#sysadmin

See tagged statuses in the local BookWyrm community

@mwl@io.mwl.io’s post made me revisit RCS in a very small role: a safety net for individual files.
Paired with nvi, a tiny wrapper lets me snapshot configs before risky edits. Simple, local, no magic.

Example wrapper I’m using:

#!/bin/sh
#
# safeedit — RCS-backed safe editing with nvi
#

set -e

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "usage: safeedit <file>" >&2
    exit 1
fi

FILE="$1"

if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]; then
    echo "safeedit: file not found: $FILE" >&2
    exit 1
fi

DIR=$(dirname "$FILE")
BASE=$(basename "$FILE")
RCS_DIR="$DIR/RCS"
RCS_FILE="$RCS_DIR/$BASE,v"

mkdir -p "$RCS_DIR"
chmod 700 "$RCS_DIR"

if [ ! -f "$RCS_FILE" ]; then
    ci -l "$FILE"
else
    ci -u "$FILE" || true
    co -l "$FILE"
fi

exec nvi "$FILE"

nvi protects the session; RCS protects the decision.

Original post by https://io.mwl.io/mwl/115814245521209100


@

Here is the CPU usage graph for the last 24 hours of the FediMeteo VM. A full 24 hours, during which a huge number of people are connecting, helped by the traction gained from being among the top stories on Hacker News and Lobsters, as well as the many shares across the Fediverse.

RAM usage? Active, around 450 MB. Then there is cache, ARC, and so on. But in practice, zero swap in use after days of uptime.

39 jails running, 39 snac instances, nginx serving the homepage, and HAProxy. HAProxy caching enabled. ZFS snapshots every 15 minutes, backups via zfs send and receive every hour. The same hourly schedule applies to the recalculation of cities, countries, and followers for the homepage.

All of this on a 4 euro per month FreeBSD VM.

If anyone has doubts about the quality and efficiency of FreeBSD, this is …

Time series graph showing CPU usage percentage over roughly 24 hours. The x axis represents time from about 13:00 to 12:00 the next day, and the y axis shows CPU usage from 0 to 100 percent. CPU usage fluctuates mostly between 15 and 35 percent, with periodic rises during daytime and early morning hours. Several short spikes reach around 45 to 55 percent, and one brief peak climbs to about 60 percent. Usage drops to lower levels, around 10 to 20 percent, during late evening and early morning periods. Overall, the graph shows moderate, variable CPU load with occasional sharp peaks.

I'm over 45 years old, live near in France, a dad of 2 kids, one with syndrome.
I'm thirsty for knowledge, passionate about science and technology in all disciplines.
I try to take photos 🤣.
Aware that infinite growth isn't compatible with a finite world.
First contact with computing in the 80s: Logo on TO7…
I've been working as a , for over 20 years 👴.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jessie/115774314854244968

I notice that the British Library is also hiring a Server Specialist (), UK only, to recover from their 2023 cyber attack.

https://ce0752li.webitrent.com/ce0752li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/etrec179gf.open?WVID=5071482BMD&LANG=USA&VACANCY_ID=8062619t4R

This posting is up in Boston Spa; that's not that Boston, not /that/ Boston, keep going.... yep that one.

It's interesting to see them trying to hiring and skills to try and harden their systems. Wonder if it will work.

Here is a small tip: to easily configure your installed FreeBSD, use the `bsdconfig` command as the root user. A lot of FreeBSD users or developers (including some IT/sysadmin folks) don't know this, but you can use `bsdconfig` to set up many system configuration settings, both for new systems and for changing settings on existing systems.

A screenshot of bsdconfig(8) command running on my FreeBSD machine.

Self-Host Weekly #149: A Few of My Favorite Things

My apps of 2025, software updates and launches, a spotlight on -- a lightweight app, and more in this week's recap!

https://selfh.st/weekly/2025-12-12/