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| 20 | <h2 id="redesigning-my-paste-service-with-fennel">Redesigning my paste service with Fennel</h2> |
| 21 | <p>2021-01-21 00:00</p> |
| 22 | <p>So, in my previous post, I wrote about my paste service setup using Vim, nginx, and rsync. After using the tools involved in that setup, I had realized that I didn’t like all the scripts I had to throw in my <code>~/bin/</code> and the functions I had to add inside of my <code>~/.vimrc</code>.</p> |
| 23 | <p>After a bit of thinking, I decided on a few things:</p> |
| 24 | <ul> |
| 25 | <li>I want this to be even easier to setup</li> |
| 26 | <li>I don’t want to have to bother with Let’s Encrypt’s <code>certbot</code> tool</li> |
| 27 | <li>I don’t need syntax highlighting</li> |
| 28 | <li>I want to reduce the amount of scripts required for the paste service</li> |
| 29 | <li>I want to de-clutter my <code>~/.vimrc</code></li> |
| 30 | <li>I want to write a new tool in <a href="https://fennel-lang.org/">Fennel</a>!</li> |
| 31 | </ul> |
| 32 | <h3 id="replacing-my-subdomain-with-a-subdirectory">Replacing my subdomain with a subdirectory</h3> |
| 33 | <p>The first thing I did was learn how to create a separate directory on my server that would contain my “pastes” (files). I wanted this to appear as a subdirectory on my homepage, so my “pastes” wouldn’t clutter up my website’s source code directory. I wanted something that looked like “<code>https://m455.casa/paste/</code>”.</p> |
| 34 | <p>After figuring out how to do this, it turned it that it was actually pretty simple!</p> |
| 35 | <p>First, I setup a directory on my server where my pastes would reside:</p> |
| 36 | <pre><code>sudo mkdir -p /var/www/paste |
| 37 | sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/paste |
| 38 | sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/paste</code></pre> |
| 39 | <p>Then, I added the following snippet to my already-made nginx configuration at <code>/etc/nginx/sites-available/m455.casa</code>:</p> |
| 40 | <pre><code>location /paste { |
| 41 | alias /var/www/paste; |
| 42 | }</code></pre> |
| 43 | <p>I restarted nginx with <code>sudo systemctl restart nginx</code>, and voila!</p> |
| 44 | <p>This method removed the need to setup TSL and SSL certificates for a subdomain at <code>paste.m455.casa</code> and removed the need for more nginx <code>sites-available</code> and <code>sites-enabled</code> entries.</p> |
| 45 | <h3 id="writing-a-multi-purpose-pasting-script">Writing a multi-purpose pasting script</h3> |
| 46 | <p>This was the fun part. Since I decided I didn’t need syntax highlighting, I didn’t need the functions in Vim anymore to to generate a syntax-highlighted HTML file, so I deleted those functions. This de-cluttered my <code>~/.vimrc</code>, which was what I wanted when I outlined my goals for the new setup.</p> |
| 47 | <p>I also wanted to remove the amount of scripts I used, so I moved all of them into a directory containing old, unused scripts that I wrote.</p> |
| 48 | <p>Next, I wanted to write a single script that would handle uploading source code, by appending “<code>.txt</code>” to the end of the filename, as long as it didn’t end in:</p> |
| 49 | <ul> |
| 50 | <li><code>.txt</code></li> |
| 51 | <li><code>.jpg</code></li> |
| 52 | <li><code>.png</code></li> |
| 53 | <li><code>.bmp</code></li> |
| 54 | <li><code>.svg</code></li> |
| 55 | <li><code>.gif</code></li> |
| 56 | </ul> |
| 57 | <p>This is because I wanted to be able to view, and allow others to view, the plaintext files in the browser after they were pasted. The <code>.txt</code> is there just so I don’t end up with a file called <code>cool.txt.txt</code>. It would still work, it would just be a little silly. I occasionally share screenshots and gifs with friends, so I wanted those to be rendered in the browser, so <code>.txt</code> wouldn’t append to those kinds of files.</p> |
| 58 | <p>I know there are way more file suffixes and formats than that, but I don’t find myself pasting anything but those (though I don’t remember the last time I uploaded a <code>.bmp</code> file haha).</p> |
| 59 | <p>I also wanted the script to be able to synchronize my paste directory, in case I moved files into my <code>~/dev/paste</code> directory for synchronizing, or for when I removed files.</p> |
| 60 | <p>The script, in the end, would replace the following scripts I had:</p> |
| 61 | <ul> |
| 62 | <li><code>pupload</code>: A script for uploading any given file and generating a URL I could copy and paste.</li> |
| 63 | <li><code>ptxt</code>: A script for uploading and appending <code>.txt</code> to a filename, and generating a URL I could copy and paste.</li> |
| 64 | <li><code>psync</code>: A script that would synchronize files in my paste directory at <code>~/dev/paste</code>.</li> |
| 65 | </ul> |
| 66 | <p>The result? This little Fennel script called <a href="https://%7B%7Bgit-domain%7D%7D/fpaste">fpaste</a>.</p> |
| 67 | <p>All you have to do to configure it, is change four variable values:</p> |
| 68 | <pre><code>(local ssh "m455@m455.casa") |
| 69 | (local domain "https://m455.casa/paste") |
| 70 | (local remote-path "/var/www/paste") |
| 71 | (local local-path "~/dev/paste")</code></pre> |
| 72 | <p>Slashes at the end of the <code>domain</code>, <code>remote-path</code>, and <code>local-path</code> values are optional. If slashes are present, they will be removed, if they aren’t, the script can handle that too.</p> |
| 73 | <p>The script is basically a wrapper around <code>rsync</code>. It takes a filename and “cleans” its suffix, copies it to a local paste directory, synchronizes the local paste directory with the remote paste directory, and outputs a URL to share based on the values you entered in the configuration variables!</p> |
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