gmailpopup 

My script also stores your password hashed (unlike some of the alternatives in Software Centre), in a hidden file in your /home.

Installation

To install, run the following:

sudo apt-get install curl gnome-gmail
wget -q -O ~/gmailpopup http://ukstokes.com/scripts/gmailpopup
chmod +x ~/gmailpopup
sudo cp ~/gmailpopup /usr/bin

To configure it just type gmailpopup in a terminal and enter your Gmail address (GApps domains also supported) and password. If you have accidentally fat fingered the password and get an error, you can start again with gmailpopup --reconfigure. On subsequent runs you won't get a popup unless your unread email is different from last time.

This doesn't seem to run if inserted into the crontab. But it works fine if this is added as a startup application:

while true; do ~/bin/gmailpopup && sleep 1m; done &

Of course, this doesn't just work on Ubuntu. Any distro which uses libnotify will do. By the way the gnome-gmail package is just required for the Gmail icon. There is probably a better way of doing that, which I'll have a think about, but installing gnome-gmail has the added advantage of making Gmail your default mail client for mailto links etc. If that is not what you want, go to the "Default Applications" in "System Info" to set it back.

Thats it. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

If you md5sum a bunch of files, you get this kind of output:

[ben@minitron ~]$ md5sum *.txt
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e  myfile.txt
cdbd2b665e14f8803d6bddc80bff1402  omg.txt
6353f9b2e7c47f73b48eef4544968bcd  otherfile.txt

I wanted to iterate through a list of files and their md5sums using a for loop, run a test and then take some action based on the result. But my script kept throwing unexpected output. I realised the for loop was parsing each word, rather than each line because of the spaces.

[ben@minitron ~]$ for line in $(md5sum *.txt); do
echo $line; done
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
myfile.txt
cdbd2b665e14f8803d6bddc80bff1402
omg.txt
6353f9b2e7c47f73b48eef4544968bcd
otherfile.txt

Sometimes putting spaces around variables can help bash to resolve values in the right way, but here it caused all line breaks to be removed:

[ben@minitron ~]$ for line in "$(md5sum *.txt)"; do echo $line; done
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e myfile.txt cdbd2b665e14f8803d6bddc80bff1402 omg.txt 6353f9b2e7c47f73b48eef4544968bcd otherfile.txt

I needed to preserve the original line breaks in order for my script to make sense of which md5sum matched up to which file. There are a couple of ways to do this. One possible solution is to use tr to translate the spaces into a different character:

[ben@minitron ~]$ for line in $(md5sum *.txt | tr " " :); do
echo $line; done
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e::myfile.txt
cdbd2b665e14f8803d6bddc80bff1402::omg.txt
6353f9b2e7c47f73b48eef4544968bcd::otherfile.txt

But for some reason md5sum uses 2 spaces for a field separator, if you wanted just one character between the md5sum and the filename, you could go a little more advanced:

[ben@minitron ~]$ for file in *.txt; do
echo -n "$file:";md5sum $file | cut -d " " -f1 ; done
myfile.txt:d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
omg.txt:cdbd2b665e14f8803d6bddc80bff1402
otherfile.txt:6353f9b2e7c47f73b48eef4544968bcd

This does give the output in the other way round but was good enough for me to make my script work.

First script will interrogate the event log on all servers listed in "servers.txt", and create a report of logon times for the administrator account. It uses Microsoft Log Parser which is a free download.

@echo off
set LOG=C:\scripts\log_parser.log
set servers=C:\scripts\servers.txt
set logparser="C:\Program Files\Log Parser 2.2\LogParser.exe"

FOR /F %%i IN (%servers%) DO call :PROC %%i
goto END

:PROC
ping -n 1 -w 10 %1 | find /C "Reply" > ping.txt
set /p time=<ping.txt
if /I %time% GTR 0 (echo Got ping from %1 >> %LOG%) ELSE echo Skipping %1 && goto END
echo Processing %1 ...
%logparser% "SELECT TimeGenerated, SourceName, EventCategoryName, Message INTO C:\scripts\%1.txt FROM \\%1\Security WHERE EventID = 528 AND SID LIKE '%%dministrator%%'" -resolveSIDs:ON
echo.

:END
del /Q /F ping.txt

The 2nd script is to query the services database on all servers in "servers.txt", and identify any services that are logging on as administrator (or matching string "admin*"). Just modify line 13 in the first script and run it again.

echo Processing %1 ...
for /F "usebackq tokens=2 delims=:" %%a in (`sc "\\%1" query ^| find "SERVICE_NAME"`) do @sc \\%1 qc%%a | find /I "admin" && @echo %%a
echo.

After that you just have to identify applications where the password may be typed in, in our instance the remaining place was a backup job for our Sharepoint server. Job done!

Edit the SMTP server and strSender values to something appropriate. Also edit line 37 with the name of your domain. You will need to create the folder C:\scripts for this to work, or edit line 8 with a new location for the csv file.

The outputted file is a bit messy, but gets the job done.

SMTPServer = "mail.yourdomain.corp"
strSender = "name@yourdomain.corp"
strRecipient = InputBox("Enter the email address for report or" & vbcrlf & "press cancel to just generate a local file.", "Input required")
Const ForAppending = 8
Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strFileName = "C:\scripts\LocalAdminsReport.csv"

If objFSO.FileExists(strFileName) Then
	objFSO.DeleteFile(strFileName)
End If		

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForAppending, True)
objFile.WriteLine "ComputerName,Administrators"

GetLocalAdmins 

msgbox Counter & " computers were counted." & vbcrlf & "See " & strFileName & " for details."
If strRecipient = False then
	'user didn't enter an email address
	wscript.quit
Else
	SendEmail
End If

Private Function GetLocalAdmins
	Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

	Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
	Set objCommand =   CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
	objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
	objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"

	Set objCOmmand.ActiveConnection = objConnection
	objCommand.CommandText = "Select Name from 'LDAP://DC=yourdomain,DC=corp' " & "Where objectClass='computer'"
	objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
	objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
	Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
	objRecordSet.MoveFirst

	Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
		name = objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value
		PINGFlag = Not CBool(WshShell.run("ping -w 500 -n 1 " & name,0,True))
		If PINGFlag = False Then
			objFile.WriteLine name & ",Did Not Ping"
			Else
				'Get the local administrators
				Set objGroup = GetObject("WinNT://" & name & "/Administrators,group")
				For Each objMember In objGroup.Members
					If objMember.Name <> "Administrator" and objMember.Name <> "Domain Admins" Then
						objFile.WriteLine name & "," & (objMember.Name)
					End If
				Next
		End If
		objRecordSet.MoveNext
	Loop
End Function

Private Function SendEmail
	Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
	objEmail.From = strSender
	objEmail.To = strRecipient
	objEmail.Subject = "Local Admins Account"
	objEmail.Textbody = Counter & " computers were counted. See attached log file for details."
	objEmail.AddAttachment(strFileName)
	objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2
	objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = SMTPServer
	objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = 25
	objEmail.Configuration.Fields.Update
	objEmail.Send
End Function

ChangeProfilePaths.vbs.txt
ChangeTerminalServerPaths.vbs.txt

The scripts are pretty much identical, the only bits you need to change are these lines at the top:

SMTPServer = "mail.ukstokes.ad"
Set domain = GetObject("LDAP://OU=Company Users,DC=ukstokes,DC=ad")
NewTSPath = "\\ukstokes.ad\data\profiles$\users\"

The LDAP string needs to be changed to the starting point in your AD tree. Every OU underneath will be affected.

Also these 2 lines at the bottom:

objEmail.From = "ben@------.ad"
objEmail.To = "ben@------.ad"

The script will send an email at the end with a summary of the changes so you will need to change the From and To addresses accordingly.

Before making any mass changes like remember the golden rule to test it in an isolated environment first.

This runs every 5 minutes as a cron job and updates the file /etc/motd (Message Of The Day) which is shown when a user logs in. Our servers already have a 5 line banner message with information including the server name and purpose of the server, hence the first 5 lines being saved and readded into a new /etc/motd each time.

#!/bin/bash
cat /etc/motd | head -n 5 > /tmp/file && cat /tmp/file > /etc/motd

CPUTIME=$(ps -eo pcpu | awk 'NR>1' | awk '{tot=tot+$1} END {print tot}')
CPUCORES=$(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -c processor)

echo "System summary (collected `date`)

 - CPU Usage (total average) = `echo $CPUTIME / $CPUCORES | bc`%
 - Memory free (real)        = `free -m | head -n 2 | tail -n 1 | awk {'print $4'}` Mb
 - Memory free (cache)       = `free -m | head -n 3 | tail -n 1 | awk {'print $3'}` Mb
 - Swap in use               = `free -m | tail -n 1 | awk {'print $3'}` Mb
" >> /etc/motd

Now when we log in we get a summary like this:

Option Explicit

Dim objNTInfo, ComputerName, myRegExp, myMatches

Set objNTInfo = CreateObject("WinNTSystemInfo")
ComputerName = lcase(objNTInfo.ComputerName)

'Prepare a regular expression object
Set myRegExp = New RegExp
myRegExp.IgnoreCase = True
myRegExp.Global = True
myRegExp.Pattern = "l"

Set myMatches = myRegExp.Execute(computerName)
If myMatches.Count > 0 Then
 MsgBox ComputerName & " is a laptop" , vbInformation , "Results ... "
else
 MsgBox ComputerName & " is not a laptop" , vbInformation , "Results ... "
End If 

[lang='vb']Dim objNetwork, strPrintServer
Set objNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")

strPrintServer = "\\Your_Print_Server"

Private function GetUserObject
On Error Resume Next
Set GetUserObject = GetObject("WinNT://"  objNetwork.UserDomain  "/"  objNetwork.UserName)
End function

set UserObject = GetUserObject

For Each Group in UserObject.Groups
Select case Group.Name
Case "Your_AD_Security_Group"
objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection strPrintServer  "\Your_Printer_Name"
End Select
Next[/lang]

To set the default printer:

[lang='vb']  Select case Group.Name
Case "Your_AD_Security_Group DEFAULT"
objNetwork.setDefaultPrinter strPrintServer  "\Your_Printer_Name"[/lang]

Job done.

A copy you can download is here - I'm having a problem with character encoding on the site which is ruining code snippets like the one below. 

[lang='vb']

strServer = "your_server_name"
strTask = "task_name"

Continue = MsgBox ("Scheduled job " & strTask & " will run on " & strServer & ". Are you sure?",vbYesNo + VBQuestion, "Run scheduled task")

If Continue = vbYes then

Const OpenAsASCII = 0
Const FailIfNotExist = 0
Const ForReading = 1

sExe = "SCHTASKS /Run /S " & strServer & " /TN " & strTask

Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
sTemp = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TEMP%")
sTempFile = oFSO.GetSpecialFolder(2).ShortPath & "\" & oFSO.GetTempName
oShell.Run "%comspec% /c " & sExe & " " & sTempFile, 0 , True
Set fFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile(sTempFile, ForReading, FailIfNotExist, OpenAsASCII)

' capture output and inject into a variable

sResults = fFile.ReadAll
fFile.Close
oFSO.DeleteFile(sTempFile)
MsgBox sResults , vbInformation , "Result"

Else

wscript.quit

End If

[/lang]

[lang="vb"]Const ForReading = 1

Dim fso, TempFile, yesterday, strSubject
yesterday = Date - 1

Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
objRegEx.Pattern = yesterday

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If (objFSO.FileExists("C:\temp\output.txt")) Then
objFSO.DeleteFile "C:\temp\output.txt"
End If

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("C:\Program Files\GFI\FaxMaker\sendlog.txt", ForReading)
Set TempFile = objFso.CreateTextFile("C:\Temp\output.txt", True)
Set wshShell = WScript.CreateObject ("WSCript.shell")

TempFile.Write "Fax Server sendlog for " & yesterday & vbCRLF & "----------------------------------" & vbCRLF & vbCRLF

Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
strSearchString = objFile.ReadLine
Set colMatches = objRegEx.Execute(strSearchString)
If colMatches.Count > 0 Then
For Each strMatch in colMatches
TempFile.Write strSearchString & vbCRLF
Next
End If
Loop

objFile.Close
TempFile.Close

strSubject = "FaxMaker_Sendlog_" & yesterday
wshShell.run "C:\monitoring\blat262\full\blat.exe" & " " & "C:\temp\output.txt" & " -to " & "myaddress@mydomain.com" & " -subject " & strSubject[/lang]

Partial credit goes to the MS Scripting Guy who had already published part of this for me. Also you'll notice I called blat to email the file, which is considerably less complex than sending it in the vbs (or cheating, as some might call it) ... using vbs to send the message would have doubled the amount of code!

To accomplish the same task using a bash script, you could do it like this:

[lang="bash"]echo "Fax server sendlog for `date +%d/%m/%y`" > /tmp/tempfile.txt
cat /var/log/sendlog.txt | grep `date +%d/%m/%y` >> /tmp/tempfile.txt
mail -s "Fax Server log for `date +%d/%m/%y`" myaddress@mydomain.com < /tmp/tempfile.txt[/lang]

Much simpler I think - only 3 lines of code!! People say Linux is harder than Windows but I think this proves that is not always the case. Manipulating files and data in Linux can take considerably less effort if you know which tools to use and how to use them.