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Practical Ruby for System Administration

Name: Practical Ruby for System Administration
Author: André Ben Hamou
ISBN: 9781590598214

by André Ben Hamou

June 2007

Intermediate to advanced

263 pages

6h 35m

English

Apress

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Copyright
About the Author
About the Technical Reviewer
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. What Ruby Can Do for You
1.1. Hello World1.2. Ruby in a Nutcracker1.2.1. Objects at Rest: The Theory of Object Orientation1.2.2. Objects in Motion: The Ruby View of OO1.2.3. By Invitation Only: Accessors Made Easy1.2.4. Blocks and the Magic of yield1.2.5. It Takes All Sorts: A Sensible Approach to Types1.3. Ointment for the Administrator
2. Common Tasks, Quick Solutions
2.1. One-liners2.1.1. Grepping with Ruby2.1.2. Working with Comments2.1.3. Using Line Numbers2.1.4. Playing with Fields2.1.5. Smart Record Handling2.1.6. Creating a Customized Directory Listing2.1.7. Watching Commands Over Time2.2. Larger Examples2.2.1. Rolling Logs: A Scheduled One-liner2.2.2. A Ruby Springboard2.3. Quick to Write Meets Quick to Run
3. A Practical Look at Performance
3.1. Scripts Can Be Faster3.1.1. The Numbers Game3.1.2. A Script vs. Standard Binaries3.2. Analyzing Performance3.2.1. The UNIX time Command3.2.2. The Benchmark Library3.2.3. The Profiler Library3.3. Optimization3.3.1. Algorithmic Optimization3.3.2. Linguistic Optimization3.3.3. Side Effect Reduction3.3.4. Dropping the C Bomb3.4. Ramming Speed
4. The Power of Metaprogramming
4.1. Flexible Method Signatures4.1.1. Default Values4.1.2. Parameter Hashes4.1.3. Missing Method Dynamic Dispatch4.2. Macros4.2.1. Module Inclusion4.2.2. Object Extension4.2.3. Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs)4.2.4. Plug-in API: Macros for Adding Macros4.3. Heavy Meta
5. Building Files the Smart Way
5.1. Safety First5.1.1. File Locking5.1.2. Safe File Operations5.2. The Pen Is Mightier Than the Words5.2.1. Mob the Builder: Program-Driven File Creation5.2.2. ThundERbolts and Lightning: Template-Driven File Creation5.3. When Flat Files Fall Flat

6. Object Storage and Retrieval
6.1. Local Disk Storage6.1.1. Inspection Time6.1.2. Marshaling Your Thoughts6.1.3. YAML Ain't Markup Language6.1.4. Benchmarking the Alternatives6.2. Network-Aware Storage6.2.1. General Design Principals6.2.2. memcached: A Great Big Hash in the Sky6.2.3. Databases6.2.4. Object-Relational Mapping with ActiveRecord6.3. Playing with the Big Boys
7. Working with Enterprise Data
7.1. Parsing Data7.1.1. Separation Is Such Sweet Sorrow: Delimited Values7.1.2. XML7.2. Network Services7.2.1. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol7.2.2. XML Remote Procedure Call7.2.3. Simple Object Access Protocol7.2.4. Representational State Transfer7.3. Back to Basics
8. Networking for Fun and Profit
8.1. Basic Network I/O8.1.1. Socket to Me8.1.2. Socket Errors and Exceptions8.1.3. Clockwatching: Timing Out on Purpose8.1.4. Socket-Based Monitoring8.2. Higher-Level Network Services8.2.1. An Embarrassment of Protocols8.2.2. Building a Web Robot8.2.3. Throwing Together a Server8.3. Control and Monitoring8.3.1. Taking Command with SSH8.3.2. Packet Monitoring8.4. End of Line
9. Network Monitoring
9.1. Gathering Data9.1.1. Simple Network Management Protocol9.1.2. Secure Shell9.2. Analyzing Data9.2.1. Marshalling the Data9.2.2. Parsing Events9.2.3. Filtering and Assigning Events9.2.4. Putting It All Together9.2.5. Aggregate Analysis9.3. Presenting Data9.3.1. Charts9.3.2. Graphs9.4. All That Glitters
10. Extending Ruby: A Fistful of Gems
10.1. Managing and Using Gems10.1.1. Installing RubyGems10.1.2. The gem Command10.1.3. Using Gems in Your Code10.1.4. Explicit Versioning10.1.5. Accessing Documentation via gem_server10.2. Creating Gems10.2.1. What Is a Gem, Anyway?10.2.2. Gathering the Files10.2.3. Writing the Gemspec10.2.4. Building the Gem10.2.5. Publishing the Gem10.3. A Mouthful of Jewels
11. Testing and Documentation
11.1. Rake11.1.1. The Basic Task11.1.2. File Tasks11.1.3. Ensuring That Directories Exist11.1.4. Generalizing with Rules11.1.5. Synthesizing Tasks11.1.6. Documenting Tasks11.2. Testing11.2.1. Ruby's Test Library11.2.2. Performing Tests11.2.3. Fixtures11.2.4. Test Suites11.2.5. Testing from Rake11.3. Documentation11.3.1. Automatic Documentation11.3.2. Basic Comments11.3.3. Headings, Separators, and Links11.3.4. Lists11.3.5. Processing Commands11.3.6. Documenting from Rake11.4. Mission Accomplished
12. The Future of Ruby
12.1. Execution Environments12.1.1. YARV12.1.2. JRuby12.2. Language Changes12.2.1. Arrays and Hashes12.2.2. Strings12.2.3. I/O Operations12.2.4. Block Argument Locality12.2.5. Multisplatting12.2.6. Object Tapping12.2.7. Read-Write Attributes12.2.8. Enumerable Upgrades12.3. begin
A. Ruby Execution
A.1. Command Line OptionsA.1.1. Octal Record Separator Specification: −0[octal]A.1.2. Auto Split Mode: -aA.1.3. Change Directory: -C pathA.1.4. Check Syntax Only: -cA.1.5. Debug Mode: -d, --debugA.1.6. Execute Line: -e lineA.1.7. Field Separator Specification: -F patternA.1.8. Include from Additional Directory: -I path(s)A.1.9. In-place Editing: -i[extension]A.1.10. KCode Encoding Choice: -K encodingA.1.11. Line Ending Automated Handling: -lA.1.12. Nested Retrieval Loop: -nA.1.13. Printed Nested Retrieval Loop: -pA.1.14. Require Library: -r libraryA.1.15. Script Search: -SA.1.16. Smart Variables: -sA.1.17. Taint Level: -T[level]A.1.18. Verbose Mode: -v, --verboseA.1.19. Warnings Mode: -wA.1.20. Ignore Garbage: -x[path]A.2. EnvironmentA.2.1. Process InformationA.2.2. File HandlesA.2.3. Magic Processing VariablesA.2.4. Other SundriesA.2.5. Improving Readability

Content preview from Practical Ruby for System Administration

Chapter 4. The Power of Metaprogramming

So far, you'll have acquired an impression of the basics of Ruby—its flavor, if you will. For me, what really sets it apart is the way in which it facilitates metaprogramming. Of course, this is a somewhat nebulous statement if one hasn't properly defined what class of programming is worthy of such a prefix (see the sidebar "Meta ... What?").

This is the last of the chapters that take a "did you know?" approach to the language itself, identifying features that will be useful in your day-to-day programming. The concepts presented in this chapter are not inherently system administration-specific, but they are key to writing clean, expressive Ruby code. Moreover, the techniques discussed here can allow for some ...

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Practical Ruby for System Administration

by André Ben Hamou

Chapter 4. The Power of Metaprogramming

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