Connecting to samba share from windows guest on KVM

1. Install samba server. I will not explain this here as it depends on your linux distribution.
2. Configure it: cat /etc/samba/smb.conf
   [WorkShare]
   comment = Host Share
   path = /home/mansour/work/
   valid users = mansour
   public = yes
   writable = yes
   printable = no
   
3. Now we need add "mansour" to samba users. If you don't this, you wont be able to login to the share!
   smbpasswd -a mansour
   
4. start your KVM :
   kvm -m 2G -vga std -smp 2 -net nic,vlan=1 -net user,vlan=1 my-window-xp-pro.im
   
5. From window Start --> Run : \\10.0.2.2\WorkShare
   enter the username and password, and you should be able to view the files in your share.
   

For reference: Use Windows XP on Gentoo Linux with KVM

Installing Perl Modules with CPAN

I was trying to install the latest version of XSH2. Really a very neat utility, and a must for each XML programmer. The previous revision had a bug, and I didn't know that I can install the latest from CPAN, just like I install any other software with emerge, yum, RPM, or ruby gem. Ok, so here's the steps:

1. Login as root.
2. Initialize the CPAN configuration. This is easily done with:
   perl -MCPAN -we 'shell'
   Accepting all the defaults is ok.
   
3. Now run
   install XML::XSH2
   And you are good to go.
   

I didn't know it's that easy to install perl modules !

Copy the selected text in visual mode to search

I many cases I like to search for other occurrence of some text in a file, under vim. Here's are the steps:

1. Yank with y
2. Start the search with the forward slash "/"
3. CTRL-r then type "

And you should see the text in the search area.

Applying Mutt function to multiple messages

Sometimes you may need to apply a function to more than one message in mutt. Let's say mark all the messages in a folder as read. In this case, you need to tag all the messages. SHIFT-T will ask you for the pattern. Just type "all". Then, use the tag-prefix command ";" to apply the function.

The function to mark a message as read is "W r". The letter "W" to clear a flag. And the letter "N" is the flag indicating a New Message. When you hit enter these keys combination after tagging messages, you will notice all messages has been processed.