Definition
Homebrew: The missing package manager for OS X

Why? well, the reality is, macports is not that good anymore.
Once you have many packages installed and start updating, everything start to break apart, lot’s of failing packages.

Homebrew is very easy to install, it’s fast and simple. That means you can make your own homebrew formula for your package so easily. oh, and homebrew is in ruby! :)

Back to topic, this is you how you get rails with mysql up and running with homebrew and rvm.

Clean up

To make sure to have a clean install, I recommend removing any previous .rvm installation and previous Xcode.

# rm -rf ~/.rvm/
# sudo rm -rf /Developer

1. Xcode

Install Xcode from AppStore. it’s 3 GB download so it may take a while.
after it’s downloaded it will not install automatically, you need to open Applications and install again from there. the name will be “Install Xcode”

Update: If you don’t want to download and install huge XCODE (3.0GB) :
https://github.com/kennethreitz/osx-gcc-installer
It allows you to install the essential compilers, GCC, LLVM, etc.
PS: I have not tested it
Thanks JP for the tip.

2. Install HomeBrew

UPDATE: in the comments some people recommended to do create the folder “/usr/local/Cellar” before hand, due to some bug on homebrew.

mkdir -p /usr/local/Cellar

#  /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

Installation instructions: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/installation

3. install RVM

#  bash < <(curl -s https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/install/rvm)

then after RVM is installed run this 'one-line' command.

# echo '[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && . "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM function' >> ~/.bash_profile

Details instructions: http://beginrescueend.com/rvm/install/

4. Install ruby 1.9.2

OS X Lion comes with Ruby-1.8.7-p249, but we all want ruby 1.9.2 right?

# rvm install 1.9.2
# rvm use ruby-1.9.2
# gem install rails thin bundler
....

I tested both ruby-1.9.2-head and ruby-1.9.3, latest sources from git, and it works well with all my apps.
With Ruby-1.9.3-head, Rails booted a lot faster.
If you wish to try 1.9.3:

# rvm install 1.9.3-head

Optionally you might want to install GIT, wget,
ack, imagemagick
and other mighty software tools for daily use.

# brew install git ack wget curl redis memcached libmemcached colordiff imagemagick

5. Install Mysql

# brew install mysql

one-line command:

# mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp

Once mysql is installed you might want it to load automatically each time you start your mac.

# mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents
# cp /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.14/com.mysql.mysqld.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
# launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mysql.mysqld.plist

*check that the version I use here is 5.5.14

6. Troubleshooting:

if you have problems with mysql "cannot connect to /tmp/mysql.sock"
then create a file /usr/local/etc/my.cnf and add this:

[client]
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
[mysqld]
bind-address = 127.0.0.1
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

if encounter errors with homebrew run this command and follow recommendations:

# brew doctor

update: If you end up with Segmentation fault or cannot install Ruby-1.8.7, you might want to try this solution:

# export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.2
# rvm install ruby-1.8.7

by the way this is my /usr/local/etc/my.cnf optimized file, when using this file you may have to recreate your db

# mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp

[client]
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock 

[mysqld]
event_scheduler = ON
skip-character-set-client-handshake
collation_server = utf8_unicode_ci
character_set_server = utf8 

bind-address = 127.0.0.1
port = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
max_connections = 20

table_open_cache = 256
max_allowed_packet = 32M
binlog_cache_size = 1M
max_heap_table_size = 64M 

read_buffer_size = 2M
read_rnd_buffer_size = 4M
sort_buffer_size = 8M
join_buffer_size = 512k

thread_cache_size = 2
thread_concurrency = 2
query_cache_size = 16M
query_cache_limit = 2M 

default-storage-engine = INNODB
thread_stack = 192K
transaction_isolation = REPEATABLE-READ
tmp_table_size = 64M 

# MyISAM Options 

key_buffer_size = 64M
bulk_insert_buffer_size = 64M
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 128M
myisam_max_sort_file_size = 1G
myisam_repair_threads = 1
myisam_recover 

# INNODB Options
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size = 16M
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 128M
innodb_thread_concurrency = 2
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2
innodb_log_buffer_size = 4M
innodb_log_file_size = 8M
innodb_log_files_in_group = 3
innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct = 90
innodb_flush_method = O_DIRECT
innodb_lock_wait_timeout = 120
innodb_file_per_table 

[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet = 16M 

[mysql]
no-auto-rehash 

[myisamchk]
key_buffer_size = 128M
sort_buffer_size = 128M
read_buffer = 16M
write_buffer = 16M

[mysqlhotcopy]
interactive-timeout 

You will need gcc and some packages/libs for building berk-db and netatalkd, like “patch” and “make”

  yum install openssl.x86_64 libssl-dev gcc automake autoconf GSSAPI libgssapi-devel libgssapi  libgssapi-devel krb5-devel pam-devel shadow-devel openssl-devel cracklib wget

1. Download the latest berkeley-db 4.8 (5.0 and 5.1 did not work for me), compile and install

wget http://download.oracle.com/berkeley-db/db-4.8.30.tar.gz
tar xpf db-4.8.30.tar.gz
cd db-4.8.30/build_unix/
../dist/configure
make
make install

2. Download latest netatalkd, compile, install and copy config files to /etc/atalk
AFP works fine with the default configuration files.

wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/netatalk/netatalk/2.1.5/netatalk-2.1.5.tar.bz2?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fnetatalk%2F&ts=1293643408&use_mirror=biznetnetworks"
tar xpf netatalk-2.1.5.tar.bz2
cd netatalk-2.1.5

./configure --enable-redhat --enable-pgp-uam --enable-krb4-uam --enable-krbV-uam --with-bdb=/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.8/
make
make install
mkdir -p /etc/atalk/
cp -a config/*.conf /etc/atalk/
chkconfig netatalk on
service netatalk start

Extra:

When you mount this filesystem on mac, all files and directory permissions will be reset to 755, which is really annoying, specially if you use git. Git will show all the file permission changes to 755 instead of 644 for files.

so, to solve the problem edit the file /etc/atalk/AppleVolumes.default and update the last line on the file

  vi /etc/atalk/AppleVolumes.default
  # change from
    :DEFAULT: options:upriv,usedots
  # to
    :DEFAULT: options:upriv,usedots dperm:0755 fperm:0644

Resources:

• http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/red-hat-31/how-to-get-netatalk-installed-on-centos-5-1-a-636147/

• http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.network.netatalk.user/20594

I choose the simple and I believe clean way to use everything from macports and passenger.

The advantage is that it’s all isolated from the OS X system and using latest cutting edge version of softwares.

I assume you have textmate, because it’s easy to edit files that need sudo access. Textmate will just ask for your password.

Try and download the 30 days trial for easy of this tutorial. http://macromates.com/

Trust me, you will love Textmate, it’s state of the art editor.

ps: I use “mate” instead of “open -a TextMate” but not everyone might have the mate symlink.

Requirements:

• Snow Leopard 10.6.4 or greater
• Xcode 3.2.3, 2.4.1 or greater
• Admin privileges on your mac.

Software preliminary:

• Mysql 5.1.49 (macports)
• Ruby 1.8.7 (macports)
• Apache 2.2.9 (part of OS X)
• Rubygems (download)
• passenger (gem)
• ImageMagick
• rmagick

1. Preparing System

If you are upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard, I recommend you delet your old installation.

sudo rm -rf \
    /opt/local \
    /Applications/DarwinPorts \
    /Applications/MacPorts \
    /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.* \
    /Library/Receipts/DarwinPorts*.pkg \
    /Library/Receipts/MacPorts*.pkg \
    /Library/StartupItems/DarwinPortsStartup \
    /Library/Tcl/darwinports1.0 \
    /Library/Tcl/macports1.0 \
    ~/.macports

1.1 Prepare PATH environment:

$ open -a TextMate ~/.bash_profile

Edit your ~/.bash_profile file and add these 2 line.
Check if they are not there already.

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
export MANPATH=/opt/local/share/man:$MANPATH

1.2 Download and Install Xcode

http://developer.apple.com/technologies/xcode.html

1.3 Download Macports and install

Download Page: http://www.macports.org/install.php

Download Direct Link: http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-1.9.2-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg

You might use this guide for installing Macports:

Full Install Guide: http://guide.macports.org/#installing

1.3.1 Update macports

sudo port -v selfupdate

2. Mysql

2.1 Intall Mysql

sudo port -v install mysql5-server mysql5

2.2 Make mysql autoload on startup

sudo port load mysql5-server
sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5

3. Memcached (Optional)

sudo port -v install memcached libmemcached

3.1 Autoload memcached on startup

sudo port load memcached

4. Ruby, Rubygems, Rails, other gems

4.1 Install Ruby from macports

sudo port -v install ruby

$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2010-08-08 patchlevel 302) [x86_64-darwin10]

4.2 download rubygems from http://rubygems.org/pages/download

cd /tmp
wget http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-1.3.7.tgz
tar xpf rubygems-1.3.7.tgz
cd rubygems-1.3.7
sudo ruby setup.rb

4.3 Install rails, rake, rspec etc.

sudo gem install rake rails thin tzinfo capistrano ruby-debug rspec

extra:

4.4 install mysql gem

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64" gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysql_config

5. ImageMagick, Rmagick and mini_magick (Optional)

lets install ImageMagick with support for JPEG, TIFF, WMF, PDF, and PNG images, and for Postscript and TrueType fonts.

sudo port -v install tiff -macosx imagemagick +q8 +gs +wmf

sudo gem install mini_magick rmagick

Test rmagick

$ irb -rubygems -r RMagick
>> puts Magick::Long_version
This is RMagick 2.13.1 ($Date: 2009/12/20 02:33:33 $) Copyright (C) 2009 by Timothy P. Hunter
Built with ImageMagick 6.6.3-0 2010-08-19 Q8 http://www.imagemagick.org
Built for ruby 1.8.7
Web page: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org
Email: rmagick@rubyforge.org
=> nil

6. Passenger

6.1 Install Passenger gem

sudo gem install passenger

6.2 Check Passenger path

passenger-config --root

 -> /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.15

6.3 Build passenger for apache

follow instructions on screen

sudo passenger-install-apache2-module

6.4 Enable Passenger on apache:

open -a TextMate /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-passenger.conf

Put this on that file, change wherever necessary for your directories.

LoadModule passenger_module /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.15/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.15
PassengerRuby /opt/local/bin/ruby
PassengerMaxPoolSize 6  # maximum global rails servers
PassengerMaxInstancesPerApp 2  # maximum rails servers per application
RailsFrameworkSpawnerIdleTime 1800
RailsAppSpawnerIdleTime 600
PassengerPoolIdleTime 600
PassengerMaxRequests 1000  # after 1000 requests will restart server, to skip memory leak :)
 
# Enabling NameBased Virtualhost
NameVirtualHost *:80
 
# my rails app virtual host 1
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName my-rails-app.local
    DocumentRoot "/Users/fred/rails/my-rails-app/public" # change this to match your folder
    RailsEnv "development"
   <Directory /Users/fred/rails/my-rails-app/public>
        # change this to match your folder
        # MultiViews must be turned off
        Options -MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    # logs are optional, change this to match your folder
    CustomLog  "/Users/fred/rails/my-rails-app/log/access_log" combined
    ErrorLog   "/Users/fred/rails/my-rails-app/log/error_log"
</VirtualHost>
 
# my rails app virtual host 2
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName myapp-xyz.local
    DocumentRoot "/Users/fred/rails/myapp-xyz/public"  # change this to match your folder
    RailsEnv "development"
    <Directory /Users/fred/rails/my-rails-app/public>
        # change this to match your folder
        # MultiViews must be turned off
        Options -MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    CustomLog  "/Users/fred/rails/myapp-xyz/log/access_log" combined
    ErrorLog  "/Users/fred/rails/myapp-xyz/log/error_log"
</VirtualHost>

6.5 Enable Virtual host on apache:

open -a TextMate /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Add this new line at the bottom:

# Include Passenger ModRails config file
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-passenger.conf

6.6 Add your .local domain to /etc/hosts/

open -a TextMate /etc/hosts

Add this line to that file and change to the name of your choosen application

You might add as many as you want, each line for each that ServerName on your VirtualHost blocks

127.0.0.1 my-rails-app.local
127.0.0.1 myapp-xyz.local

I have more than 50 .local apps in there.

5 Start Apache

first let’s test apache configuration:

apachectl configtest

if you get “Syntax OK” then you are ready to start it

sudo apachectl start

If you want Apache to autostart when you boot your computer,
then enable Web Sharing from preferences.

7. Final

go to your browser and open the url of your application http://my-rails-app.local

If it works, congratulations.

If didn’t work, let me know here in the comments.

Extras

Nokogiri

  sudo port -v install libxml2 libxslt
  sudo gem install nokogiri -- --with-xml2-include=/opt/local/include/libxml2 --with-xml2-lib=/opt/local/lib --with-xslt-dir=/opt/local

Sqlite

sudo port install sqlite3
sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby

9. Sphinx, thinking-sphinx, sphinxsearchlogic

sudo port install sqlite3
sudo gem install thinking-sphinx sphinxsearchlogic

Update:

From the comments, some people might want to enable php and your Sites folder.

To be able to enable php and others you will have to enable another default vhost with localhost as servername.

Edit the file /etc/apache2/httpd.conf to enable vhosts

# Virtual hosts
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

then open /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf file,
delete or comment everything from there and add this block only:

#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
NameVirtualHost *:80
 
# Change /Users/fred/ to your appropriate login name
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot /Users/fred/Sites/
    RewriteEngine On
    DefaultType text/html
    <Directory "/Users/fred/Sites">
        DefaultType text/html
        Options +ExecCGI FollowSymLinks Indexes
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Links and Resources

http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/install-osx.html

http://wiki.github.com/tenderlove/nokogiri/what-to-do-if-libxml2-is-being-a-jerk

http://www.macports.org/install.php

http://guide.macports.org/#installing

http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-1.9.1-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg

http://rob.by/2009/installing-mysql-via-macports-on-snow-leopard-for-ruby-development/

http://macromates.com/

http://github.com/joost/sphinxsearchlogic

http://www.sphinxsearch.com/

The image starts with about 600MB in size, which is not wasted actually.

I use this image to backup my sensitive data such as servers config files, mysql databases and repositories.
I set it to use AES 128bit encryption.
Case-sensitive, because Linux fs are Case-sensitive by default. If you don’t set it Case-sensitive you cannot use for linux backups.

hdiutil create -encryption AES-128 -stdinpass -fs “Case-sensitive HFS+” -type SPARSE -nospotlight -volname Servers Servers

it will create a file named Servers.sparseimage

Methods I have seen so far:

1. Checking content-type from file name: this inefficient, a user can just rename a file and you are fooled, or the file can have a different file format and you will not get the expected result.

2. Using Rmagick to check if the file is an image. This is so slow and uses so much Ram. You can try to initialize an rmagick object from an image file, then rescue when the file is not an image.

3. Using mini_magick to check if a file. This method is faster than rmagick. Implemen ted same way as rmagick.

A Better method for OSX and Linux,  is to use the command line tool “file” included in most UNIX operating systems.

It is very fast and very accurate.

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file = "/path/to/file.ext"
if RUBY_PLATFORM.match(/darwin|linux|unix|solaris|bsd/)
 content_type = `file --raw --brief "#{file}"`.chomp
 case
  when content_type.match(/image|png|jpg|jpeg|gif/)
   real_type = "image"
  when content_type.match(/pdf/)
   real_type = "pdf"
  when content_type.match("Microsoft Word|Microsoft Office Document")
   real_type = "doc"
  else # This can go on and on
   real_type = "Unknown"
  end
end

Some examples of content types:

.doc = Microsoft Word document data

.doc = Microsoft Office Document

.pdf = PDF document, version 1.4

.pdf = PDF document, version 1.3

.psd = Adobe Photoshop Image

.png = PNG image data, 3508 x 4961, 8-bit/color RGBA, non-interlaced

.gif = GIF image data, version 89a, 195 x 109

.jpg = JPEG image data, EXIF standard

etc…

I hope this can be useful to someone.

1. XCODE you can download xcode from http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/index.html

2. OSX 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6

Procedures:

1. Install Passenger

$ sudo gem install passenger

now check where is passenger installed:

$ passenger-config --root

in my case is: /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.5

2. Install nginx

If you have nginx from macports, deactivate it in case of conflicts.

You can activate anytime later

$ sudo port deactivate nginx

$ wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.7.59.tar.gz

$ wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.7.62.tar.gz

$ tar xpf nginx-0.7.62.tar.gz

$ cd nginx-0.7.62

I Recommend using nginx 0.6 series because I had a lot of “502 Bad Gateway” with 0.7 series.

$ wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.6.37.tar.gz

$ tar xpf nginx-0.6.37.tar.gz

$ cd nginx-0.6.37

$ sudo ./configure --add-module=/opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.5/ext/nginx/ \
  --with-http_ssl_module --user=nobody --group=nobody --with-http_gzip_static_module \
  --with-poll_module --prefix=/opt/local --with-pcre

Configuration summary
+ using system PCRE library
+ using system OpenSSL library
+ md5: using OpenSSL library
+ sha1 library is not used
+ using system zlib library

nginx path prefix: "/opt/local"
nginx binary file: "/opt/local/sbin/nginx"
nginx configuration prefix: "/opt/local/conf"
nginx configuration file: "/opt/local/conf/nginx.conf"
nginx pid file: "/opt/local/logs/nginx.pid"
nginx error log file: "/opt/local/logs/error.log"
nginx http access log file: "/opt/local/logs/access.log"
nginx http client request body temporary files: "client_body_temp"
nginx http proxy temporary files: "proxy_temp"
nginx http fastcgi temporary files: "fastcgi_temp"

$ sudo make

$ sudo make install

$ cd /opt/local/conf

$ sudo cp mime.types.default mime.types

$ sudo cp nginx.conf.default nginx.conf

Edit nginx.conf

$ mate nginx.conf

or

$ sudo vi nginx.conf

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user nobody;
worker_processes  2;
 
#error_log  logs/error.log;
#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
error_log  logs/error.log  info;
 
# Pid
pid  logs/nginx.pid;
 
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
 
http {
include       mime.types;
default_type  application/octet-stream;
 
sendfile        on;
#tcp_nopush     on;
 
#keepalive_timeout  0;
keepalive_timeout  65;
 
gzip  on;
# if a precompiled gzip of the file exists, use it and force http proxies
# to use separate cache's based on User-Agent
gzip_static on;
gzip_min_length 2000;
gzip_buffers    16 8k;
gzip_types      text/plain text/html text/css image/x-icon application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
gzip_disable    "MSIE [1-6] \.";
gzip_vary         on;
gzip_comp_level   2;
 
gzip_proxied any;
 
server {
listen       80;
server_name  localhost;
location / {
root   /Users/fred/Sites ;
autoindex on;
index  index.html index.htm;
}
}
 
passenger_root /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.2;
passenger_max_pool_size 8;
passenger_max_instances_per_app 1;
# The maximum number of seconds that an application instance may be idle.
# That is, if an application instance hasn’t received any traffic after the given number of seconds,
# then it will be shutdown in order to conserve memory.
passenger_pool_idle_time 3600;
 
# Project 1
server {
listen 80;
client_max_body_size 250M;
server_name project1.local;
root /Users/fred/rails/project1/public;
passenger_enabled on;
rails_env development;
access_log  /Users/fred/rails/project1/log/nginx.access.log;
error_log  /Users/fred/rails/project1/log/nginx.error.log info;
}
 
# Project 2
server {
listen 80;
client_max_body_size 250M;
server_name project2.local;
root /Users/fred/rails/project2/public;
passenger_enabled on;
rails_env development;
access_log  /Users/fred/rails/project2/log/nginx.access.log;
error_log  /Users/fred/rails/project2/log/nginx.error.log info;
}
 
# Project 3
server {
listen 80;
client_max_body_size 250M;
server_name project3.local;
root /Users/fred/rails/project3/public;
passenger_enabled on;
rails_env development;
access_log  /Users/fred/rails/project3/log/nginx.access.log;
error_log  /Users/fred/rails/project3/log/nginx.error.log info;
}
 
# And so on... as many projects as you want
 
}

Now edit your /etc/hosts and add the hosts for your local project

$ mate /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   project1.local

127.0.0.1   project2.local

127.0.0.1   project3.local

3. Start nginx

sudo nginx

4. go to your browser and open project1.local

:)

5. Easy start/restart/stop

add this to your ~/.bash_profile file

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function nginx_reload() {
FILE="/opt/local/logs/nginx.pid"
if [ -e $FILE ]; then
echo "Reloading NGINX..."
PID=`cat /opt/local/logs/nginx.pid`
sudo kill -HUP $PID
else
echo "Nginx pid file not found"
return 0
fi
}
 
function nginx_stop() {
FILE="/opt/local/logs/nginx.pid"
if [ -e $FILE ]; then
echo "Stopping NGINX..."
PID=`cat /opt/local/logs/nginx.pid`
sudo kill -INT $PID
else
echo "Nginx pid file not found"
return 0
fi
}
 
function nginx_restart() {
FILE="/opt/local/logs/nginx.pid"
if [ -e $FILE ]; then
echo "Stopping NGINX..."
PID=`cat /opt/local/logs/nginx.pid`
sudo kill -INT $PID
sleep 1
echo "Starting NGINX..."
sudo nginx
else
echo "Nginx pid file not found"
return 0
fi
}

Troubleshooting

1. Nginx is not running

- check the logs

- check if it is really not running:

$ ps aux | grep nginx

2. you see the nginx error “502 Bad Gateway”

- may there is a problem with the /var/folders/ permissions on OSX:

2009/06/13 16:14:33 [crit] 1106#0: *1 connect() to unix:/var/folders/xl/xlSRYvzFHH8Fcehc51ciyE+++TI/-Tmp-//passenger.1091/master/helper_server.sock failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client: 127.0.0.1, server: hassan.local, request: "GET / HTTP/1.1", upstream: "unix:/var/folders/xl/xlSRYvzFHH8Fcehc51ciyE+++TI/-Tmp-//passenger.1091/master/helper_server.sock:", host: "hassan.local"

to fix it I did this:

$ sudo find /var/folders/xl/ -name “master” -exec chmod 755 {} \;

$ sudo find /var/folders/xl/ -name “-Tmp-” -exec chmod 755 {} \;

everytime I reboot my mac I had to do that… I still dont know how to fix it…

anybody knows?

That is it for now.

To make Firefox faster is to store the whole profile folder into a Ram Disk.
RamDisk in Linux are called TmpFS. You can also use shared memory folder /dev/shm if you have it in your fstab.

This post in the gentoo forums explains how to do it in Gentoo linux.

I made a similar script to make it work in OSX Leopard.

The Script have 2 parts, Start.sh and Stop.sh
Here are the Scripts:

Start.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Run this script to enable the Ramdisk for Firefox profiles
VolumeName="Mozilla"
 
# Size in MB, make sure is not too low or not too high
SizeInMB=220
 
NumSectors=$((2*1024*SizeInMB))
 
DeviceName=`hdid -nomount ram://$NumSectors`
 
echo $DeviceName
 
diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ RAMDisk $DeviceName
 
# move the current profiles folder
mv Profiles Profiles_ &&
 
# make a symlink to the ramdisk
ln -s /Volumes/RAMDisk ./Profiles &&
 
# then copy it to the ramdisk
/bin/cp -r Profiles_/* Profiles

Stop.sh

#!/bin/bash
cd ~/Library/Cache/Firefox/
 
# clean the cache
rm -rf  Profiles/*/Cache/* &&
 
# will save your modifications back to the DISK
/usr/bin/rsync -av --delete ./Profiles/ ./Profiles_/ &&
 
# sometimes during unmount it will say disk is in use.
# make sure you close firefox before.
umount /Volumes/RAMDisk &&
rm -rf Profiles &&
mv Profiles_ Profiles

You can also use ‘tar’ instead of ‘rsync’. I just love rsync more.

* Warning: The ramdisk contents will be erased after you umount the ramdisk.

Have fun.

Gentoo Linux ROCKS

Update:

To speed up firefox even more  run these commands:

cd ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles
 
for i in */*.sqlite; do sqlite3 $i VACUUM;done;
 
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles
 
for i in */*.sqlite; do sqlite3 $i VACUUM;done;

But there is a trick, when creating a “new” clean user it will allow you to enable filevault for that new user.

So, here is how you do it.

But before you try, make sure you have enough free space, try to get rid of huge files and folders, backup your data. (in this case, we will copy your data, so you will have 2 copies for safety)

Also clean your applications cache, such as firefox cache, camino, opera,
~/Library/caches/com.apple.Safari/Webpage\ Previews/ , etc…: and close most of your applications.

$ cd ~/Library/Caches

$ find ./ -name “Cache” -exec rm -rf {} \;

$ rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Webpage\ Previews/Incoming/*

Steps

1. Create another admin user, for example “admin”, with administrator privileges

2. login as that user.

3. move your old user folder.

$ cd /Users/

$ sudo mv myusername myusername.bak

3. delete your old user from the “Accounts” preferences pane.

4. then create it again and check the option to use filevault

5. Logout from “admin” and login again as newuser.

6. Now copy the old data to your home folder. ( will take a very long time for that)
update: You must use rsync instead of cp, so that you also copy your VERY important hidden files. such as .ssh .gnupg .vimrc .gem .gitconfig etc..

$ sudo /usr/bin/rsync -av /Users/myusername.bak/ /Users/myusername/

# watch out if you have files that should not change the ownership, such as server backups.
$ sudo chown -R myusername ~/

7. Logout and login again, for your preferences to take effect

8. If everything looks fine, you might just delete the backup folder.

$ sudo rm -rf /Users/myusername.bak

if you have any confusions let me know in comments.

Safe sleep is the way OSX sleeps to RAM and as well create a sleepimage (which is the size of your RAM). In case you run out of battery, so you can still resume from the image if the battery is dead, (and you have plugged it in :)  Provides very fast wake up, uses the battery while sleeping.

Fast Sleep is just sleep to RAM, same as safe sleep but no image creation, and if your battery is dead, the mac will cold boot. Provides very fast wake up same as safe sleep, uses the battery while sleeping.

Hibernate is when it uses the sleepimage all the time. Slower sleep and slow wake up, but it does not use battery at all…

So…

I found in this website http://alt.cc/jk/2007/08/07/safe-sleep-addendum/ this nice script that handles when to FastSleep or when to Hibernate.

you can get safe sleep with the command “$ sudo pmset hibernate 3″

I have modified the script it little :

#!/bin/sh
MODE=`/usr/bin/pmset -g | grep hibernatemode | awk '{ print $2 }'`
LEFT=`/usr/bin/pmset -g batt | grep Internal | awk '{ print $2 }' | awk -F % '{ print $1 }'`
HIBERNATE=20
FASTSLEEP=50
echo "Running safesleep.sh => MODE: ${MODE} LEFT: ${LEFT}" >> /var/log/system.log
if [ $LEFT -lt $HIBERNATE ] && [ $MODE != 3 ] ; then
	{
		echo "Less than ${HIBERNATE}% remains" >> /var/log/system.log
		echo "Setting Hibernate (hibernate mode 1)" >> /var/log/system.log
		`/usr/bin/pmset -a hibernatemode 1`
		LS=`ls -al /private/var/vm/sleepimage`
		echo "The sleepimage should be created:" >> /var/log/system.log
		echo "${LS}" >> /var/log/system.log
	}
elif  [ $LEFT -gt $FASTSLEEP ] && [ $MODE != 0 ]; then
	{
		echo "Greater than ${FASTSLEEP}% remains" >> /var/log/system.log
		echo "Setting FastSleep (hibernate mode 0)" >> /var/log/system.log
		`/usr/bin/pmset -a hibernatemode 0`
		`rm -rf /var/vm/sleepimage`
	}
fi

save it as /Users/your_user_name/.crons/safesleep.sh

now make it permanent in a crontab to run every 10 minutes, but wait, anacron (osx default cron) only supports daily/weekly/monthly jobs! (unless you patch it)

I guess we’ll have to install fcron:

$ sudo port -d install fcron

$ sudo vi /opt/local/etc/fcrontab


@,runas(root) 10 sh /Users/your_user_name/.crons/safesleep.sh


$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.fcron.plist

$ sudo launchctl start org.macports.fcron

that’s it.

enjoy