01 May 2024

blog fix: remove stray files

Another update from the blog. Quick recap: I’m re-doing this blog with mostly Pandoc and make, with a few helper scripts.

This is a personal web site and can be broken sometimes, and one of the breakage problems was: oops, I removed a draft post from the directory of source files (in CommonMark) but the HTML version got built and put in public and copied to the server, possibly also affecting the index.html and the RSS feed.

If you’re reading the RSS and got some half-baked drafts, that’s why.

So, to fix it, I need to ask make if there’s anything in the public directory that doesn’t have a corresponding source file or files and remove it.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import os
import subprocess
import sys

def find_files(directory):
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(directory):
        for basename in files:
            filename = os.path.join(root, basename)
            if filename.startswith('public/pagefind'):
                continue
            yield filename

cmd = ['make', '-n']
for directory in ['public', 'tmp/articles', 'tmp/framed',
                  'tmp/rssitems', 'tmp/htmlfragments']:
    cmd = cmd + list(find_files(directory))

makeproc = subprocess.Popen(cmd,
               stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL,
               text=True)

done = False
while True:
    line = makeproc.stdout.readline()
    if 'Entering directory' in line:
        continue
    if line.endswith('is up to date.\n'):
        continue
    if line.startswith('make[1]: Entering directory'):
        continue
    if not line:
        break
    try:
        (before, filename, after) = line.split("'")
        if filename.startswith('public/pagefind'):
            continue
        if "Nothing to be done for" in before:
            os.unlink(filename)
            print("Removed unmakeable file %s" % filename)
            done = True
    except:
        pass

if done:
    subprocess.run(['make', 'cleanhome'],
        stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, check=True)
    sys.exit(1)
sys.exit(0)

That should mean a better RSS reading experience since you shouldn’t get it cluttered up with drafts if I make a mistake.

But I’m sure I have plenty of other mistakes I can make.

Bonus links

We can have a different web Nothing about the web has changed that prevents us from going back. If anything, it’s become a lot easier.

A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed (Section 230 protection for a research extension? Makes sense to me.)

Effects of Banning Targeted Advertising (The top 10 percent of Android apps for kids did better after an ad personalization policy change, while the bottom 90 percent lost revenue. If Sturgeon’s Law applies to Android apps, the average under-13 user might be better off?)

In Response To Google (Does anyone else notice more and more people working on ways to fix their personal information environment because of the search quality crisis? This blog series from Ed Zitron has some good background.)

blog fix: remove stray files

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Bonus links

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