Coding With Cody » Servers

Python 2.7 on CentOS 5.6

Cody Snider — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:55:28 +0000

Here you have it, folks. A shell script that will handle all the ugliness associated with installing Python 2.7 on CentOS 5.6 (and probably CentOS 5.7, too).

Use the following command in your shell (the easy way):

wget -q -O http://codingwithcody.com/downloads/python_27_on_centos_56/install.sh | sh

Alternately, you can download and run it manually: Download install.sh

Here are the tarballs used just in case the servers hosting them go down and you’re eager to get Python 2.7 working:

And, just FYI, here’s the contents of install.sh:

View Code BASH

yum -y install gcc gdbm-devel readline-devel ncurses-devel zlib-devel bzip2-devel sqlite-devel db4-devel openssl-devel tk-devel bluez-libs-devel make
 
cd /var/tmp
wget http://sqlite.org/sqlite-amalgamation-3.7.3.tar.gz
tar xfz sqlite-amalgamation-3.7.3.tar.gz
cd sqlite-3.7.3/
./configure
make
make install
 
cd /var/tmp
wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.1/Python-2.7.1.tgz
tar xvfz Python-2.7.1.tgz
cd Python-2.7.1
./configure --prefix=/opt/python2.7.1 --with-threads --enable-shared
make
make install
 
touch /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opt-python2.7.1.conf
echo "/opt/python2.7.1/lib/" >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opt-python2.7.1.conf
ldconfig
 
ln -sf /opt/python2.7.1/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.7
 
cd /var/tmp
wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.7/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg
sh setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg --prefix=/opt/python2.7.1
 
/opt/python2.7.1/bin/easy_install pip
ln -sf /opt/python2.7.1/bin/pip /usr/bin/pip
 
pip install virtualenv
ln -sf /opt/python2.7.1/bin/virtualenv /usr/bin/virtualenv
 
mv /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python-backup
ln -s /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/python

Any improvements are more than welcome. Enjoy and happy coding!

Stopping Non-Essential Services on CentOS

Cody Snider — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:55:23 +0000

Under an out-of-the-box installation of CentOS, many services are running that are non-essential for a LAMP stack to run effectively. Running the following (either individually or as a script) will remove these services from the boot.

Original post from VPS.net

View Code BASH

#Shut down non essential services:
 
# 1. sendmail
# Purpose: sending mail, most use another
/etc/init.d/sendmail stop
chkconfig sendmail off
 
# 2. nfs
# Purpose: mount a disk from another machine
/etc/init.d/portmap stop
/etc/init.d/nfs stop
chkconfig portmap off
chkconfig nfs off
 
# 3. chargen
# Purpose: testing char generation
/etc/init.d/chargen stop
chkconfig chargen off
 
# 4. ypbind
# Purpose: stores info on NIS domains
/etc/init.d/ypbind stop
chkconfig ypbind off
 
# 5. anacron
# Purpose: cron for systems that shut down a lot
/etc/init.d/anacron stop
chkconfig anacron off
 
# 6. atd
# Purpose: at cmd daemon
/etc/init.d/atd stop
chkconfig atd off
 
# 7. routed
# Purpose: Route packets, log tables
/etc/init.d/routed stop
chkconfig routed off
 
# 8. snmpd
# Purpose: network monitoring
/etc/init.d/snmpd stop
chkconfig snmpd off
 
# 9. gpm
# Purpose: mouse
/etc/init.d/gpm stop
chkconfig gpm off
 
# 10. smartd
# Purpose: disk health monitor
/etc/init.d/smartd stop
chkconfig smartd stop
 
# 11. hidd
# Purpose: bluetooth
/etc/init.d/hidd stop
chkconfig hidd off
 
# 12. pcscf
# Purpose: smart card reader
/etc/init.d/pcscd stop
chkconfig pcscf off
 
# 13. isdn
# Purpose: digital network
/etc/init.d/isdn stop
chkconfig isdn off
 
# 14. kudzu
# Purpose: watches for new hardware
/etc/init.d/kudzu stop
chkconfig kudzu off
 
# 15. cups
# Purpose: printing
/etc/init.d/cups stop
chkconfig cups off
 
# 16. xfs
# Purpose: serves x# 1# 1 fonts
/etc/init.d/xfs stop
chkconfig xfs off
 
# 17. nfslock
# Purpose: file sys lock
/etc/init.d/nfslock stop
chkconfig nfslock off
 
# 18. canna
# Purpose: Chinese chars
/etc/init.d/canna stop
chkconfig canna off
 
# 19. freeWnn
# Purpose: Japanese chars
/etc/init.d/FreeWnn stop
chkconfig FreeWnn off
 
# 20. cups-config-daemon
# Purpose: print config
/etc/init.d/cups-config-daemon stop
chkconfig cups-config-daemon off
 
# 21. iiim
# Purpose: internet language input
/etc/init.d/iiim stop
chkconfig iiim off
 
# 22. mDNSResponder
# Purpose: dns service discovery
/etc/init.d/mDNSResponder stop
chkconfig mDNSResponder off
 
# 23. nifd
# Purpose: monitors net interfaces
/etc/init.d/nifd stop
chkconfig nifd off
 
# 24. rpcimpad
# Purpose: used for nfs server
/etc/init.d/rpcimpad stop
chkconfig rpcimpad off
 
# 25. bluetooth
# Purpose: bluetooth devices
/etc/init.d/bluetooth stop
chkconfig bluetooth off
 
# 26. saslauthd
# Purpose: handles plaintext authentication requests
/etc/init.d/saslauthd stop
chkconfig saslauthd off
Notes: some systems use this for email auth!
 
# 27. avahi-daemon
# Purpose: instant network recognition
/etc/init.d/avahi-daemon stop
chkconfig avahi-daemon off
 
# 28. avahi-dnsconfd
# Purpose: instant network recognition
/etc/init.d/avahi-dnsconfd stop
chkconfig avahi-dnsconfd off
 
# 29. sbadm
# Purpose: rapid reboot
/etc/init.d/sbadm stop
chkconfig sbadm off
 
# 30. haldaemon
# Purpose: monitors for hardware changes
/etc/init.d/haldaemon stop
chkconfig haldaemon off
 
# 31. acpi
# Purpose: sleep/hibernate control
/etc/init.d/acpi stop
chkconfig acpi off
 
# 99. gamin
# Purpose: monitors file/dir changes
/etc/init.d/gamin stop
yum -y remove gamin

Using Symbolic Links

Cody Snider — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:41:59 +0000

Symbolic links (symlinks) are an extremely useful tool to every system admin and web application developer. They work a lot like a shortcut in Windows. Let’s say you were working with a web application that used a framework that held all Javascript, CSS and image files in a tucked-away location (for the sake of this example, that location is /var/www/html/production/clientside/, making /var/www/html/production/clientside/js/ the location of the Javascript files). And you, the developer working on creating these Javascript, CSS and image files, wanted to use /js/somefile.js instead of a longer name like /production/clientside/js/somefile.js in your public-facing code. To do this, use the following commands:

ln -s /var/www/html/production/clientside/js/ /var/www/html/js/

ln -s /var/www/html/production/clientside/css/ /var/www/html/css/

ln -s /var/www/html/production/clientside/images/ /var/www/html/images/

Bear in mind that if you are using a framework that has pretty URL rules in the .htaccess file, you will have to make exclusions (below is the basic /var/www/html/.htaccess in our example framework):

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|robots\.txt|css|js) RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

Disable yum-updatesd for better performance

Cody Snider — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:54:10 +0000

On a base server install for Centos 5.2, yum-updatesd is included and it seems like a fairly good idea to keep that running (keeps you updated). Not so and it’s safe to disable this (kill the process and disable it from starting up in the first place.

Here’s the process, I noticed an immediate speed increase in my VPS when I disabled it (among a few other thing like avahi):

/usr/bin/python -tt /usr/sbin/yum-updatesd

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2

Cody Snider — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:17:44 +0000

I’m taking the plunge and moving my home server from Linux to Windows. Usually people move the other direction, but after years of configuring every other distribution of Linux (which, in the end, Centos takes the cake), I’ve opted for compatibility and easy-of-use.

All the Linux fanboys are probaby shouting something to the effect of “You moron! You weren’t using Linux right if you think Windows is better!” Tell me this: Which OS of the three major players has DirectX? Compatibility with 95% of your hardware right out of the box? Every major software package from Adobe, Sony, Microsoft, ActiveState, Intuit and AutoDesk? When it comes down to itWindows is still number one.

What has yet to be seen is whether I stick with Server 2003 or go running back to Centos.