Miscellaneous tips&tricks

Postfix

• After updating /etc/aliases, in order for Postfix to see the updated aliases, newaliases command has to be issued in bash
• Set up a Gmail relay:
  • http://serverfault.com/questions/119278/configure-postfix-to-send-relay-emails-gmail-smtp-gmail-com-via-port-587
  • http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail/composing-and-sending-messages/7QWAO_aunhc
  • http://www.postfix.org/postconf.5.html#relay_transport
  • http://www.postfix.org/TLS_README.html
  • Postfix configuration is not that complex, there’s a lot of options but the docs are well-written
  • http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?p=105989

git

• In the precommit hook one can add ack-grep "pdb\.set_trace\(\)" to find all remaining pdb calls. You can also do much more there.

Virtualbox (+ Ubuntu)

• Port mapping in the NAT mode http://superuser.com/questions/424083/virtualbox-host-ssh-to-guest. Then: ssh -p 2222 user@localhost.
• An imported Vbox image cannot connect to the network: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24383. One have to comment out entries in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules (in the guest OS of course) as they contain MAC address of the formerly used virtual machine, and the restart the guest.
• Using host’s DNS resolver in the NAT mode: http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#nat_host_resolver_proxy. That makes host’s /etc/hosts used for DNS lookups in the virtual machine.
• Watch out for DNS resolving in Ubuntu Precise (12.04+): http://www.stgraber.org/2012/02/24/dns-in-ubuntu-12-04/, https://plus.google.com/105897381673403508112/posts/UNrkEtAw6MX.