Tahsin Abrar's Blog

Create Virtual Host on Ubuntu

2016-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

Suppose, You want to create a virtual host for your laravel project like project.dev. To create a virtual host for a project, you need to follow the steps below:

For Ubuntu LAMP, Open /ete/apache2/sites-available/00-default.conf and add this:

Or, create a new file i.e. /etc/apache2/sites-available/project.dev.conf and insert the snippet:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin admin@admin.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/project/public
    ServerName  project.dev

    <Directory /var/www/html/project/public>
          Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride All
          Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Then open /etc/hosts file, and add this line under localhost line:

127.0.0.1 project.dev

If you create a new file in /etc/apache2/sites-available directory, then you need to enable the conf file by:

sudo a2ensite project.dev.conf

By the way, if you didn’t enable rewrite mode for using htaccess in apache yet, then:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Create Laravel Project in an existing directory on Ubuntu

2015-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

Installing Laravel with laravel global command is too easy.
We just need to do laravel new projectName. That’s it!

But what will happen if we create a new folder first and then try laravel global command to get the laravel files within that directory?

It is not possible in a single command, because laravel new need a name parameter and it’ll create a new folder within the directory. To install laravel within the existing current directory, we need to install laravel first into a new folder and then move all the files from that directory to new directory.

That means we need more than one command to do it. That’s why I write a script that will create new laravel project within an existing directory. Thus, you can do all the process only by running the script.

Here is a script that will install laravel in your existing directory:

Now, If you want to create an alias for running this shell script file, you can do that by editing ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile or ~/.aliases file.

Add this line for creating an aliases: (If the laravel.sh file exists in the ~ directory. )

alias laranew="~/laravel.sh"

Then just run laranew to anywhere you want to install laravel.

Change Server Name on Ubuntu

2015-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

When we install ubuntu on our System, it shows as userName@serverName

The default server/computer name was set when you were installing Ubuntu. You can easily change it to whatever you want in both Desktop & Server by editing the hosts and hostname files.

To do this temporarily until next boot, follow the instructions:

Press Ctrl +Alt + t on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the below command:

sudo hostname NEW_NAME_HERE

This will temporarily change the hostname until next reboot. The change won’t be visible immediately in your current terminal. You can start a new terminal to see the new temporary hostname.

To change the name permanently,
run the following command to edit the host files:

sudo gedit /etc/hostname /etc/hosts

For Ubuntu server without a GUI, run sudo vi /etc/hostname and sudo vi /etc/hosts and edit them one by one. In both files, change the name to what you want and save them.

Finally, restart your computer to apply the changes.

File Permission for project release

2015-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

Before launching a project, it’s difficult to check each and every files and directories of the project. It’ll be easier if there is any command that will automatically set the same permission for all of the files and directories.

To do this, Open your project root directory in the Terminal ( Ctrl+Alt+T ) and run the following command to reset your file permission:

sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

And to reset the directory permission :

sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

That’s it! Now all the directories within the project get 755 permission and all of the files get 644 permission. Now, you can easily deploy your project without any security hole.

Using MySQL database via CLI

2015-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

If you’re a Unix user, and also a developer, then you’re surely love to do stuff with command line interface (CLI). It’s fun to work in a command line interface environment.

Don’t be afraid. It’s easy to use MySQL database for basic operation via command line interface.

To start mysql console, open your terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T and write: mysql -u username -p

Then write your mysql password when prompt. It will open the mysql console.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql>

After that, in mysql console, you can try these to use basic mysql operations:

To show all databases: show databases;
To select a database from the database list, write: use <database-name>;
To show tables from the selected database, write: show tables;
To create a new table in the selected database, write:

CREATE TABLE <table-name> (<field-name> <field-type> (length) );

example:

  CREATE TABLE customers (
    id INT (11), name VARCHAR(100),
    age INT(11), birthday DATE
  );

To view the table structure, write: DESCRIBE <table-name>;

example: DESCRIBE customers;
And, now if you want to close the mysql console, write: exit; or \q; on the mysql console.

These are the basic operations. By the way, you can use all others database queries with the command line.

Now, if you want to backup one of your database with command line, you can use mysqldump. Open the terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and write:

  mysqldump -u username -p db_name > new_file_path_with_name

example:

  mysqldump -u username -p testdb > ~/Desktop/testdb.sql

And, if you want to import a file to the database, open the terminal and try:

  mysql -u username -p db_name < backup_file.sql

That’s it! Happy coding!

Install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu

2015-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

The acronym of LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It’s straight forward to install LAMP on Ubuntu.

To install apache:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2

To install MySQL:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

During the installation, MySQL will ask you to set a root password. If you miss the chance to set the password while the program is installing, it is very easy to set the password later from within the MySQL shell.

Once you have installed MySQL, we should activate it with this command:

sudo mysql_install_db

Finish up by running the MySQL set up script:

sudo /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

The prompt will ask you for your current root password. Then the prompt will ask you if you want to change the root password. Go ahead and choose N and move on to the next steps.

It’s easiest just to say Yes to all the options. At the end, MySQL will reload and implement the new changes.

Now, to install PHP:

sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mcrypt

Then restart Apache.

sudo service apache2 restart

Install PHPMyAdmin

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin apache2-utils

Restart Apache.

sudo service apache2 restart

Install PHP and curl

sudo apt-get -y install php5-cli curl

Install mcrypt and php5-mcrypt

sudo apt-get -y install mcrypt php5-mcrypt

Enable php5-mcrypt

sudo php5enmod mcrypt

Install SQLite

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite

Enable htaccess in Apache

First enable rewrite using this command:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Then restart apache2:

sudo service apache2 restart

Then go into the sites-available folder:

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

Edit the file named default.conf and change AllowOverride none to AllowOverride All. Or, if the Directory part is missing, then put this after DocumentRoot line :

<Directory "/var/www/html">
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

This will make .htaccess work in your server VPS.

This worked on an Ubuntu 14.04.3.

Set Proper permission for upload folder

2015-10-23T00:00:00+00:00

What are the proper permissions for an upload folder with PHP/Apache?

The proper permission for an upload folder is 775.

But sometimes only giving chmod 775 -R folders/path and change ownership of the folder doesn’t work when we’re trying to upload a file to that folders/path. For this, we’ve to bind the apache www-data group with our user.

Before telling how to bind the apache www-data group with our existing user, we can review the basic understanding of how to add new user/existing user to a group. If you’ve the basic understanding, click here to skip it.

Change ownership of a folder: To change the ownership of the folder,

chown userName:groupName -R folder/path.
How to Add a new user to a group:

sudo adduser user group

Remember this will add a new user to a group.

Removing a user from a group:

sudo deluser user group

The useradd command will try to add a new user. To modify an existing user, like adding that user to a new group, use the usermod command.

Try this:

sudo usermod -a -G groupName userName

The user will need to logout and log back in to see their new group added.

Now, after changing folder permission and changing ownership of the folder, if you can’t upload files with the browser, change the folder ownership with apache www-data group :

sudo chown userName:groupName -R folder/path

For me, it is: sudo chown abrar:www-data -R upload/folder/path

Because my userName is abrar.

Working with Git - Git LifeHacks

2015-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Git Basic:

To add all the changes for commit : git add -A
For commit : git commit -m "Your commit message"
For commit with all the changes in a single line :

git commit -am "Your commit message"

With this, you don’t need to write git add -A
To push from the remote : git push origin branchName

Just for understanding,

origin is an alias on your system for a particular remote repository. It’s not actually a property of that repository.

By doing git push origin branchname

you’re saying to push to the origin repository. There’s no requirement to name the remote repository origin: in fact the same repository could have a different alias for another developer.

Remotes are simply an alias that store the url of repositories. You can see what url belongs to each remote by using

git remote -v
To show the changes that you made after the last commit, run : git diff
To show the changes which have been staged, run : git diff --cached or git status -v
To show all the changes from HEAD which have been staged and also which have been not committed yet, run : git diff HEAD
To show all the previous commits in terminal, run: git log
To show all the previous commits messages only in terminal , run:

git log --oneline

Display commit with graph tree: git log --oneline --graph
To show all commits with reference log, run: git reflog
To show only few of the previous commits in terminal, run:

git log -<number> i.e. git log -2 for last two commits.
To remove a file from git repo, run : git rm filename
To move/rename a file, run :

git mv current/file/path new/path/of/file
To clean the current working directory from the last commit,

run: git clean -f

Advanced Git:

How to reference a commit to the issue (Using Smart commit) ?

When commit, just include #commit IssueNo with the commit.

i.e. git commit -m "You commit message" #comment Issue-No

or, git commit -m "Issue-No: You commit message" #comment Issue-No
How to push a new, empty branch in remote?

If your repo is still empty, you might try and create an empty commit, to have something to push:

git commit --allow-empty -m "initial commit"

Then git push -u origin branchName
How to add a remote branch url?

To add remote branch: git remote add origin <remote-url>

or, to add another remote branch alongside with the origin,

run: git remote add app <remote-url>

N.B. Here app can be any name.

To change the remote url:

git remote set-url <appname> <new-remote-url>

i.e.

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/laravel/laravel.git

How to Delete a branch ?

git branch -d <branchname>

Forcefully delete: git branch -D <branchname>
How to create a new branch from the existing code ?

git checkout -b <newBranchName>
How to Delete Last Git Commit ?

If you have committed junk but not pushed,

git reset --soft HEAD~1 will do the work.

If you want to get rid of any changes to tracked files in the working tree since the commit before head use --hard instead.

Now if you already pushed and someone pulled which is usually my case, you can’t use git reset. You can however do a git revert,

git revert HEAD

This will create a new commit that reverses everything introduced by the accidental commit.

N.B. Remember, git revert will not remove your last commit. It will just create another new commit by fixing the last commit.

To delete the git commit from remote branch completely, you’ve to use git rebase

i.e. git rebase -i <commit-number>
How to remove a file from the git stage ?

If you do git add filename, the file will be in stage. So, to remove the file from stage, run:

git reset HEAD filename

And then if you want to remove the changes of a single file, run:

git checkout filename
Git Stash

You’re in the middle of some changes but something comes up that you need to jump over to, like a so-urgent-right-now bugfix, but don’t want to commit or lose your current edits. git stash is there for you.
- Run: git stash to make the working repository clean. And It will then leave you at the state of the last commit.
- Run: git stash pop or git stash apply to bring back the stashed code into the working directory.
- Run: git stash list to show the lists of stash items.

Setting up Ubuntu for Web Development

2015-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

Update apt cache : sudo apt-get update
Upgrade apt cache : sudo apt-get upgrade
Install Guake Terminal :

If you love to work in terminal, then you’ll must love Guake terminal. By pressing F12, you can easily turn on/off the terminal.

To install guake terminal, run: sudo apt-get -y install guake
- Add Guake to StartUp Applications
  
  After installing Guake terminal, it’ll not start automatically on boot. To start Guake terminal when the machine boot:
  
  Goto System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications
  
  or Dash (Window button) -> Type: Startup Applications
  
  The Startup Application Preferences window opens. Then, click in Add, give a Name for the Application in the Name field ("Guake" it’s enough), and then type guake in the command field and click Add.
  
  Then close the Startup Application Preferences window and restat the machine, now Guake should start automatically on login.
  
  Or, if you want to do it with command prompt, then:
  
  sudo cp /usr/share/applications/guake.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/
Install dotfiles

If you want to personalize your system, then you can use any of the dotfiles available in github. I’m a fan of mathiasbynens/dotfiles.

To use it (in a single command):

    git clone https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles && source bootstrap.sh

Install Remarkable (Markdown Editor)

To directly download the Remarkable Editor, go to their official website.

Or, if you want to download it with terminal, then open the terminal:

wget https://remarkableapp.github.io/files/remarkable_1.62_all.deb

Then install the .deb file on your system.
Install Unity Tweak Tool

sudo apt-get -y install unity-tweak-tool
Install Unrar

sudo apt-get -y install unrar
Install Vim Editor

sudo apt-get -y install vim
Install Git

sudo apt-get -y install git
Setup SSH key :

Open the terminal and write: ssh-keygen

Press Enter for options. If you want to add a passphrase for the key, then insert the passphrase, otherwise skip it by pressing Enter.

To copy the public SSH key to the clipboard, run:

xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you want to check if any SSH key exists, then on terminal:

ls -al ~/.ssh

It will lists the files in your .ssh directory, if they exist.
Install LAMP Stack : Check this tutorial.
Install Bower

npm install -g bower

Bower requires nodejs and git pre-installed on the system.
Install Composer Globally :

Run these commands to globally install composer on your system:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php

mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Note: If the above fails due to permissions, run the mv line again with sudo.

To check if composer successfully installed on your system,

run : composer in terminal and you’ll see a list of helpful commands.

Tahsin Abrar's Blog

Create Virtual Host on Ubuntu

Create Laravel Project in an existing directory on Ubuntu

Change Server Name on Ubuntu

File Permission for project release

Using MySQL database via CLI

Install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu

Set Proper permission for upload folder

What are the proper permissions for an upload folder with PHP/Apache?

Working with Git - Git LifeHacks

Git Basic:

Advanced Git:

How to reference a commit to the issue (Using Smart commit) ?

How to push a new, empty branch in remote?

How to add a remote branch url?

How to Delete a branch ?

How to create a new branch from the existing code ?

How to Delete Last Git Commit ?

How to remove a file from the git stage ?

Git Stash

Setting up Ubuntu for Web Development