#!/usr/bin/python -tt

import warnings
warnings.simplefilter("ignore")

import xmpp
from xmpp.protocol import Message

from optparse import OptionParser
import ConfigParser
import sys
import os

parser = OptionParser()
opts, args = parser.parse_args()

if len(args) < 1:
    print "xmppsend message [to whom, multiple args]"
    sys.exit(1)

msg = args[0]

msg = msg.replace('\\n', '\n')

# Connect to the server
c  =  xmpp.Client('gmail.com')
c.connect( ( 'talk.google.com', 5223 ) )

# Authenticate to the server
jid  =  xmpp.protocol.JID( 'example@gmail.com' )
c.auth( jid.getNode( ), 'yourgmailpassword' )

if len(args) < 2:
    r = c.getRoster()
    for user in r.keys():
        if user == username:
            continue
        c.send(Message(user, '%s' % msg))
else:
    for user in args[1:]:
        c.send(Message(user, '%s' % msg))

I, then, added the command definitions on the relevant Nagios configuration file:

define command{
        command_name    host-notify-by-xmpp
        command_line    /home/user/bin/xmppsend "Host '$HOSTALIAS$' is $HOSTSTATE$ - Info : $HOSTOUTPUT$" $CONTACTPAGER$
        }

define command{
        command_name    notify-by-xmpp
        command_line    /home/user/bin/xmppsend "$NOTIFICATIONTYPE$ $HOSTNAME$ $SERVICEDESC$ $SERVICESTATE$ $SERVICEOUTPUT$ $LONGDATETIME$" $CONTACTPAGER$
        }

And in the end on contacts.cfg:

define contact {
        contact_name    admin
        use             generic-contact
        alias           Full Name
        email           example@gmail.com
        pager           example@gmail.com
        service_notification_commands   notify-by-xmpp
        host_notification_commands      host-notify-by-xmpp
}

When done just reload the configuration files with:

sudo /etc/init.d/nagios3 reload

Enjoy your new XMPP Nagios notifications!

Update: if you don’t want the script to store your username or password, you can use the following modified script together with a nice config file like this one:

[xmpp_nagios]
username=example@gmail.com
password=yourgmailpassword

Then you can invoke xmppsend this way:

xmppsend -a config.ini

Snippet #1: Make sure the user ‘foo’ is alwais created with its own home directory, password, shell, and full name.

class users {
    users::add { "foo":
        username        => 'foo',
        comment         => 'Foo's Full Name',
        shell           => '/bin/bash',
        password_hash   => 'pwd_hash_as_you_can_see_in_/etc/shadow'
    }

define users::add($username, $comment, $shell, $password_hash) {
    user { $username:
        ensure => 'present',
        home   => "/home/${username}",
        comment => $comment,
        shell  => $shell,
        managehome => 'true',
        password => $password_hash,
    }
  }
}

Snippet #2: Make sure the user ‘foo’ gets added into /etc/sudoers.

class sudoers {

file { "/etc/sudoers":
      owner   => "root",
      group   => "root",
      mode    => "440",
     }
}

augeas { "addfootosudoers":
  context => "/files/etc/sudoers",
  changes => [
    "set spec[user = 'foo']/user foo",
    "set spec[user = 'foo']/host_group/host ALL",
    "set spec[user = 'foo']/host_group/command ALL",
    "set spec[user = 'foo']/host_group/command/runas_user ALL",
  ],
}

Snippet #3: Make sure that openssh-server is: installed, running on Port 222 and accepting RSA authentications only.

class openssh-server {

  package { "openssh-server":
      ensure => "installed",
  }

    service { "ssh":
        ensure    => running,
        hasstatus => true,
        require   => Package["openssh-server"],
    }

augeas { "sshd_config":
  context => "/files/etc/ssh/sshd_config",
    changes => [
    "set PermitRootLogin no",
    "set RSAAuthentication yes",
    "set PubkeyAuthentication yes",
    "set AuthorizedKeysFile	%h/.ssh/authorized_keys",
    "set PasswordAuthentication no",
    "set Port 222",
  ],
 }
}

Snippet #4: Don’t apply a specific IPTABLES rule if an host is tagged as ‘staging’ in the relevant node file.

On templates/iptables.erb:

# Allow unlimited traffic on eth0
-A INPUT -i eth0 -j ACCEPT
-A OUTPUT -o eth0 -j ACCEPT

# Allow unlimited traffic from trusted IP addresses
-A INPUT -s 192.168.1.1/24 -j ACCEPT

<% if environment == "production" %>

-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 25 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

<% unless defined?(staging).nil? %>
-A INPUT -s X.X.X.X -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
<% end -%>

<% end -%>

On the manifest file:

class iptables {
    package { iptables:
        ensure => installed;
    }

    service { "iptables":
        ensure    => running,
        hasstatus => true,
        require   => Package["iptables"],
    }

    file { "/etc/sysconfig/iptables":
        owner   => "root",
        group   => "root",
        mode    => 644,
        content => template("iptables/iptables.erb"),
        notify  => Service["iptables"],
    }
}

That’s all for now!

• Google’s contacts list integrated into Mutt
• a cleaner and nicer Login screen

Curious to know how you can easily integrate your Google’s contacts into Mutt? Well, you should be able to achieve that within a few minutes after reading this small HowTo:

1. Download and install goobook as explained here.

2. Setup a .goobookrc file into your Home directory. It should look like this:

3. Add the relevant configuration bits into your /etc/Muttrc file:

set query_command="goobook query '%s'"
bind editor <Tab> complete-query
macro index,pager a "<pipe-message>goobook add<return>" "Add sender's address to your Google contacts"

4. Your configuration should be good to go now, so here’s a few examples on goobook’s usage within Mutt:

• Use TAB if you want to auto-complete a mail address when specifying the To: field.
• Use the A key if you want to add sender’s address to your Google contacts.
• Use the Q key for querying your contacts list.

We can now move on on customizing your Login Screen running GDM3. Let’s begin with a screenshoot:

I definitely love it, it’s clear and clean and most of all it has everything I need, no extra toolbars or menus. If you agree with me, open up the /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults file and do the needed changes. This is how your greeter.gconf-defaults file should look like:

/desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename      /path/to/your/dusty-bg/file # dusty's background can be downloaded here.
/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme              Darklooks # this is my main theme, feel free to adapt that to your needs.
/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/logo_icon_name         debian-swirl # this is the default on Debian's systems.
/desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds               false # I don't like hearing any sound when when I am prompted to insert my user's details on the Login Screen.
/apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list      true # users list will be disabled, you won't be able to select your username from a list but you'll have to insert that yourself.
/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager      false # default, no need to change this.
/apps/gnome-power-manager/ui/icon_policy        never # default, no need to change this.

We are close to the end but we are missing an important detail: how can you safely remove bottom’s toolbar and menus for a clearer and cleaner Login Screen? Open up the /var/lib/gdm3/.gconf.mandatory/%gconf-tree.xml file, search for the <dir name=”general”> section and apply the following change:

- <entry name="compositing_manager" mtime="1315580582" type="bool" value="false"/>
+ <entry name="compositing_manager" mtime="1315580582" type="bool" value="true"/>

But what if you prefer keeping the toolbar as it is, but you definitely don’t like seeing the Accessibility icon appearing on your Login Screen? On the same file as above, search for the <dir name=”accessibility”> section and modify the following string as it follows:

- <entry name="enable" mtime="1315580582" type="bool" value="true"/>
+ <entry name="enable" mtime="1315580582" type="bool" value="false"/>

See you on my next blog post and don’t forget to have a look at my GitHub’s repository! Oh…and follow me on Twitter!

Desktop

Irssi

Mutt

If you liked all the above and would like to reproduce everything yourself, you should consider having a look at my GitHub’s repository. See you on the next blog post!

1. A full backup of your e-mail DATA in the Mbox format. (yes, Gmail’s labels / folders as well)
2. Prevent getmail to mark all mails as read after delivering them. (this was a pretty bad issue since getmail was marking all my mails as read even if I did not access my e-mail at all)
3. Keep your backups up-to-date with the latest content from your mailbox. (by default getmail grabs all the DATA from your mailbox and fills up the Mbox / Maildir content keeping deleted mails. So let’s say I deleted a mail two days ago, well it’ll still appear on today’s backups. This behaviour is definitely unwanted)

I’ll now move to explain a few details about my new configuration but before moving to tweak getmail’s main config file, please do the following change on  _retrieverbases.py* :

return self._getmsgpartbyid(msgid, ‘(RFC822)’)

to

return self._getmsgpartbyid(msgid, ‘(BODY.PEEK[])’)

When done grab the following getmailrc and adapt it to your needs**:

[retriever]
type = SimpleIMAPSSLRetriever ## or SimplePOP3SSLRetriever.
server = imap.gmail.com ## or pop.gmail.com for POP3.
username = example@gmail.com
password = password

## so-called Gmail’s labels should be listed one by one here  for getmail to retrieve mail from them successfully.

mailboxes = (“INBOX”, “[Gmail]/Sent mail”,
“ubuntu”, “gnome/example”, “linux/example”)

[destination]
type = Mboxrd
path = ~/.getmail/backup.mbox

[options]
delivered_to = false ## No delivered_to header added automatically.
received = false ## No received header added automatically.
verbose = 2 ## getmail will print messages about each of its actions.

When done we should go ahead setting up getmail’s directories and config file:

mkdir $HOME/.getmail

cp $HOME/getmailrc $HOME/.getmail/

## Adapt $HOME/getmailrc to whatever dir you put that file into.

But…pretty much all the remaining work will be done by a small shell script I wrote:

#!/bin/sh

WORKDIR=$HOME/.getmail
date=`date “+%d-%m-%Y_%H:%M”`

if [ ! -f  $WORKDIR/backup.mbox ]
then
touch $WORKDIR/backup.mbox
fi

getmail > $WORKDIR/getmail.log
OUT=$?
if [ $OUT -eq 0 ]
then
mkdir -p $WORKDIR/backups/ && { mv $WORKDIR/backup.mbox $WORKDIR/backups/backup_$date.mbox ;}
else [ $OUT -eq 1 ]
exit 1
fi

## Cleanup older than 3 days backups
find $WORKDIR/backups/* -mtime +3 -exec rm {} ;
cd $WORKDIR && { rm -rf oldmail-* ;}

This script will:

1. Run getmail using the getmailrc config file you previously worked on.
2. If the above command will be successful, it’ll create a backups dir into $HOME/.getmail and move the latest Mbox file there appending a date and time to its name. (by doing this we are sure next getmail run will happen on an empty backup.mbox file, thus it will just contain the latest content from your mailbox)
3. It’ll re-create a backup.mbox file on $HOME/.getmail to avoid the next getmail run to fail.
4. In the end, it’ll clean up older than 3 days backups to avoid a too crowded backups folder. (it removes the oldmail file as well since it is useless in our case)

In the end set up a cronjob that will run the above script and generate the backups for you every one hour:

0 * * * * $HOME/.getmail/getmail_run.sh > /dev/null

Feel free to let me know if you’ve encountered any issue while following the above HowTo. Enjoy!

* /usr/share/getmail4/getmailcore/_retrieverbases.py on line 901.

** More documentation about the getmailrc file and syntax can be found on getmail’s documentation page.

A few years ago when Mutt was my main mail client I had the need to filter my mail through IMAP and while googling around for that I found out a great piece of software: imapfilter. Today while analyzing the above quoted issue I suddenly told myself: “Hey, but why don’t you use your dear and old friend imapfilter to fulfil your needs?”

After a few minutes I came up with a small lua script that was doing exactly what I wanted: my Trash&Spam folders are no longer crowded and I finally don’t have to delete mails twice! But here they come a few details about my script:

options.timeout = 120
options.subscribe = true

account = IMAP {
 server = 'imap.gmail.com',
 username = 'example@gmail.com',
 password = 'password',
 ssl = 'ssl3'
 }

trash = account['[Gmail]/Trash']:is_undeleted()
account['[Gmail]/Trash']:delete_messages(trash)

spam = account['[Gmail]/Spam']:is_unanswered()
account['[Gmail]/Spam']:delete_messages(spam)

The script does two things:

1. It checks whether a mail is not marked as “deleted” (moving an e-mail into the Trash does not mark it as “to be deleted” automatically) already and removes it.
2. It checks whether a mail on the Spam folder has been answered (I never had to answer a single e-mail contained into my Spam folder)  and if not removes it.

Using the above script is really easy (you should run imapfilter on interactive mode first to generate Gmail’s certificates, do that before having cron to run the script for you or otherwise it’ll just hang), just make sure to have imapfilter installed on your system and then run it through cron every half an hour or less depending on your needs:

crontab -e

*/30 * * * * imapfilter -c /home/user/imapfilter.lua >> /home/user/imapfilter.log

Please also remember to setup appropriate permissions on the config file since it contains your Gmail’s password and most of all make sure that your Spam folder is visible through IMAP (this option can be found on the label menu available under your Gmail’s settings) otherwise imapfilter will just report an error.

Enjoy!

Some days ago I had the great announcement that my Debian Maintainer‘s application was accepted and thanks to Jonathan McDowell my key is finally into the debian-maintainers keyring. (which is now part of the debian-keyring itself thanks to the ftp-masters / keyring maintainer work that made the changes on both DAK and keyring)

I applied on the 22th of August, and thanks to Reinhard’s advocation, everything went on the right side. Many thanks to all the people who made this possible.

Pkg-mozext:

Around 3 weeks ago I started being involved with the pkg-mozext team working on the new policy and to mozilla-devscripts transition for all iceweasel / icedove extensions. The work is going great so far and we managed to update several extensions that are now part of the team itself. For a fast look at our package list, feel free to browse pkg-mozext’s QA page. A lot of work needs to be done, so if anyone wanna jump in, I would suggest to read our guidelines / policy into the team’s Wiki Page.

Pkg-gnome:

GNOME 2.28 is now released, and the pkg-gnome team is now working hard to provide all the needed updates into unstable and experimental. Everything is going great and we are cleaning up everything listed on our schedule.

Ephipany is under transition (gecko –> webkit) so there are still some open issues / bugs, but now it looks fine so far and it can be used without any particular problem.

• cgmail (version 0.5)
• ctorrent (version dnh3.3.2)
• gnome-btdownload (version 0.0.32)
• bitstormlite (version 0.2p)
• fische (version 2.0-beta2, soon updated)

The greatest thing I saw getting back is that the Open Source world is improving everyday and finally a lot of desktop users are moving to Linux. My old high school just moved quite all computers to Linux, I hope this is the beginning of an Open Source revolution.

P.s. Alexander Sack (asac) and Reinhard Tartler (siretart) it’s nice to see you both again