From Wikipedia:

In cryptography and computer security, a self-signed certificate is an identity certificate that is signed by the same entity whose identity it certifies. This term has nothing to do with the identity of the person or organization that actually performed the signing procedure. In technical terms a self-signed certificate is one signed with its own private key.

Continue reading →

AccuWeaver LLC

Weaver's Loom

Category Archives: Technologoy

AWS Cloudformation with Optional Resources

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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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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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Working Backwards

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Email Money Transfer with Square Cash

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Extreme Import

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Make Chrome Accept a Self-Signed Certificate (on OSX)

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