Category Archives: Perl

TarColor: color the output of tar tvf similarly to the way GNU ls would

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One day I was looking through a tar file and looking for an executable. When I use ls, I can do this at a glance by just looking for green filenames, as I always have my ls configured to show executable files in green. It occurred to me that it would be nice to see the same kind of coloring when looking at the contents of tar files with tar tvf. Thus, TarColor was born. It was a quick Perl script to scratch my own itch. I thought others might find it useful, so I put it on GitHub and CPAN.

Usage

You can use tarcolor manually like this:

$ tar tvf some_tarball.tgz | tarcolor
... colored output ...

There is also a bundled shell script (for bash and zsh) that makes tar automatically pipe its output through tarcolor:

$ source /usr/local/etc/tarcolor/tarcolorauto.sh
$ tarcolorauto on
$ tar tvf some_tarball.tgz
... colored output ...
$ tarcolorauto off
$ tar tvf some_tarball.tgz
... normal uncolored output ...

Customization

Colors can be customized using the LS_COLORS or TAR_COLORS environment variables:

$ export LS_COLORS='di=01;34:ln=01;36:ex=01;32:so=01;40:pi=01;40:bd=40;33
:cd=40;33:su=0;41:sg=0;46'

The format for LS_COLORS and TAR_COLORS is the same format used by LS_COLORS (used by GNU ls). So if you use GNU ls and have your LS_COLORS set, then tarcolor will use similar colors as ls. If you want to tweak your colors and don’t want to edit LS_COLORS manually, you might try this online LS_COLORS generator.

Links

Perl is evil

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What other language would let you do this?

    ''=~(        '(?{'        .('`'        |'%')        .('['        ^'-')
    .('`'        |'!')        .('`'        |',')        .'"'.        '\\$'
    .'=='        .('['        ^'+')        .('`'        |'/')        .('['
    ^'+')        .'||'        .(';'        &'=')        .(';'        &'=')
    .';-'        .'-'.        '\\$'        .'=;'        .('['        ^'(')
    .('['        ^'.')        .('`'        |'"')        .('!'        ^'+')
   .'_\\{'      .'(\\$'      .';=('.      '\\$=|'      ."\|".(      '`'^'.'
  ).(('`')|    '/').').'    .'\\"'.+(    '{'^'[').    ('`'|'"')    .('`'|'/'
 ).('['^'/')  .('['^'/').  ('`'|',').(  '`'|('%')).  '\\".\\"'.(  '['^('(')).
 '\\"'.('['^  '#').'!!--'  .'\\$=.\\"'  .('{'^'[').  ('`'|'/').(  '`'|"\&").(
 '{'^"\[").(  '`'|"\"").(  '`'|"\%").(  '`'|"\%").(  '['^(')')).  '\\").\\"'.
 ('{'^'[').(  '`'|"\/").(  '`'|"\.").(  '{'^"\[").(  '['^"\/").(  '`'|"\(").(
 '`'|"\%").(  '{'^"\[").(  '['^"\,").(  '`'|"\!").(  '`'|"\,").(  '`'|(',')).
 '\\"\\}'.+(  '['^"\+").(  '['^"\)").(  '`'|"\)").(  '`'|"\.").(  '['^('/')).
 '+_,\\",'.(  '{'^('[')).  ('\\$;!').(  '!'^"\+").(  '{'^"\/").(  '`'|"\!").(
 '`'|"\+").(  '`'|"\%").(  '{'^"\[").(  '`'|"\/").(  '`'|"\.").(  '`'|"\%").(
 '{'^"\[").(  '`'|"\$").(  '`'|"\/").(  '['^"\,").(  '`'|('.')).  ','.(('{')^
 '[').("\["^  '+').("\`"|  '!').("\["^  '(').("\["^  '(').("\{"^  '[').("\`"|
 ')').("\["^  '/').("\{"^  '[').("\`"|  '!').("\["^  ')').("\`"|  '/').("\["^
 '.').("\`"|  '.').("\`"|  '$')."\,".(  '!'^('+')).  '\\",_,\\"'  .'!'.("\!"^
 '+').("\!"^  '+').'\\"'.  ('['^',').(  '`'|"\(").(  '`'|"\)").(  '`'|"\,").(
 '`'|('%')).  '++\\$="})'  );$:=('.')^  '~';$~='@'|  '(';$^=')'^  '[';$/='`';

(from 99 Bottles of Beer).

Yes, this is a valid Perl program! Paste it into a text file and run it – don’t worry, it won’t nuke all your files.

A work of art. A completely and utterly unmaintainable work of art.

Sick.

Learning Perl, Fourth Edition

Komodo, a Komodity

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ActiveState Komodo is a programmer’s IDE for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows that is tailored for programming with a number of dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl.

I came across this post the other day which gives the promo code kmd3n9-ur8 for getting Komodo Personal Edition for free, but says that the code was supposed to expire Dec. 2005. I gave it a whirl and I was surprised to find that it works.

If you’re interested in Komodo, give it a shot. You’ve got nothing to lose.

Perl for TiVo Series 2

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It took a while for me to figure out how to build this sucker for TiVo, because Perl has a different build process than most other Unix programs and I had to manually tell it all the right config settings for the TiVo MIPS. And it kept wanting to run the miniperl and perl binaries that it just built to do tests, but that doesn’t work when you’re cross-compiling so I had to keep renaming the binaries and replacing them with versions from my system. Eventually, I got it to build, but I haven’t done very extensive testing of it – just very, very simple stuff. My hope is that this will open up TiVo hacking to more people – i.e.: people who don’t know or don’t like Tcl and prefer Perl.

Perl 5.8.5 for TiVo Series 2

Update 2005-01-28: You might also need the following shared libraries if you don’t already have them on your TiVo:

tivo libdl and libnsl.rar

Thanks to dressen who pointed that out here:

dressen’s post on DealDatabase.com forums