There seems to be quite a few issues with Homebrew compilation after upgrade to Yosemite.

While some of them are easily fixed by upgrading relevant GCC packages, one problem kept me from upgrading my macvim for a while.

Short version: if after upgrading all the gcc related packages you still get errors on Yosemite, try upgrading python as well.

Read more for details…

There seems to be quite a few issues with Homebrew compilation after upgrade to Yosemite.

While some of them are easily fixed by upgrading relevant GCC packages, one problem kept me from upgrading my macvim for a while.

Short version: if after upgrading all the gcc related packages you still get errors on Yosemite, try upgrading python as well.

Compiling macvim produced the following error:

✗ brew upgrade macvim                                                                                                                                                                             ruby-2.1.2
==> Upgrading 1 outdated package, with result:
macvim 7.4-73_1
==> Upgrading macvim
==> Downloading https://github.com/b4winckler/macvim/archive/snapshot-73.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/macvim-7.4-73.tar.gz
==> ./configure --with-features=huge --enable-multibyte --with-macarchs=x86_64 --enable-perlinterp --enable-rubyinterp --enable-tclinterp --with-tlib=ncurses --with-compiledby=Homebrew --with-local-dir=/usr/l
checking for gcc... clang
checking whether the C compiler works... no
configure: error: in `/private/tmp/macvim-YQsceV/macvim-snapshot-73/src':
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details

READ THIS: http://git.io/brew-troubleshooting

These open issues may also help:
macvim failed to build on 10.9 because of x11 (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/30253)

That issue #30253 turned out not to be relevant.

On the surface it looked like its a common yosemite gcc problem, but even after upgrading all to latest it didn’t work.

Next I tried ‘brew upgrade -v macvim’

✗ brew upgrade -v macvim
...
==> ENV
HOMEBREW_CC: clang
...
LDFLAGS: -L/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/config -ldl -framework CoreFoundation -lpython2.7 -u _PyMac_Error Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python
...
Error: macvim 7.4-73 did not build
Logs:
     /Users/vitaly/Library/Logs/Homebrew/macvim/01.configure
     /Users/vitaly/Library/Logs/Homebrew/macvim/01.configure.cc

Looking in the 01.configure.cc I found the following:

clang called with: -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -arch x86_64 -L/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/config -ldl -framework CoreFoundation -lpython2.7 -u _PyMac_Error Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python conftest.c
superenv executed: clang -pipe -Os -march=native -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -arch x86_64 -L/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/config -ldl -framework CoreFoundation -lpython2.7 -u _PyMac_Error Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python conftest.c -isystem/usr/local/include -isystem/usr/include/libxml2 -isystem/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/Current/Headers -L/usr/local/lib -L/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/Current/Libraries -Wl,-headerpad_max_install_names

so I just created a very simple foo.c file and tried to compile it with the same gcc arguments:

✗ clang -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -DNDEBUG -g -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -arch x86_64 -L/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/config -ldl -framework CoreFoundation -lpython2.7 -u _PyMac_Error Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python foo.c
clang: error: no such file or directory: 'Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python'

Note the Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Python part. it seems to be relative and not the full path. Digging a bit on the internet python turned out to be the problem.

After removing and re-installing python all turned out to work. The same part 01.configure.cc after python upgrade:

clang called with: -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -L/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/config -ldl -framework CoreFoundation -lpython2.7 conftest.c
superenv executed: clang -pipe -Os -march=native -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -I/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -dynamic -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/opt/sqlite/include -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -L/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/config -ldl -framework CoreFoundation -lpython2.7 conftest.c -isystem/usr/local/include -isystem/usr/include/libxml2 -isystem/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/Current/Headers -L/usr/local/lib -L/System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/Current/Libraries -Wl,-headerpad_max_install_names

Have fun!

Lately, my prefered Postgres distribution of choice for OSX is Postgres.app.

Its very easy to download and install (just drag-n-drrop, like most other OSX Apps), no need to wait for it to compile, and it comes with a nice menubar icon for control.

In its default configuration it only listens on a port, but not on a unix socket. The problem is, Rails recipes with postgres create a config/database.yml file that assumes a socket presence.

Of example:

✗ rails new test1 -d postgresql
      create
      create  README.rdoc
      ...
Your bundle is complete!
Use `bundle show [gemname]` to see where a bundled gem is installed.
✗ cd test1
✗ rake db:create
could not connect to server: No such file or directory
        Is the server running locally and accepting
        connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

This problem was bothering me for a while as I tried to use rails_apps_composer to bootstrap new applications and it was failing on those database errors.

I didn’t want to mess with Postgres.app configs, as I suspected they’d be overwriten on each version upgrade, so at first I tried to somehow trick it to stop and let me replace the config/database.yml file in time. The solution turned out to be much simpler though.

The Rails Postgres driver recognizes standard Postgres environment variables, one of which is PGHOST. When set to localhost Rails will go for the port instead of the Unix socket, even if there is no host: localhost setting in the YAML file.

✗ PGHOST=localhost rake db:create
✗ _

So just add export PGHOST=localhost to your shell start file, e.g. ~/.zshrc and you are set.

Im actually went further with it, and now I have shell aliases to reset postgres env config, configure it for localhost, or read current application Heroku configs and pre-set Postgres environment for a direct access to Heroku db, but that is a topic for another blog post.

A while back Vitaly wrote a post about LaunchBar. One of the feedbacks we got was to try out Alfred.

After checking it out we switched.

Alfred is an app launcher and then some for OSX. In the version 2 released not that long ago they added brilliant feature - possibility to create your own workflows using nice and simple UI and share them with everyone.

The one workflow I find particularly useful is the Alfred Github Workflow.

The instructions to download and install are provided at the Github page linked above. Once installed you will be asked for your github credentials. The password is not stored, instead the they store your github session cookie.

It’s activated with gh command and you get the list of your repos. Looks like that:

Once you choose one of the repositories you get a list possible actions:

And that about it. Basically, together with Alfred’s fuzzy filtering and always being a keystroke away, it gives me a fast and convenient way to access any of my github repositories.

The June 2013 DevCon event took place on June 20. We sponsored the event, as we always do. Also Vitaly gave an overview talk on RubyMotion.

Check out the talk

I was frustrated by ⌘Q and ⌘W proximity for a long time. Long, long time. Seriously, long time.

It hits me the most with browsers since I usually open and close quite a lot of tabs during the day. And I tend to do it from keyboard, so sometimes I just hit ⌘Q when I only intended ⌘W.

It just happened again.

But this time I suddenly realized that I can easily remap it. I was using this OSX feature for other things, like remapping useless since the typewriter days Caps Lock key, but somehow missed that I can fix this annoying problem too.

If not universally then at least in Chrome (or any other application if needed).

This is really easy:

1. go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts and choose Application Shortcuts in the left panel.

   

2. click on the + icon to add another shortcut.

3. Choose Google Chrome as the application and type in exactly, including case Quit Google Chrome as Menu Title. Generally, it should be the exact menu command name in the application that you want to map.

4. Now, click inside the Keyboard Shortcut field and then press on you keyboard whatever the new shortcut you want. I chose ⌥⇧Q so that it will stay at the same place but wont be as accidentally press-able.

⌘Q will not longer work, and the new shortcut will be correctly displayed in the Chrome’s menu:

LaunchBar is one of the tools I can’t live without.

Basically, it’s an application launcher, but besides actually launching an application it has lots and lots of features that help me complete tasks on my laptop while staying in the flow.

Ever since I installed it on my MacBook my workflow changed quite dramatically to the better.

I just recently reinstalled my MacBook Pro, this time with Snow Leopard.

So I’m again going through various installation problems I already forgot about from few years back when I installed Leopard.

Anyway, just had to hunt down a problem with mysql gem installation on Snow Leopard.

We just started a project for a client that involves Cassandra.

If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what Cassandra is let me tell you :)

Cassandra is a “second-generation distributed database” that was built for web scale.

Its is one of the many distributed nosql databases that appear everywhere lately like mushrooms after a heavy rain :).

What sets Cassandra apart is that it comes from a recognizable entity - Facebook.

But I digress.

This is not meant to be a Cassandra introduction, there are enough of those on the net. I Just created a new nosql section on this blog where I’m going to post various tidbits of information about cassandra (and probably others) as I learn them while working on this new project.

Here is the first one: Cassandra gem is just an installer

I just did something pretty stupid. I edited /etc/sudoers file directly from within my non-root user account.

RRDtool is the OpenSource industry standard, high performance data logging and graphing system for time series data. Use it to write your custom monitoring shell scripts or create whole applications using its Perl, Python, Ruby, TCL or PHP bindings.

Let’s run it with Ruby on Leopard.

sudo port install rrdtool

Default ports installation comes without ruby bindings.

We recently moved our DNS to dnsmadeeasy.com from godaddy.com name servers.

After the transfer some internal CNAME records had a problem. So after fixing the problem and checking in the terminal that the changes propagated to the DNS server (host xxx.astrails.com) I tried to type the address in the browser, but it kept giving me the “can’t find host” error.