Technology Errors

last: btmp: File too large, Read Large btmp Files

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Earlier today while investigating the logs on a CentOS Linux server I noticed the btmp file had grown to over 5GB. I was curious to look into the log and when attempting to read the 5GB file using last I received an error since last will only handle files that are 2GB in size or less. So what needs to happen is to split the file into multiple pieces so they can be read via the last command. Below I describe the error in detail, how to resolve it by splitting the btmp file into multiple files, and then how to join them together if you need to read logs older than the last split file.

Technology Errors

ImportError: No module named django.core.management, Django Error After Upgrade

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On one of my servers I run a couple sites via Django and recently when I upgraded the server it broke the Django sites that were running via FastCGI. After some investigation I was able to find the issue which happened to be a basic conflict between python2.4 which is the default python version on CentOS Linux and python2.6 which I installed to run via python26 instead of python. This way I can change the environment of any site that needs it to Python version 2.6 without much hassle. Below I describe the error in detail as well as what resolved the issue.

Technology Insights

Reattach To A Screen Session, Reattach To A Named Screen Session

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If you are not currently using screen on a regular basis you should start. The Linux screen application allows you to keep remote sessions active even when you disconnect from the server via SSH or similar. One thing that will come up when you start using screen is how to create a screen session with a name and then how to reattach to that named screen session. Use the information below to create a meaningfully named screen session, detach from the screen session but leave it active, and then reattach to the same named screen session.

Technology Errors

postfix/smtpd[XXXXX]: fatal: unsupported dictionary type: mysql, Postfix maillog Errors

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I recently updated a development server running CentOS and ran into various minor issues including one regarding postfix being compiled with MySQL support. The development server runs ISPConfig for various virtual hosts and after upgrading all the packages on the server which included Postfix I noticed errors in the maillog. Below I describe what the error was in more detail as well as how it can easily be resolved.