UTF-8 Encoding in Tomcat for Hudson

If you're using Tomcat container for working with Hudson, you'll most likely see a warning on the Manage Hudson page. Something like "Your container doesn't use UTF-8 to decode URL's".

In that case, we need to tweak Tomcat a little bit. Edit the server.xml file located at $TOMCAT_HOME / conf

Locate the line where connector port is mentioned. Once located, we just have to add the following next to it - URIEncoding="UTF-8"

Refer the i18n section of the official Hudson FAQ link here.

Quiet & verbose mode in Apache Ant

If you're using Apache Ant for building a project, you may notice that there are 2 logging switches available - quiet & -verbose. You may ask what is its significance.

-quiet switch tells Ant to print less amount of information to the console.

-verbose switch tells Ant to print extra additional amount of information to the console.

In better words, -quiet suppresses most messages produced by a build file. While -verbose increases the level of detailing by including details of each operation in the console. The -verbose switch can be extremely useful if you're debugging to try to find any errors. The verbose mode increases the traceability. Check the following link for additional information.

Subversion Working Copy errors with Cornerstone

If you may be aware, all Mac machines come pre-loaded with Subversion. You can find out which version is pre-installed on your machine by typing the following in terminal :

svn --version

Well, my default version was 1.6.x. And recently I decided to upgrade it to the latest current version v1.8.8. I also created a repository and a corresponding working copy using Cornerstone client for Mac. However it supports the older version 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 & 1.7 clients. It does not support yet v.1.8.8 client.

So if you try to see the logs from the Terminal or perform any svn operation from the command line on your working copy, you will get an error like :

The working copy at "x-x-x-x-location" is too old (format 10) to work with client version '1.8.8 (r1568071)' (expects format 31). You need to upgrade the working copy first.

This message can be taken care of by simply typing svn upgrade in the command line.

However, if you return to working with Cornerstone, you simply won't be able to access the working copy. It pops up an annoying message, something like :

Description : "Working_Copy_Example" the working copy's format is not supported.

Suggestion : The working copy must be downgraded to a compatible version before it can be used.

Technical Information

=====================

  Error : V4UnsupportedWorkingCopyFormatError

  Exception : ZSVNUnsupportedWorkingCopyFormatException

Causal Information

==================

working copy.  Please upgrade your Subversion client to use this

working copy.

     Status : 155021

It leads me to believe that Cornerstone works fine with Apple- supplied Subversion v1.6. However, if you upgrade it to v1.7 or v1.8 this can result in annoying errors. It seems like Cornerstone automatically detects which Subversion to use while creating the repos and working copies. There's no way to customize it on this front - I mean you can't define the svn location if you upgraded it to v1.8.

Though the Cornerstone 2.7 upgrade provides support for subversion 1.7 as described in its release notes, it is not possible to downgrade 1.7 to 1.6 or lower, if needed. Plus it doesn't support the newer subversion version 1.8.x as yet. Sure it does plan to integrate Svn v1.8 in a future update. But I feel isn't this a bit annoying, having to wait for Cornerstone to update after subversion updates theirs.

Guys, do post your comments if you think any good workaround or a fix to this annoyance is available. For now, am contemplating a switch to Versions. Ping in your views about it's strengths and weaknesses folks. You have a good day. Take care.

True Detective - Finale Clue Sheet - Part 4

Wow. The Part 1, Part 2 & the Part 3 clue sheets got so wildly popular. Thank you folks for the profound interest and tremendous response to the theories mentioned in these sheets. This whole exercise of observing and deducing clues is more like a PhD thesis :) Presenting one last final clue sheet for the Season 1 Finale. Ok, so here we go.

Clue 1 : Episode 7 : When Marty visits his ex-wife Maggie, the scene starts with focus on some photos on the desk. One notable photo is of Marty & her new husband. His face looks quite similar to the guy whom Lisa takes home from the bar in Episode 3. Remember? I've also mentioned about him in the Part 2 clue sheet. Was he someone with a hidden agenda? Or is this photo a mere distraction?

Clue 2 : Episode 4 : When Marty & Rust visit Sheriff Tate's office, you see some antlers on the wall. Also there is a fat cop who enters the cabin to hand over case files. Though the character seems like just another insignificant filler, question arises as to why he stayed in the cabin to listen to the whole conversation. I mean he could have just left after handing over the files. Is he involved as well? Well, this clue might be a by-product of a little bit of over-thinking. But nonetheless, am still including it in the list.

Clue 3 : Episode 7 : While Marty watches the snuff videotape, what we see is that there are 2 men who hold the hands of the girl and other 5 men are standing. So now we know for sure that it'a a gang of 5.

Clue 4 : Episode 7 : By now it must be crystal clear that the lawnmower man is the spaghetti monster. {98% probability} Chances are he could be merely scaring the girls so that they get lost in the thick woods. Since he knows the coastal geography pretty good. Maybe he's not a murderer. But an accomplice for sure. Question is who is he really? What's his identity? Is he the illegitimate child born out of Tuttle's extra-marital affairs? Is he actually Tuttle's son who's been perhaps disowned? Does he say "My family's been around here for a long time" because of this reason? Did he kill Tuttle in 2010? Many questions here. Let's wait for the episode 8. It's just a few more hours to go guys. Fingers crossed.

Clue 5 : Episode 7 : We saw that Marty played golf with his ex-colleague who's also now the sheriff. Remember he was also slapped by Rust in Episode 1? This is more of an observation.

Clue 6 : Lastly, the grandpa seems to be the head chief of the cruel cult as was indicated in my previous clue sheet. High likelihood - 70-80 % probability.

Well, finally whatever the outcome is, I really hope that some twist blows your mind out. High expectations here. Let it not turn out to be a damp squib. The motive, the rationale behind the gruesome pagan killings is perhaps what no one has anticipated yet.

Overall the series has been extremely satisfying, providing ample food for the brain. The story pacing, the background score, the colorful characters, the sound works, the editing was really top notch HBO stuff. I also believe this series will help boost Louisiana's tourism industry and also put it on the world's map. Just like what Breaking Bad did to New Mexico or Sopranos did to New Jersey.

The countdown has begin guys. Stock on some Act-II, Doritos, Cokes, Papa John's pizzas or buffalo wings. It's gonna be an entertaining night. Have fun folks. Ciao.

User locked out / Access Denied in Hudson

I've come across some beginners new to using Hudson for automated builds, getting locked out of Hudson due a silly mistake.

This silly mistake happens while configuring system, if you tick "Enable security" and choose matrix based security. If you forget to mention relevant permissions and save the settings, you will be locked out instantly. You won't be able to access Hudson.

The remedy to fix the issue is as follows :

• Stop Hudson

• Go to ~/.hudson directory

• Edit the config.xml 

• Revert back the <useSecurity> value to false 

• Restart Hudson

Import a Maven project in Eclipse

In order to import a Maven project into Eclipse, go to the project directory and type the following in Terminal.

mvn eclipse:eclipse

This command creates the following configuration files :

.classpath - Detailed information can be read here about it.

.project - Detailed information can be read here.

Describe a plugin in Maven

If you're using Maven for building projects, occasionally you might come across situation where you wonder what version of a certain plugin you're using. You might also wonder what goals are available.

In order to identify the plugin's version and goals, type the following in terminal.

Eg : 

mvn -Dplugin=install help:describe

This will describe the details of the "install" plugin. Note that this will also describe the plugin's available goals.