Forem: Okinea Dev

🤖 Use AI to speed up writing commit messages (bonus: custom prompt for improved generation)

Okinea Dev — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:25:24 +0000

Creating commits is an integral part of working with Git , and it’s equally important to create understandable commit messages, but we (most likely) are too lazy to describe them in detail and clearly, but we don’t want our commit history to look something like this: “update this “, “fix”, “fix”, “wjkwefjke”, “…” and etc.

GitHub Copilot comes to the rescue! — the GitHub Copilot extension for VS Code has a function for generating commit messages

📋 Requirements

GitHub Copilot access on your *GitHub * account.
VSCode with GitHub Copilot enabled.

Commit menu in VS Code

There is an icon with sparks (✨) on the right of the commit input field, this is the button for generating a commit message

When we click on the commit generation button — the AI will generate a message based on the diff of the changed files, you can see the result below 👇

Copilot wrote the following commit message: _fix: 🩹 update uninstall command to handle optional PREFIX variable_ and he wrote it correctly because I really fixed the uninstall command

This can really save you time, you don’t have to waste your time writing commit messages anymore, let Copilot do it for you 😉

🎁 Bonus: Custom prompt for improved commit message generation

I made a custom prompt for Copilot with commit generation rules, you can apply it with these steps:

Go to vscode://settings/github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions or type this in VS Code settings : _github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions_

Visual Studio Code settings menu

Click “ Edit in settings.json ”
Copy and paste this into settings.json :

"github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions": [
  {
    "text": "Follow the **Conventional Commits** format strictly. Use the structure below:\n\n```

\n<type>[optional scope]: <gitmoji> <description>\n\n<detailed body>\n

```\n\n## Guidelines:\n\n1. **Type and Scope** : Choose a commit type (e.g., `feat`, `fix`) and an optional scope to describe the affected module or feature.\n2. **Gitmoji** : Include a relevant `gitmoji` that **best** represents the nature of the change.\n3. **Description** : Write a **concise** and **informative** description in the header. Use **backticks** if referencing code or specific terms.\n4. **Body** : For additional details, use a well-structured body section:\n- Use bullet points (`*`) for clarity.\n- Always clearly describe the motivation, context, or technical details behind the change if applicable.\n\nCommit messages should be **clear** , **informative** , and **professional** , aiding readability and project tracking."
  }
]

Editing the Visual Studio Code settings file

This prompt defines the format of commit messages according to Conventional Commits with the addition of emoji (gitmoji). It consists of the following elements:

Type and Scope : Specify the commit type (eg _feat_, _fix_) and, if applicable, the scope describing the module or functionality.
Gitmoji : Added the appropriate gitmoji that best represents the changes.
Description : Concise and informative title section, using backticks to refer to code or terms.
Commit Body : More detailed information organized as a bulleted list describing the motivation, context, or technical details of the changes.

The goal is to make commits clear, understandable, and professional to improve project change tracking.

Done! Now that you’ve applied a custom prompt to generate commits, let’s take a look at the new output:

fix: 🩹 update uninstall command to handle optional PREFIX variable

* Adjusted the uninstall command in `README.md` to use `${PREFIX:-/usr}` for better flexibility.
* This change allows the command to default to `/usr` if the PREFIX variable is not set.

As you can see, it now writes a detailed commit description and wraps filenames and code in backticks ( `` )

📝 Conclusion:

AI can significantly speed up routine tasks, including writing commit messages
Quality prompt — quality messages
Trust but check — check what the AI wrote and correct it if it was wrong

Happy coding! 😄

How to set up VNC on a headless Raspberry Pi with Ubuntu Server 24.04

Okinea Dev — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 14:29:09 +0000

Photo by Jainath Ponnala on Unsplash

If you have Ubuntu Server installed on your Raspberry Pi and you want to connect to its interface without a monitor or mouse?

Then you have come to the right place!

After all, here are instructions on how to install the Gnome graphical interface and how to connect to it via VNC

First of all. we need to update the packages using below command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

After that, we will already install the minimal Gnome shell (you need to download ~350 MB):

sudo apt install gnome-core

Next, install the TigerVNC server and other add-ons for its operation:

sudo apt install tigervnc-standalone-server xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-video-fbdev

Now that we have installed the graphical shell and all the other packages, we can now start configuring the VNC server

You need to create a password to connect to the VNC server, to do this, run this command:

vncpasswd

Come up with a strong password, minimum length — 6 characters.

Next, we need to configure the ~/.vnc/xstartup file in order to enter the GUI when connecting via VNC

Run this command to open the ~/.vnc/xstartup file:

nano ~/.vnc/xstartup

Then paste this into it:

#!/bin/bash
# Start Gnome 3 Desktop

unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

# Set the X session type and GDK backend to X11.
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
export GDK_BACKEND=x11

[-x /etc/vnc/xstartup] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
[-r $HOME/.Xresources] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources

# Enable access control for X server
xhost +

# Start the Gnome session.
exec gnome-session

After that, be sure to give this file executable rights:

chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup

Now we are almost done!

All we have to do is start the VNC server and connect to it.

We will connect via ssh with port-forwarding using this command:

# Replace `okineadev@rpi.local` with the 
# username and address of your Raspberry Pi

ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 okineadev@rpi.local

This command will connect you to the Raspberry Pi as usual, but with port 5901 forwarded to your computer, this is necessary because TigerVNC itself is not secure and the connection can be intercepted by attackers, so we will connect via port-forwarding because ssh itself provides encryption and connection security

Now we can start the VNC server:

vncserver :1

Now we can connect using TigerVNC:

And voila — now we were able to connect to the Raspberry PI using VNC! 😄

If you notice any mistakes in my instructions — report it in the comments

If you liked this guide, don’t forget to give it a few 👏

👇

How to get a free macOS machine for testing?

Okinea Dev — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 08:11:05 +0000

Photo by Tianyi Ma on Unsplash

It happens that you have created a program and want to test it on different operating systems (including macOS ), but if you do not have a Macbook, you can ask a friend to test your program, but what if he also does not have a Macbook?

How then to test the program on macOS anyway??

There is a solution! — you can use the runners that GitHub provides for free for open source projects, on which you can run a script or whatever

First of all, remember these simple rules:

Don’t abuse virtual machines (abuse of free services is bad.)
Do not use them for illegal purposes and for DDoS attacks

If you agree to the rules, here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. First of all, you need to create a separate public repository for testing (github.com/new)

2. Create a workflow in `_.github/workflows/macos-runner.yml_` with the following content:

name: macOS Runner

# Controls when the workflow will run
on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  test:
    # The type of runner that the job will run on
    # See https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners/about-github-hosted-runners#standard-github-hosted-runners-for-public-repositories
    runs-on: macos-13

    # Steps represent a sequence of tasks that will be executed as part of the job
    steps:
      - name: Setup tmate session
        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3

3. Go to the “ Actions ” tab

4. Then click on the “Run workflow” button:

5. Now after launch, in the logs you will be given a link and ways to connect via ssh

Done! 🎉

Now you can debug your application in macOS or any other environment!

Original page source: https://gist.github.com/okineadev/b80d7f9a065543655e203471d582f3f1