Forem: Ahmed Musallam

What software/services cause you the most agony?

Ahmed Musallam — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 15:55:54 +0000

I'd like to take this opportunity to start a support group for users of traumatizing software.

I'll start.

Hello, I'm Ahmed, and I have to use Skype For Business and Webex on a daily basis. Every-time I try to connect to my calls, I have to say a little prayer, cross my fingers, roll a 100-sided die, and just HOPE that it works out! 🤣

Do you use software like that on a daily basis? What's the most frustrating software you work or have worked with in the past?

This is really meant to be lighthearted discussion and let software frustrations out through comedy 😊

How To Autocomplete SSH Hosts

Ahmed Musallam — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 01:09:11 +0000

So you know about SSH config file, there are several awesome articles on the subject:

This awesome article

and this one that covers some tips and tricks

SSH Config Tips and Tricks

Daniel McCarney ・ Feb 1 '19

#linux #cli #ssh #security

Now, with all of that, you still have to remember the full host entry to connect and it will not be autocompleted for you.

let's say I have the following in my config file:




Host unicorn-one
  HostName 1.2.3.4
  User amusallam
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Host unicorn-two
  HostName 2.2.3.4
  User amusallam
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Host unicorn-three
  HostName 3.2.3.4
  User amusallam
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

and now I type ssh unicorn into terminal and hit ⇥ Tab, it will not auto complete...

But fear not! for I have what your heart desires!

Autocomplete Script

I've only tried this on MacOs.

courtesy of this stackexchange answer:

Jan 28 '15

105

Found it!!

It seems that in Ubuntu the entries in ~/.ssh/known_hosts are hashed, so SSH completion cannot read them. This is a feature, not a bug. Even by adding HashKnownHosts no to ~/.ssh/config and /etc/ssh/ssh_config I was unable to prevent the host hashing.

However, the hosts that I am…

Open Full Answer

add the following file: /etc/bash_completion.d/ssh whose contents:



_ssh() 
{
    local cur prev opts
    COMPREPLY=()
    cur="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}"
    prev="${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]}"
    opts=$(grep '^Host' ~/.ssh/config ~/.ssh/config.d/* 2>/dev/null | grep -v '[?*]' | cut -d ' ' -f 2-)

    COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "$opts" -- ${cur}) )
    return 0
}
complete -F _ssh ssh

Then load that file: in your ~/.bash_profile, add:



## load ssh autocompletion
. /etc/bash_completion.d/ssh

and reload by running source ~/.bash_profile or just terminate your terminal and reopen it.

and voila!

(The flashes you see below are me hitting ⇥ Tab)

easy peasy!

Extra helpful alias

if you want to see a list of all your hosts, you can add this alias to your .bash_profile:



# list all "Host" and "HostName" lines, then remove the strings: "Host " and "HostName "
alias sshhosts="grep -w -i -E 'Host|HostName' ~/.ssh/config | sed 's/Host //' | sed 's/HostName //'"

reload by running source ~/.bash_profile or just terminate your terminal and reopen it.

then you can run it:



sshhosts

from unicorn example above, this prints:



unicorn-one
  1.2.3.4
unicorn-two
  2.2.3.4
unicorn-three
  3.2.3.4

🔖 Bookmarklets Manager Chrome Extension!

Ahmed Musallam — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 17:06:43 +0000

All info you need to install is here:

ahmed-musallam / chrome-bookmarklet-manager

A chrome extension to manage bookmarklets!

🔖 Chrome Bookmarklet Manager

A chrome extension to edit bookmarklets with the monaco editor.

A bookmarklet is a bookmark stored in a web browser that contains JavaScript commands that add new features to the browser.

Install

pending review on chrome store

Go to chrome://extensions/
Enable Developer mode slider
Download the latest .ext from (releases](https://github.com/ahmed-musallam/chrome-bookmarklet-manager/releases)
Drag .ext file onto chrome to install

Development

Clone this repo
Go to chrome://extensions/
Enable Developer mode slider
Click Load unpacked
Aelect the ext folder from the cloned repo
Run npm run dev: will watch source changes and build the Js bundle and put it in the ext folder.

View on GitHub

This project has been in the making for quite some time. I wanted a bookmarklet manager extension that did not run any code on pages without the user actually trigging said code. This extension runs no Content Scripts which means that the extension itself does not load any code onto the pages you visit, nor does it care! All this extension does, is give you a way to edit bookmarks that start with javascript: in a nice editor. Oh did I forget to mention it uses the monaco editor? the editor behind VSCode!

Give it a shot, and let me know what you think! I would appreciate any input/pull requests/stars you can give!

PS. This extension is built with Vue, I am no Vue expert. Still learning :)

Tell me about jQuery Patterns!

Ahmed Musallam — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 01:35:04 +0000

Yesterday, Ben wrote this question:

Anybody still working with jQuery?

Ben Halpern ・ Jun 3 '19 ・ 1 min read

#discuss #webdev #javascript #jquery

And it got me curious about jQuery patterns/frameworks that people use to make maintaining large jQuery projects easier.

I've been using jQuery Widget getting a custom download of jQuery UI with only the widget API Or I make my own stateful components via JS prototypes and try to make an API to scope querying the DOM to the specific HTML subtree. I even wrote a small tool to distant interactions via pub/sub model.

Anyway, I really want to hear what other people do to maintain their large jQuery applications?

I Challenge YOU to Write a Better Parser!

Ahmed Musallam — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 18:03:25 +0000

So here is the deal, I wrote this really Stupid Sling URL Parser:

ahmed-musallam / stupid-sling-url-parser

A really stupid JS to parse Apache Sling URL

A Really stupid Apache Sling URL Parser

This is a stupid implementation to parse Apache Sling Url in JS. You should really use Sluri.

I built this for fun. It only supports Modern browsers (Sorry not sorry IE) and NodeJs 10+. Also, it is EXTREMELY small! ~0.8KB minified. Sluri is 6.5 KB minified but has a lot more functionality.

Usage

Get the minified version in /dist

const slingUrl = new SlingUrl('/a/b.s1.html/c/d');


console.log(slingUrl.resourcePath) // returns: "/a/b"
console.log(slingUrl.selectors)    // returns ["s1"]
console.log(slingUrl.extension)    // returns "html"
console.log(slingUrl.suffix)       // returns "/c/d"

// if any of the properties above does not exist, null is returned.

Source

see /src/SlingUrl.js

Running tests

npm test

View on GitHub

The whole source is in this file: https://github.com/ahmed-musallam/stupid-sling-url-parser/blob/master/src/SlingUrl.js

I'm setting a pretty low bar here, since I wrote this very quickly for the SOLE purpose of saving bytes.

Now, I'd like to see you try to write something better! It would be a good exercise if you're up for it. Plus you'd show some random person on the internet how wrong they are.

All you need to know to rebuild this is in the URL Decomposition Doc of Apache Sling

The doc has examples and I have written tests for my parser

Happy coding!

VirtualBox: How To Access Host Port From Guest

Ahmed Musallam — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:03:14 +0000

originally posted on my site

I'm always working on a Mac machine, but sometimes I need to debug an issue that only affects windows machines and more specifically IE. For that, I usually use VirtualBox with a free VM from Microsoft for debugging.

I never remember what to do to access a server running on my Mac from my Windows VM. So I'm writing this, for me. And I guess for you too!

Port Forwarding

Shutdown your VM
Open settings for the VM and select network
make Sure the Attached to dropdown is set to NAT
expand Advanced
Click Port Forwarding
Add a new rule. In my case, I want to forward port 4502 on my guest to port 4502 on my host. leave the IP fields empty

Finding Your Host Local IP

Now you need to find the host (Mac) local IP that is assigned to you by your router, this typically starts with 192

you can find this in MacOs by following this SO answer point #3

basically run the one of the following commands to get your local IP:

ipconfig getifaddr en0 if connected via a wireless connection.

ipconfig getifaddr en1 if connected via ethernet.

ipconfig getifaddr en3 if connected via a Thunderbolt-to-ethernet adaptor.

Accessing Server Running on Your Host From Your Guest

now that you have the IP, you can use it to access the forwarded port from your guest VM.

In my case, the IP of the host turned out to be 192.168.10.20 so, in my windows VM I can access the URL: http://192.168.10.20:4502!

Do you leave jokes in your code? If so, please share!

Ahmed Musallam — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 18:58:04 +0000

Sometimes, I leave bad jokes in my code, here are some examples from a backup tool I built a while back:

When a user tries to delete a backup:

console.log(`Still wanna do it? just checkin'...`)

When trying to remove a backup but something wrong happens:

spinner.fail(`ummm, yeah.. this is awkward; we could't delete the backups for some reason`)

When the user tries to remove a backup, but then cancels at the prompt:

console.log(`Whew, nothing happened. That must feel good, eh?`.green)

When something goes wrong:

spinner.fail('womp womp... some error occurred *rolls eyes*')

Other times, I add a funny* comment to a funky looking piece of code, just because..

I am curious if other devs do it to, do you do anything like that? funny comments? funny method/variable names? or funny messages you show to users? please share!

*Depends on whom you ask ;)

Do you want to help me build a searchable Black Friday database?

Ahmed Musallam — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 07:23:50 +0000

I recently discovered bestblackfriday.com and I thought how cool would it be if all those Black Friday scans were to be converted into a searchable database and open sourced possibly as JSON files for anyone to grab, plug into a database (or use as is) and build a simple UI around it.

This effort would involve manually looking at the add scans and adding products one by one and by hand.

Anyone willing to help with this effort? Any suggestions or reservations regarding this idea?

Obviously this is time sensitive as Black Friday is only 2 weeks away, but I think this might be a great opportunity!

Do you know of an in-browser javascript compressor?

Ahmed Musallam — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 08:21:14 +0000

I am hoping this post is appropriate here :)

I'm looking for suggestions for an in-browser javascript compressor. I don't need an obfuscater/uglifier (though, it's welcome). I need a Javascript library than can take a string of javascript code that might be formatted with new lines, spaces, tabs.. etc. and output a single line of javascript.

tried to look on the web and on github, but most libraries I found depended on nodeJS API.

For example:

function sayHi(){
  console.log('Hi!');
}

sayHi();

would be outputted as:

function sayHi(){console.log("hi there")}sayHi();

I need the JS in one line for a very specific use-case for an open source chrome extension I am going to start working on. Your help is appreciated!

After writing this I realize that I can just remove all instances of new line with a regex. But maybe there is something better out there ?

I like the new dev.to fixed reaction bar. but let's hide it for fun!

Ahmed Musallam — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 07:55:28 +0000

I thought this was cool:

Changelog: Sticky Post Actions UI Change

Ben Halpern ・ Sep 13 '18 ・ 1 min read

#changelog #meta

But then I wondered what the experience would be like if the bottom bar slid down when you scroll down and showed back up when you scrolled up. So I looked up how I can make that happen. Easily, it turns out:

https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_js_navbar_slide.asp

now let's use that to make this happen:

Made possible with https://getkap.co/

The code is really simple:

var initialScrollPos = window.pageYOffset;
var bar = document.getElementById("article-reaction-actions");
bar.style.transition = "bottom 0.25s"
window.onscroll = function() {
  var currentScrollPos = window.pageYOffset;
  if (initialScrollPos > currentScrollPos) { // user scrolled down
    bar.style.bottom = "0";
  } else { // user scrolled up
    bar.style.bottom = `-${bar.offsetHeight}px`; // 80 is a number larger than the bar's height
  }
  initialScrollPos = currentScrollPos;
}

I am aware that this can be optimized, but it's only for illustration purposes :)

I don't know which one I like best... The transition is nice, but the fixed bar might be better to keep the reader focused on reading not looking at the bar moving. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

How do you delegate work? especially to offshore developers?

Ahmed Musallam — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 21:23:51 +0000

I find it really hard to delegate work to my development team, especially offshore developers because of the time difference. I can't reach out to most of my team during my work hours and they can't reach out to me...

Additionally, I keep looking at user stories and thinking: "I could do that myself, faster and exactly how I want it". But there are so many hours in a day and I keep restraining myself from taking on more work on my already full plate. Also, I recognize that if I did everything for my team, they miss on learning opportunities that I've enjoyed in the past.

I wonder how other lead developers do it? Any techniques or practices that might help?

Bash from scratch: learn enough bash to write your own scripts

Ahmed Musallam — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 18:24:02 +0000

You should probably read @maxwell_dev's post: The Shell Introduction I Wish I Had before this

I find myself always needing to write shell scripts, because they can be very handy to automate tasks. Or, most importantly, because I forget the full commands to do something and I don't want to keep looking up the docs; either because the docs suck, or I'm just lazy :)

sometimes the commands I run are long or are just unfriendly. For example, this maven command:

mvn clean install -PautoInstallPackage,-codeQuality,-frontend -Dcrx.user=user1 -Dcrx.password=pass1

this is unintuitive and I wanted something simpler like:

./install -codeQuality -frontend --user user1 --password pass1

or shorter:

./install -c -f -u user1 -p pass1

at this point you might be thinking, how is this any better than the actual maven command? Well:

I add documentation to my install script. And I print the documentation when I run install help
My scripts print the full commands they execute.
The command itself is part of the script, I can always look inside my script to find it.

Now that that's out of the way, lets learn some shell scripting! I'll be introducing you to a few things that'll get you writing scripts in no time!

The basics

Creating an executable file

In order to write a script and execute it, the script file must have execution permission. So let's create a file and give it execution permission

cd into a test directory and run

# create a new file called `script.sh`
touch script.sh
# add `execution` permission to the script to make it executable 
chmod +x script.sh

to run the script, while in the same directory:

./script

the ./ is necessary to tell your terminal to look in the current directory and not the default script directory.

now open that file in your favorite editor and let's get to learning the syntax.

The shebang!

TL;DR; add #!/usr/bin/env bash in the first line of your script file to mark that file as a bash executable.

you could use #!/usr/bin/env sh for portability, but we are working specifically with bash here.

printing stuff

to print things to the terminal, you can use echo or printf

echo is straightforward, it "echos" what you throw at it:

for example lets make that script.sh, from above, print "hello world"

#!/usr/bin/env bash
echo hello world

run it: ./script.sh and it will print: hello world.

printf is used for printing and "formatting" strings, hence the f at the end. a few simple examples can be found here
The largest use-case for me is printing a new line using the new line specifier \n.

example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
printf "hello\nworld\n"

prints:

hello
world

Comments

Any line starting with # is a comment.

Declaring Variables

simple:

MY_VARIABLE="my value"

IMPORTANT: no space before or after =. Shell uses space as a delimiter for command arguments.

Parameter Expansion

see this and this to learn more.

referencing or substituting a variable:

for example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

FAV_FRUIT="apples"
echo FAV_FRUIT

# prints `FAV_FRUIT`

while:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

FAV_FRUIT="apples"
echo $FAV_FRUIT

# prints `apples`

did you catch the difference? yes! FAV_FRUIT vs $FAV_FRUIT.

you can also use $ in a string:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

FAV_FRUIT="apples"
I_LIKE_BLANK="I like $FAV_FRUIT"
echo $I_LIKE_BLANK

# prints `I like apples`

Note: in all examples above, you can replace $ with ${variable name} for the same effect. so $FAV_FRUIT is the same as ${FAV_FRUIT}

Second note: notice how we used $FAV_FRUIT inside of a string? that's string templating for ya!

Using a default value

if a variable is empty or undefined, use a certain default value. This is best illustrated with an example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

SHIRT_COLOR=""
COLOR="${SHIRT_COLOR:-red}"
echo $color

# prints: `red` since SHIRT_COLOR is empty

another example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

DEFAULT_COLOR="red"
SHIRT_COLOR=""
MY_SHIRT_COLOR="My shirt color is ${SHIRT_COLOR:-$DEFAULT_COLOR}"
echo $MY_SHIRT_COLOR


# prints: `My shirt color is red`

Note: notice how we used ${SHIRT_COLOR:-$DEFAULT_COLOR} inside of a string? that's string templating for ya!

Passing variables to our script from terminal

To pass a variable, you can declare it before running the script.
This is especially helpful for passing environment variables. For example: the following script expects a FRUIT and will print I Like <FRUIT>. If FRUIT is undefined, use Apricot.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

DEFAULT_FRUIT="Apricot"
FRUIT=${FRUIT:-$DEFAULT_FRUIT}
echo "I Like $FRUIT"

now you declare FRUIT="Oranges" before running ./script:

FRUIT="Oranges" ./script

which prints: I Like Oranges

since the default is Apricot:

./script

prints: I Like Apricot

The More Advanced stuff

If Statements

The syntax

If then

if [[ <some test> ]]; then
  <commands>
fi

If else

if [[ <some test> ]]; then
  <commands>
else
  <other commands>
fi

If elseif else

if [[ <some test> ]]; then
  <commands>
elif [[ <some test> ]]; then
  <different commands>
else
  <other commands>
fi

Tests

in the above <some test> can be replaced with a test condition. You can see all available test conditions by typing man test in your terminal

Here are a few sample conditions that evaluate to true:

Test	Description
`[[2 -gt 1]]`	2 is greater than 1. counterpart `-lt`: less,than.
`[[2 -eq 2]]`	2 equals 2
`[[3 -ge 3]]`	3 is greater than,or equal to 3. counterpart `-le`: less than or equal
`[[-n "hello"]]`	Length of "hello" is greater than 0
`[[-z ""]]`	Length of "" is 0
`[["apple"= "apple"]]`	String,"apple" equals String "apple". (`-eq` compares numbers while `=` compares charachters)
`[["apple"!= "apple1"]]`	String,"apple" does no equal String "apple1"

Examples using wildcards:
- [[ "watermelon" = *"melon"* ]]: String "watermelon" contains "melon"

Since this article is about bash and not shell in general, we use bash's double square brackets [[]]. Read this and this answer for more information.

this article is a good resource for further test conditions

To continue with the spirit of examples and fruits, here is an example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [[ ${#FRUIT} -gt 4 ]]    # FRUIT character count is greater than 4
then
    echo "[$FRUIT]: yay! your fruit has more than 4 characters!"
elif [[ ${#FRUIT} -lt 4  ]] # FRUIT character count is less than 4
then
    echo "[$FRUIT]: Unbelievable... your fruit has less than 4 characters..."
else                      # FRUIT character count must be 4
    echo "A fruit with exactly 4 characters, how precious!"
fi

The following table shows the commands and the outputs for above script:

Command	Output
`FRUIT="Apple" ./script.sh`	`[Apple]: yay! your fruit has more than 4 characters!`
`FRUIT="Fig" ./script.sh`	`[Fig]: Unbelievable... your fruit has less than 4 characters...`
`FRUIT="Pear" ./script.sh`	`A fruit with exactly 4 characters, how precious!`

Note the parameter expansion ${#FRUIT} gets the characters length of FRUIT

Here are a few helpful operators

Parsing Arguments (`while` and `case` statements)

This is probably going to be the best part. Now that you've learned a few cool tricks, let's look at passing arguments with some sort of API.

Our goal in this section will be to create a script that will print information about a user. For example, the following command:

./script --name Ahmed --height 6ft --occupation "Professional Procrastinator" --username coolestGuyEver23

which will print:

Hello, my name is Ahmed. I'm 6ft tall.
I work as a Professional Procrastinator and my username is coolestGuyEver23

Note that order of arguments should not matter

let's get to it!

first, we need a way to parse the arguments --name Ahmed --height 6ft --occupation= Developer --username coolestGuyEver23 to variables. see this SO answer

first let's look at bash's built in $# and shift
$# returns the number of arguments passed. for example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo $#

If you run ./script arg1 arg2 arg3, the output would be 3

shift

The shift command is one of the Bourne shell built-ins that comes with Bash. This command takes one argument, a number. The positional parameters are shifted to the left by this number, N. The positional parameters from N+1 to $# are renamed to variable names from $1 to $# - N+1.

This is better explained with an example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo $#
shift 2
echo $#
shift
echo $#
echo $@

running ./script arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5 (total 5 arguments) prints:

5
3
2
arg4 arg5

huh? so shift 2 basically removed arg1 and arg2 then we executed shift again and removed arg3. Note that $@ is another builtin that prints the arguments.

Now is a good time to tell you how to access arguments sort-of like an array. You can use $1 for first arg, $2 for second arg, $3 for third arg.. and so on.

example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo $1
echo $3
echo $2

running:

./script arg1 arg2 arg3

prints:

arg1
arg3
arg2

how do we use all that info? take a look at this:

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
    key="$1"
    echo $key
    shift
done

It might have clicked by now! Using the while loop above, with exit condition [[ $# -gt 0 ]] and shift to reduce $# we can loop over all passed args!

let's make it better with a case statement, let's start simple and parse name and height only

#!/usr/bin/env bash

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]
do
key="$1"
case $key in
    # parse name arg
    -n|--name)
        NAME="$2"   # the value is right after the key
        shift       # past argument (`--name`)
        shift       # past value
    ;;
    # parse height arg
    -h|--height)
        HEIGHT="$2"
        shift # past argument
        shift # past value
    ;;
    # unknown option
    *)
        echo "Unknown argument: $key"
        shift # past argument
    ;;
esac
done

echo "NAME: $NAME"
echo "HEIGHT: $HEIGHT"

Notes:

each case is separated with a pipe | for example -n|--name) matches -n OR --name

we used shift two times to move past the argument flag and the argument value

More on case statement

We are exiting after finding the first match by using ;;. Matching unknown options is at the bottom.

Rut it:

./run.sh --name Ahmed --height 6ft

or shorter

./run.sh -n Ahmed -h 6ft

prints:

NAME: Ahmed
HEIGHT: 6ft

putting it all together:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]
do
key="$1"
case $key in
    # parse name arg
    -n|--name)
        NAME="$2"   # the value is right after the key
        shift       # past argument (`--name`)
        shift       # past value
    ;;
    # parse height arg
    -h|--height)
        HEIGHT="$2"
        shift        # past argument
        shift        # past value
    ;;
    # parse user arg
    -u|--user)
        USER="$2"
        shift # past argument
        shift # past value
    ;;
    # parse occupation argument
    -o|--occupation)
        OCCUPATION="$2"
        shift # past argument
        shift # past value
    ;;
    # parse code quality argument
    -u|--username)
        USERNAME="$2"
        shift # past argument
        shift # past value
    ;;
    # unknown option
    *)
        echo "Unknown argument: $key"
        shift # past argument
    ;;
esac
done

echo "Hello, my name is $NAME. I'm $HEIGHT tall.
I work as a $OCCUPATION and my username is $USERNAME"

and run it:

./run.sh --name ahmed --height 6ft --occupation "professional procrastinator" --username coolestGuyEver23

./run.sh -n ahmed -h 6ft -o "professional procrastinator" -u coolestGuyEver23

result:

Hello, my name is ahmed. I'm 6ft tall.
I work as a professional procrastinator and my username is coolestGuyEver23

Note, remember Using a default value section above? you can use that to add default values in case a param was not passed.

Evaluating Commands

you can assemble a a command as a string then use eval to execute it. For example, remember that long maven command from the beginning of the post?

mvn clean install -PautoInstallPackage -Dcrx.user=user1 -Dcrx.password=pass1

We can break that up and assemble it:

Assuming I already parsed PROFILE, USER and PASSWORD

PROFILE="${PROFILE:-autoInstallPackage}"
USER="${USER:-user1}"
PASSWORD="${PASSWORD:-pass1}"

COMMAND="mvn clean install -P$PROFILE -Dcrx.user=$USER -Dcrx.password=$PASSWORD"

eval $COMMAND

and the command will be executed.

eval might not be the best choice for all cases. It is completely fine in this case since I am the only one running the script and not the end users. So exercise caution when using eval, in any programming language.

The script above can be re-written without eval as:

PROFILE="${PROFILE:-autoInstallPackage}"
USER="${USER:-user1}"
PASSWORD="${PASSWORD:-pass1}"
mvn clean install "-P$PROFILE" "-Dcrx.user=$USER" "-Dcrx.password=$PASSWORD"

Thanks @lietux

Functions

Functions are simple and straightforward. Here is a function that prints the first argument passed to it:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

printFirstOnly(){
  echo $1
}
# execute it
printFirstOnly hello world

prints hello only

Function arguments are accessed with the $N variable where N is the argument number.

I like to use functions to pretty print things:

pretty() {
  printf "***\n$1\n***\n"
}

pretty "hi there"

prints:

***
hi there
***

You can use it for whatever purpose, however.

Conclusion

If you've reached this, then I've done something right :) I'd love to hear your feedback on the post in general. Was it organized? scattered? did it make sense? was it helpful? and what can I do to improve it?

Forem: Ahmed Musallam

What software/services cause you the most agony?

How To Autocomplete SSH Hosts

SSH Config Tips and Tricks

Daniel McCarney ・ Feb 1 '19

Autocomplete Script

Extra helpful alias

🔖 Bookmarklets Manager Chrome Extension!

ahmed-musallam / chrome-bookmarklet-manager

A chrome extension to manage bookmarklets!

🔖 Chrome Bookmarklet Manager

Install

Development

Tell me about jQuery Patterns!

Anybody still working with jQuery?

Ben Halpern ・ Jun 3 '19 ・ 1 min read

I Challenge YOU to Write a Better Parser!

ahmed-musallam / stupid-sling-url-parser

A really stupid JS to parse Apache Sling URL

A Really stupid Apache Sling URL Parser

Usage

Source

Running tests

VirtualBox: How To Access Host Port From Guest

Port Forwarding

Finding Your Host Local IP

Accessing Server Running on Your Host From Your Guest

Do you leave jokes in your code? If so, please share!

Do you want to help me build a searchable Black Friday database?

Do you know of an in-browser javascript compressor?

I like the new dev.to fixed reaction bar. but let's hide it for fun!

Changelog: Sticky Post Actions UI Change

Ben Halpern ・ Sep 13 '18 ・ 1 min read

How do you delegate work? especially to offshore developers?

Bash from scratch: learn enough bash to write your own scripts

The basics

Creating an executable file

The shebang!

printing stuff

Comments

Declaring Variables

Parameter Expansion

referencing or substituting a variable:

Using a default value

Passing variables to our script from terminal

The More Advanced stuff

If Statements

The syntax

If then

If else

If elseif else

Tests

Parsing Arguments (while and case statements)

Evaluating Commands

Functions

Conclusion

Parsing Arguments (`while` and `case` statements)