# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 8 MB, 8388608 bytes
8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 64 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 256 * 512 = 131072 bytes

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table

… then the scsi_debug kernel driver is present. To get rid of the device either unload the driver or (if e.g. statically compiled into the kernel) use sysfs, like:

# echo -1 > /sys/bus/pseudo/drivers/scsi_debug/add_host

Further details available at http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sdebug26.html.

Distrowatch, Heise, Pro-Linux, Symlink, Golem & CO already have the news: a new version of the Debian based Live system for system administrators has been released: Grml 2009.10 – Codename ‘Hello-Wien‘.

One visible new feature is the new bootsplash which should lead you through the most important boot options. The new release features kernel 2.6.31.5 with various patches and extra modules. We’ve an automatic hostname configuration via DHCP & rDNS, improved network boot capabilities, extensive documentation to Grml’s Z Shell features and configuration, support for GRUB2 and directory-specific Z Shell configuration. Amongst the new software packages are Google’s stressapptest, btrfs-tools and guymager.

A full changelog and release notes can be found at http://grml.org/changelogs/README-grml-2009.10/.

As always, images for 32 bit and 64 bit x86 architectures are provided in the sizes grml (~700 MiB), medium (~200 MiB) and small (~100 MiB). They can be downloaded via HTTP, FTP, rsync and Bittorrent.

Thanks to all the contributors for being part of this rocking release!

I’m maintaining live-initramfs for Grml – so I know the limitations of live-initramfs. Yes, it has some design flaws but upstream finally decided to take the time to redesign it. That’s why I’m posting this: I would like to see even more Debian based systems adopting live-initramfs (hello Sidux!). This would improve compatibility with regards to similar bootoptions and features as well as better cooperation among the teams. Of course this will be possible only if live-initramfs is capable of handling all the necessary customization and configuration tasks that different live systems require nowadays.

So this are my current considerations regarding the redesign of live-initramfs:

• support all currently available bootoptions (for a clean upgrade path and wide adoption of live-initramfs 2.x)
• provide a possibility to use the rootfs from exactly the device that the kernel/initramfs is booting from (this is especially important if users have several similar systems on their usb drives)
• scan removable devices always before any harddisk devices by default
• provide a bootoption which displays the currently executed code:
  • avoids panic on user’s side if something takes longer than usual, so let’s inform the user instead
  • debugging is essential if anything fails, though:
  • rebuilding the initramfs with set -x isn’t a solution for normal users
• bootoption toram should run some “free memory checks”
• support custom hooks via something like hooks/live-custom (so other distributions don’t have to patch live-initramfs for adding additional stuff)
• consider inclusion of Grml’s patches (at least what you think might be interesting for you)
• split scripts/[live-bottom] into a separate package:
  • provide just the core files for booting in live-initramfs package, move debian-live specific stuff to a separate package
  • but please don’t just drop 23networking for PXE booting
• write messages through a clean interface:
  • so no /dev/console workarounds are necessary to get around the file descriptor hacks
  • support keeping the system completely quiet (for example for bootsplashes)
  • support custom failure messages (debian-live won’t have much fun if they receive distribution specific bugreports)
  • allow customization of the messages so every system can use its own look and feel for the boot messages
• provide status bars wherever possible:
  • when searching for the squashfs file this can take a while (quoting a Grml user: “cdrom -> ie -> activex -> fast ethernet -> OOB -> IDE -> Grml”), so optionally display which device is scanned
  • toram is annoying without any status information (displaying progress is possible e.g. using rsync)

If you’re interested in adopting live-initramfs in your distribution/system feel free to contact me (mika [at] debian.org). If you do have any further wishes for the redesign please let me know so I can forward them to upstream.

% cd /grml/git-grml
chpwd(): Switching to profile: grml
% echo $DEBEMAIL
mika@grml.org
% cd /grml/git-debian
chpwd(): Switching to profile: debian
% echo $DEBEMAIL
mika@debian.org

The configuration is pretty simple:

# define profiles based on directories:
zstyle ':chpwd:profiles:/grml/git-grml(|/|/*)'       profile grml
zstyle ':chpwd:profiles:/grml/git-debian(|/|/*)'     profile debian
zstyle ':chpwd:profiles:/home/mika/Customers(|/|/*)' profile customers

# configuration for profile 'grml':
chpwd_profile_grml()
{
  [[ ${profile} == ${CHPWD_PROFILE} ]] && return 1
  print "chpwd(): Switching to profile: $profile"

  export DEBEMAIL=mika@grml.org
  export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="mika@grml.org"
  export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="mika@grml.org"
}

# configuration for profile 'debian':
chpwd_profile_debian()
{
  [[ ${profile} == ${CHPWD_PROFILE} ]] && return 1
  print "chpwd(): Switching to profile: $profile"

  export DEBEMAIL=mika@debian.org
  export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL="mika@debian.org"
  export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="mika@debian.org"
}

# configuration for profile 'customers':
chpwd_profile_customers()
{
  [[ ${profile} == ${CHPWD_PROFILE} ]] && return 1
  print "chpwd(): Switching to profile: $profile"

  export TELEPHONE=[...]
  export MAIL=[...]
}

Kudos to Frank for implementing this lovely feature in grml’s zshrc. Look for chpwd_profiles() in grml’s zsh config for further documentation on this feature.

Thanks to all involved people. Special thanks to Gerfried ‘Rhonda’ Fuchs for being my advocate and a helpful package sponsor, to Alexander ‘formorer’ Wirt for being a helpful package sponsor, to Christoph ‘Myon’ Berg and Bernd ‘bzed’ Zeimetz from the frontdesk and to Marc ‘he’ Brockschmidt for being a great Application Manager.

Due to popular request (especially in #grub) PLEASE NOTE: grub itself can NOT boot CDROM images/ISOs. Neither version 1 nor version 2 of grub. Grml provides this feature via its isofrom bootoption. Grub2 strongly simplifies this setup with its loopback option but grub alone will NOT be enough. It’s the live system (as for example grml) that has to support this “boot from ISO” feature.

I’ve tested it with grml-small 2008.11 and grml-small 2009.05-rc1 using grub2 from Debian/unstable (1.96+20090317-1). In the following example the ISO file grml-small_2008.11.iso is available in directory grml on device /dev/sda1. You can boot it from the interactive grub shell using:

loopback loop (hd0,1)/grml/grml-small_2008.11.iso
linux    (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/linux26 isofrom=/dev/sda1/grml/grml-small_2008.11.iso boot=live quiet vga=791 noeject noprompt
initrd   (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/initrd.gz
boot

So if you are using grub2 already consider adding an entry like the following to your grub config (/boot/grub/grub.cfg):

menuentry "grml-rescue system from harddisk (ISO = grml-small_2008.11.iso)" {
  loopback loop (hd0,1)/grml/grml-small_2008.11.iso
  linux    (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/linux26 isofrom=/dev/sda1/grml/grml-small_2008.11.iso boot=live quiet vga=791 noeject noprompt
  initrd   (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/initrd.gz
}

This entry gives you the option to boot grml from your harddisk even if you don’t have the possibility to boot via CD/USB/PXE/….

Tip: starting with grml 2009.05(-rc1) you can also use findiso=/path/to/grml.iso instead of isofrom=/dev/sdX/path/to/grml.iso. findiso is a dynamic version of isofrom as it looks for the specified ISO file on all disks where it usually looks for the .squashfs file (so you don’t have to know the device name compared to isofrom=…). The above configuration using findiso is even easier to set up and would look like this:

menuentry "grml-rescue system from harddisk (ISO = grml-small_2008.11.iso)" {
  loopback loop (hd0,1)/grml/grml-small_2008.11.iso
  linux    (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/linux26 findiso=/grml/grml-small_2008.11.iso boot=live quiet vga=791 noeject noprompt
  initrd   (loop)/boot/grmlsmall/initrd.gz
}

What does the new stable release bring for system administrators? I’ll give an overview what news you might expect when upgrading from Debian GNU/Linux 4.0, codename Etch (released on 8th April 2007) to the current version Debian GNU/Linux 5.0, codename Lenny (released on 14th February 2009). I try to avoid duplicated information so make sure to read the release announcement and the official release notes for Lenny beforehand.

Noteworthy Changes

• initrd-tools got replaced by initramfs-tools
• netkit-inetd got replaced by openbsd-inetd
• the default syslog daemon sysklogd got replaced by rsyslog
• new defaults when creating ext2/ext3 file systems: dir_index and resize_inode feature enabled by default and use blocksize = 4096, inode_size = 256 and inode_ratio = 16384 (see /etc/mke2fs.conf)
• improved IPv6 support
• init.d-scripts for dependency-based init systems
• Debian-Volatile (hosting packages providing data that needs to be regularly updated over time, such as timezones definitions, anti-virus signature files,…) is an official service
• EVMS (Enterprise Volume Management System) was removed
• compatibility with the FHS v2.3
• software developed for version 3.2 of the LSB
• official Debian Lenny live systems for the amd64 and i386 architectures
• several new d-i features

Virtualisation

• kvm: works out-of-the-box with Lenny
• OpenVZ: deploying OpenVZ systems works out-of-the-box now thanks to new OpenVZ kernel image flavors (no need for any further, external repositories)
• vserver: the according kernel images are available
• Xen: works (dom0 as well as domU support), see Xen @ Debian-Wiki

Virtualisation related new tools:

• ganeti: Cluster-based virtualization management software
• libvirt-bin: Libvirt is a C toolkit to interact with the virtualization capabilities of recent versions of Linux (and other OSes). The library aims at providing a long term stable C API for different virtualization mechanisms.
• virtinst: Programs to create and clone virtual machines
• virt-manager: desktop application for managing virtual machines
• xen-shell: Console based Xen administration utility
• xenstore-utils: Xenstore utilities for Xen
• xenwatch: Virtualization utilities, mostly for Xen

Desktop oriented packages like virtualbox and qemu are available as well of course.

Noteworthy Updates

This is a (selective) list of some noteworthy updates:

• apache2: upgrade from 2.2.3-4+etch6 to 2.2.9-10+lenny2
• apt: upgrade from version 0.6.46.4-0.1 to 0.7.20.1, bringing ‘apt-get autoremove’
• aptitude: upgrade from version 0.4.4-4 to 0.4.11.11-1~lenny1, bringing ‘aptitude safe-upgrade’ which replaces ‘aptitude upgrade’ and ‘aptitude full-upgrade’ replacing ‘aptitude dist-upgrade’
• bash: upgrade from 3.1dfsg-8 to 3.2-4
• bind: upgrade from 1:8.4.7-1 / 1:9.3.4-2etch4 to 1:9.5.0.dfsg.P2-5.1
• cfengine: upgrade from 2.1.20-1 to 2.2.8-1
• courier: upgrade from 0.53.3-5 to 0.60.0-2
• dpkg: upgrade from 1.13.26 to 1.14.24, bringing dpkg triggers
• drbd: upgrade from 0.7.21-4 to 2:8.0.14-2
• dstat: upgrade from 0.6.3-2 to 0.6.7-1, the new version for example provides the topcpu and topmem modules so you can run ‘dstat -c -M topcpu -dng -M topmem’ to identify cpu and memory intensive jobs
• fai: upgrade from 3.1.8 to version 3.2.16, see NEWS
• gcc/g++: upgrade from 4:4.1.1-15 to 4.3.2-1.1
• git: upgrade from 1:1.4.4.4-4+etch1 to 1:1.5.6.5-2
• initramfs-tools: upgrade from 0.85i to 0.92o, see new Lenny features
• iproute: upgrade from 20061002-3 to 20080725-2
• iptables: upgrade from 1.3.6.0debian1-5 to 1.4.2-5
• gnu libc: upgrade from 2.3.6.ds1-13etch9+b1 to 2.7-18
• lighttpd: upgrade from 1.4.13-4etch11 to 1.4.19-5
• linux-kernel: upgrade from kernel 2.6.18 to 2.6.26, see wiki.debian.org/KernelFAQ#new-features-in-lenny
• lvm2: upgrade from 2.02.06-4etch1 to 2.02.39-6
• mdadm: upgrade from 2.5.6-9 to 2.6.7.1-1, see README.upgrading-2.5.3
• mercurial: upgrade from 0.9.1-1+etch1 to 1.0.1-5.1
• mount: upgrade from 2.12r-19etch1 to 2.13.1.1-1, bringing read-only binds, –make-shared, –make-slave, –make-private, –make-unbindable
• mysql: upgrade from 5.0.32-7etch8 to 5.0.51a-23
• nagios: upgrade from 2.6-2+etch1 to 3.0.6-3, see Upgrading From Nagios 2.x and What’s New in Nagios 3 for details
• openldap: upgrade from 2.3.30-5+etch2 to 2.4.11-1
• openssh: upgrade from 1:4.3p2-9etch3 to 1:5.1p1-5
• postgresql: upgrade from 7.5.22 / 8.1.15-0etch1 to 8.3.5-1
• perl: upgrade from 5.8.8-7etch6 to 5.10.0-19
• php: upgrade from 5.2.0-8+etch13 to 5.2.6.dfsg.1-1+lenny2
• postfix: upgrade from 2.3.8-2+etch1 to 2.5.5-1.1
• puppet: upgrade from 0.20.1-1 to 0.24.5-3
• python: upgrade from 2.4.4-2 to 2.5.2-3
• ruby: upgrade from 1.8.5-4etch4 to 1.8.7.72-3
• samba: upgrade from 3.0.24-6etch10 to 2:3.2.5-4
• subversion: upgrade from 1.4.2dfsg1-2 to 1.5.1dfsg1-2
• tcl/tk: upgrade from 8.4.12-1etch2 to 8.5.3-4
• utilx-linux: upgrade from 2.12r-19etch1 to 2.13.1.1-1, brings new utilities like:
  • chrt: manipulate real-time attributes of a process
  • ionice: get/set program io scheduling class and priority
  • rename.ul: rename the specified files by replacing the first occurrence of from in their name by to
  • taskset: retrieve or set a process’s CPU affinity
• zsh: upgrade from 4.3.2-25 to 4.3.6-6

New packages

Lenny ships over 7000 new packages. Lists of new/removed/replaced packages are available online. I’ll name 238 sysadmin related packages that might be worth a look. (Note: I don’t list addon stuff like optional server-modules, docs-only and kernel-source related packages. I plan to present some of the following packages in more detail in separate blog entries.)

• ack-grep: A grep-like program specifically for large source trees
• acpitail: Show ACPI information in a tail-like style
• adns-tools: Asynchronous-capable DNS client library and utilities
• aggregate: ipv4 cidr prefix aggregator
• aosd-cat: an on screen display tool which uses libaosd
• apt-cacher-ng: Caching proxy for distribution of software packages
• apt-cross: retrieve, build and install libraries for cross-compiling
• aptfs: FUSE filesystem for APT source repositories
• apt-p2p: apt helper for peer-to-peer downloads of Debian packages
• apt-transport-https: APT https transport, use ‘deb https://foo distro main’ lines in the sources.list
• arp-scan: arp scanning and fingerprinting tool
• array-info: command line tool reporting RAID status for several RAID types
• balance: Load balancing solution and generic tcp proxy
• bash-completion: programmable completion for the bash shell
• blktrace: utilities for block layer IO tracing
• daemonlogger: simple network packet logger and soft tap daemon
• daemontools: a collection of tools for managing UNIX services
• dbndns: Debian fork of djbdns, a collection of Domain Name System tools
• dcfldd: enhanced version of dd for forensics and security
• dctrl2xml: Debian control data to XML converter
• debomatic: automatic build machine for Debian source packages
• desproxy: tunnel TCP traffic through a HTTP proxy
• detox: utility to replace problematic characters in filenames
• di-netboot-assistant: Debian-Installer netboot assistant
• dish: the diligence/distributed shell for parallel sysadmin
• djbdns: a collection of Domain Name System tools
• dns2tcp: TCP over DNS tunnel client and server
• dnscache-run: djbdns dnscache service
• dnshistory: Translating and storing of IP addresses from log files
• dnsproxy: proxy for DNS queries
• dsyslog: advanced modular syslog daemon
• etckeeper: store /etc in git, mercurial, or bzr
• ext3grep: Tool to help recover deleted files on ext3 filesystems
• fair: high availability load balancer for TCP connections
• fatresize: FAT16/FAT32 filesystem resizer
• flog: dump STDIN to file and reopen on SIGHUP
• freeradius-utils: FreeRadius client utilities
• ganeti: Cluster-based virtualization management software
• gfs2-tools: Red Hat cluster suite – global file system 2 tools
• gitosis: git repository hosting application
• gptsync: GPT and MBR partition tables synchronisation tool
• grokevt: scripts for reading Microsoft Windows event log files
• grub2: GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2
• gt5: shell program to display visual disk usage with navigation
• haproxy: fast and reliable load balancing reverse proxy
• havp: HTTP Anti Virus Proxy
• heirloom-mailx: feature-rich BSD mail(1)
• hfsprogs: mkfs and fsck for HFS and HFS+ file systems
• hinfo: Check address ownership and DNSBL listings for spam reporting
• hlbr: IPS that runs over layer 2 (no TCP/IP stack required)
• hobbit: monitoring system for systems, networks and applications – server
• hotwire: Extensible graphical command execution shell
• hunchentoot: the Common Lisp web server formerly known as TBNL
• ifupdown-extra: Network scripts for ifupdown
• ike: Shrew Soft VPN client – Daemon and libraries
• incron: cron-like daemon which handles filesystem events
• inoticoming: trigger actions when files hit an incoming directory
• iodine: tool for tunneling IPv4 data through a DNS server
• iotop: simple top-like I/O monitor
• ipplan: web-based IP address manager and tracker
• ips: Intelligent process status
• iscsitarget: iSCSI Enterprise Target userland tools
• isns: Internet Storage Naming Service
• itop: simple top-like interrupt load monitor
• iwatch: realtime filesystem monitoring program using inotify
• jetring: gpg keyring mantainance using changesets
• john: active password cracking tool
• kanif: cluster management and administration swiss army knife
• keepassx: Cross Platform Password Manager
• keysafe: A safe to put your passwords in
• killer: Background job killer
• kpartx: create device mappings for partitions
• kvm: Full virtualization on x86 hardware
• latencytop: A tool for developers to visualize system latencies
• lbcd: Return system load via UDP for remote load balancers
• ldb-tools: LDAP-like embedded database – tools
• ldnsutils: ldns library for DNS programming
• lfhex: large file hex editor
• live-helper: Debian Live build scripts
• live-magic: GUI frontend to create Debian LiveCDs, netboot images, etc.
• logapp: supervise execution of applications producing heavy output
• lsat: Security auditor tool
• lustre-utils: Userspace utilities for the Lustre filesystem
• lwat: LDAP Web-based Administration Tool
• maatkit: Command-line utilities for MySQL
• mantis: web-based bug tracking system
• memdump: memory dumper
• memlockd: daemon to lock files into RAM
• metainit: Generates init scripts
• mirmon: monitor the state of mirrors
• mkelfimage: utility to create ELF boot images from Linux kernel images
• mongrel: A small fast HTTP library and server for Ruby
• monkey: fast, efficient, small and easy to configure web server
• monkeytail: tail variant designed for web developers monitoring logfiles
• mpy-svn-stats: Simple and easy to use svn statistics generator
• mr: a Multiple Repository management tool
• msr-tools: Utilities for modifying MSRs from userspace
• mtd-utils: Memory Technology Device Utilities
• munge: authentication service to create and validate credentials
• mxallowd: Anti-Spam-Daemon using nolisting/iptables
• mylvmbackup: quickly creating backups of MySQL server’s data files
• myrescue: rescue data from damaged harddisks
• mysql-proxy: high availability, load balancing and query modification for mysql
• mysqltuner: high-performance MySQL tuning script
• nagvis: Visualization addon for Nagios
• ncdu: ncurses disk usage viewer
• netrw: netcat like tool with nice features to transport files over network
• netsend: a speedy filetransfer and network diagnostic program
• network-config: Simple network configuration tool
• nfdump: netflow capture daemon
• ngetty: getty replacement – one single daemon for all consoles
• nilfs2-tools: Continuous Snapshotting Log-structured Filesystem
• ninja: Privilege escalation detection system for GNU\Linux
• noip2: client for dynamic DNS service
• nsd3: authoritative domain name server (3.x series)
• ntfs-3g: read-write NTFS driver for FUSE
• nulog: Graphical firewall log analysis interface
• nuttcp: network performance measurement tool
• ocsinventory-server: Hardware and software inventory tool (Communication Server)
• odt2txt: simple converter from OpenDocument Text to plain text
• olsrd: optimized link-state routing daemon (unik-olsrd)
• onesixtyone: fast and simple SNMP scanner
• openais: Standards-based cluster framework (daemon and modules)
• opencryptoki: PKCS#11 implementation for Linux (daemon)
• openvas-client: Remote network security auditor, the client
• ophcrack: Microsoft Windows password cracker using rainbow tables
• op: sudo like controlled privilege escalation
• otpw-bin: OTPW programs for generating OTPW lists
• packeth: Ethernet packet generator
• paperkey: extract just the secret information out ouf OpenPGP secret key
• paris-traceroute: New version of well known tool traceroute
• password-gorilla: a cross-platform password manager
• pathfinderd: Daemon for X.509 Path Discovery and Validation
• pathfinder-utils: Utilities to use with the Pathfinder Daemon
• pcaputils: specialized libpcap utilities
• pcp: System level performance monitoring and performance management
• perlconsole: small program that lets you evaluate Perl code interactively
• pgloader: loads flat data files into PostgreSQL
• pgpool2: connection pool server and replication proxy for PostgreSQL
• pgsnap: PostgreSQL report tool
• pmailq: postfix mail queue manager
• pnputils: Plug and Play BIOS utilities
• policykit: framework for managing administrative policies and privileges
• postfwd: Postfix policyd to combine complex restrictions in a ruleset
• postpone: schedules commands to be executed later
• powertop: Linux tool to find out what is using power on a laptop
• prayer: standalone IMAP-based webmail server
• prelude-correlator: Hybrid Intrusion Detection System [ Correlator ]
• privbind: Allow unprivileged apps to bind to a privileged port
• pssh: Parallel versions of SSH-based tools
• ptop: PostgreSQL performance monitoring tool akin to top
• pyftpd: ftp daemon with advanced features
• rancid-core: rancid — Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ
• rancid-util: Utilities for rancid
• rdnssd: IPv6 recursive DNS server discovery daemon
• rdup: utility to create a file list suitable for making backups
• reglookup: utility to read and query Windows NT/2000/XP registry
• rgmanager: Red Hat cluster suite – clustered resource group manager
• rinse: RPM installation environment
• rofs: Read-Only Filesystem for FUSE
• rsyslog: enhanced multi-threaded syslogd
• safe-rm: wrapper around the rm command to prevent accidental deletions
• samba-tools: tools provided by the Samba suite
• samdump2: Dump Windows 2k/NT/XP password hashes
• scalpel: A Frugal, High Performance File Carver
• scamper: advanced traceroute and network measurement utility
• scanmem: Locate and modify a variable in a running process
• schedtool: Queries/alters process’ scheduling policy and CPU affinity
• screenie: a small and lightweight GNU screen(1) wrapper
• scrounge-ntfs: Data recovery program for NTFS filesystems
• ser: Sip Express Router, very fast and configurable SIP proxy
• serverstats: a simple tool for creating graphs using rrdtool
• shutdown-at-night: System to shut down clients at night, and wake them in the morning
• sipcrack: SIP login dumper/cracker
• sks: Synchronizing OpenPGP Key Server
• slack: configuration management program for lazy admin
• sma: Sendmail log analyser
• smbind: PHP-based tool for managing DNS zones for BIND
• smbnetfs: User-space filesystem for SMB/NMB (Windows) network servers and shares
• softflowd: Flow-based network traffic analyser
• speedometer: measure and display the rate of data across a network connection
• spf-milter-python: RFC 4408 compliant Python SPF Milter for Sendmail and Postfix
• spf-tools-perl: SPF tools (spfquery, spfd) based on the Mail::SPF Perl module
• spf-tools-python: sender policy framework (SPF) tools for Python
• sqlgrey: Postfix Greylisting Policy Server
• ssdeep: Recursive piecewise hashing tool
• sshfp: DNS SSHFP records generator
• sshm: A command-line tool to manage your ssh servers
• sshproxy: ssh gateway to apply ACLs on ssh connections
• sslscan: Fast SSL scanner
• strace64: A system call tracer for 64bit binaries
• sucrack: multithreaded su bruteforcer
• supercat: program that colorizes text for terminals and HTML
• superiotool: Super I/O detection tool
• system-config-lvm: A utility for graphically configuring Logical Volumes
• system-config-printer: graphical interface to configure the printing system
• tack: terminfo action checker
• taktuk: efficient, large scale, parallel remote execution of commands
• tcpwatch-httpproxy: TCP monitoring and logging tool with support for HTTP 1.1
• terminator: Multiple GNOME terminals in one window
• timelimit: Simple utility to limit a process’s absolute execution time
• tipcutils: TIPC utilities
• tor: anonymizing overlay network for TCP
• tpm-tools: Management tools for the TPM hardware (tools)
• tracker-utils: metadata database, indexer and search tool – commandline tools
• tumgreyspf: external policy checker for the postfix mail server
• ucspi-tcp: command-line tools for building TCP client-server applications
• unbound: validating, recursive, caching DNS resolver
• unhide: Forensic tool to find hidden processes and ports
• uniutils: Tools for finding out what is in a Unicode file
• unsort: reorders lines in a file in semirandom ways
• uphpmvault: upload recovery images to HP MediaVault2 via Ethernet
• usermode: Graphical tools for certain user account management tasks
• utf8-migration-tool: Debian UTF-8 migration wizard
• uuid-runtime: universally unique id library
• vblade-persist: create/manage supervised AoE exports
• vde2: Virtual Distributed Ethernet
• vdmfec: recover lost blocks using Forward Error Correction
• virtinst: Programs to create and clone virtual machines
• virt-manager: desktop application for managing virtual machines
• virtualbox-ose: x86 virtualization solution – binaries
• virt-viewer: Displaying the graphical console of a virtual machine
• watchupstream: Look for newer upstream releases
• whirlpool: Implementation of the whirlpool hash algorithm
• win32-loader: Debian-Installer loader for win32
• xavante: Lua HTTP 1.1 Web server
• xdelta3: A diff utility which works with binary files
• xen-shell: Console based Xen administration utility
• xenstore-utils: Xenstore utilities for Xen
• xenwatch: Virtualization utilities, mostly for Xen
• xfingerd: BSD-like finger daemon with qmail support
• xl2tpd: a layer 2 tunneling protocol implementation
• xrdp: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) server
• yersinia: Network vulnerabilities check software
• zerofree: zero free blocks from ext2/3 file-systems
• zipcmp: compare contents of zip archives
• zipmerge: merge zip archives
• ziproxy: compressing HTTP proxy server

Further Ressources

• Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 released – Release Announcement
• Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 – Release Notes
• Etch2Lenny Upgrade @ Debian-Wiki
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Unix time, or POSIX time, is a system for describing points in time, defined as the number of seconds elapsed since midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. It is widely used not only on Unix-like operating systems but also in many other computing systems.

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time

This are my solutions to convert the Unix time ‘1234567890′ to human readable format:

GNU date:

% date -d @1234567890
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 CET 2009

BSD date:

% date -ur 1234567890
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 CET 2009

Zsh:

% zsh -c 'zmodload zsh/datetime ; strftime "%c" 1234567890'
Sat 14 Feb 2009 12:31:30 AM CET

Python:

% python -c 'import time; print time.ctime(1234567890)'
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 2009

Ruby:

% ruby -e 'puts Time.at(1234567890)'
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 +0100 2009

Perl:

% perl -e 'print scalar localtime(1234567890),"\n";'
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 2009

MySQL:

% echo 'select FROM_UNIXTIME(1234567890);' | mysql -h localhost
FROM_UNIXTIME(1234567890)
2009-02-14 00:31:30

PostgreSQL:

% echo "SELECT TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE 'epoch' + 1234567890 * INTERVAL '1 second';" | psql test
        ?column?
------------------------
 2009-02-14 00:31:30+01
(1 row)

C:

% echo '
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

int main() {
   time_t sec;
   struct tm * ts;
   sec = (1234567890);
   ts = localtime(&sec);
   printf("%s", ctime(&sec));
   return 0;
}' | gcc -x c - && ./a.out
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 2009

Java:

% cat date.java
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.TimeZone;

class UnixTime {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
                TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("CET"));
                System.out.println(new Date(1234567890L*1000L));
        }
}
% javac date.java && java UnixTime
Sat Feb 14 00:31:30 CET 2009

Javascript:

% echo 'new Date(1234567890*1000);' | smjs -i
js> Sat Feb 14 2009 00:31:30 GMT+0100 (CET)

PHP:

% php --run 'print date("r", "1234567890");'
Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:31:30 +0100