WeeChat on-boot in a tmux session.

modified:   README.rst
	new file:   content/2020-09-15-weechat-on-boot-in-a-tmux-session.rst

README.rst

@@ -6,6 +6,16 @@ This project uses Pelican (a static site generator) to produce HTML from ``.rst`
 
 Pelican is written in Python and uses Jinja2 template engine by default.
 
+Need a new blog post entry?
+===============================
+
+Try running:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ ./new_entry
+
+
 development
 ===============================
 
@@ -38,6 +48,8 @@ I also manage my resume using ``.rst`` and I use the ``rst2pdf`` tool to turn it
 
   make clean && make html && make resume
 
+
+
 production release process
 ===============================
 

content/2020-09-15-weechat-on-boot-in-a-tmux-session.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+WeeChat on-boot in a tmux session
+################################################################
+
+:author: Russell Ballestrini
+:slug: weechat-on-boot-in-a-tmux-session
+:date: 2020-09-15 13:32
+:tags: automation
+:status: published
+
+Chronicles of a washed up systems administrator.
+
+In the basement, M. Bison (`mbision.foxhop.net.`), a T430 with a cracked screen runs queitly with his lid closed, acting as a SmartOS hypervisor to 3 Solaris derived zones and 4 KVM ubuntu guests.
+
+One of these guests is the oldest of the bunch and his name is Akuma (`akuma.foxhop.net.`). Akuma and I go way back, over 15 years now. At one point akuma was a physical machine, which ran ubuntu and had it's own guest operating systems. Akuma has been "home base" for a long time, a place to SSH jump from and a place to perform operations. This server is the Salt Master and also a private internal DNS server running Bind9.
+
+To use Akuma as a "remote shell", one which I can connect and disconnect to from anywhere in the world, I use `tmux` (previously `screen`) with defaults settings.
+
+Akuma reboots weekly to perform a complete system backup (stored without compression on Guile, a FreeNAS server running on an HP G6 180 [link to that blog post])
+
+Since Akuma reboots so frequently, it creates a tmux session on boot, configured using SaltStack:
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+ create-tmux-session-on-boot:
+   cron.present:
+     - comment: "create a new tmux session on system boot"
+     - name: /home/fox/new-tmux
+     - identifier: "create-tmux-session-on-boot"
+     - special: "@reboot"
+     - user: fox
+     - require:
+       - user: fox
+ 
+This salt state results in the following `crontab -l` entry:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+ # create a new tmux session on system boot SALT_CRON_IDENTIFIER:create-tmux-session-on-boot
+ @reboot /home/fox/new-tmux
+
+
+And of course I would be terrible if I didn't share with you the contents of `/home/fox/new-tmux`:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+  #!/bin/bash
+  # The -A flag makes new-session behave like attach-session if session-name
+  # already exists; in this case, -D behaves like -d to attach-session.
+  tmux new-session -d -A -s "remote-shell" "weechat-curses"
+  # also create a couple windows to use as "remote shells".
+  tmux new-window
+  tmux new-window
+  # finally attach to the new session!
+  tmux a -t "remote-shell"
+
+Thanks for joining me on this escape into the world of computers.
+
+Please feel free to comment below if you have suggestions for this post.