The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Development’ Category

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When NTFS shrink fails, despite using the default settings from the shrink dialog

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/25

Sometimes an NTFS shrink still fails, even though you use the built in Windows defragmentation tools, of SysInternals contig tool.

The best you can do is to follow the steps in:

  1. run diskmgmt.msc to try shrinking the disk, then often it is already in the error message: “You can’t shrink a volume beyond the point where any unremoveable files are located see the defrag event in application log for detailed information about the operation when it has completed.”
  2. use eventvwr.exe and look at the Windows Logs for the most recent Application entries that has Source set to defrag

Those defrag entries usually tell about the last file that could not be moved.

You can use wevtutill to query events on the commandline.

Note that contrary to [WayBack] WEVTUTIL – Windows CMD – SS64.com documentation, the option /rd cannot be expanded to /reversedirection , as you will get an error “invalid option reversedirection” – Google Search.

For querying the above defrag event, use this command line (replace /format:XML with /format:text for more readable but also more verbose output):

wevtutil query-events Application /count:2 /format:XML /rd:true /query:"*[System[(EventID=259)]]"

On Windows 10, this is often caused by “System Protection” which locks files under C:\Recovery, but I have also seen $BITMAP, $MFT and $DATA entries.

System protected drives

To view which drives are currently used for system protection (this opens the “System Properties” dialog focussed on the “System Protection” tab):

SystemPropertiesProtection.exe

To disable it for one drive:

Disable-ComputerRestore -Drive "C:"

To enable it for one drive:

Enable-ComputerRestore -Drive "C:"

There seems to be no easy one-command PowerShell way to view the drives have ComputerRestore enabled, as this does not show drive letters:

PowerShell Get-ComputerRestorePoint ^| Format-List

The above gives more detailed output than a plain PowerShell Get-ComputerRestorePoint

Deleting restore points

PowerShell does not have a built-in option to delete restore points, but vssadmin has, but calls them “shadows”.

First list them:

vssadmin list shadows

Then delete them (but be aware this will not prompt for confirmation because of the /quiet):

vssadmin delete shadows /for=C: /quiet

You can also delete them for all drives (this will not prompt for confirmation either):

vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet

Stopping the volume shadow copy service:

net stop vss

Managing hibernation and page file

Hibernation:

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

Page file:

wmic pagefile list /format:list
AllocatedBaseSize=2944
CurrentUsage=0
Description=C:\pagefile.sys
InstallDate=20181018215808.683376+120
Name=C:\pagefile.sys
PeakUsage=0
Status=
TempPageFile=FALSE

wmic computersystem where name="%computername%" get AutomaticManagedPagefile
AutomaticManagedPagefile
TRUE

wmic computersystem where name="%computername%" set AutomaticManagedPagefile=False
Updating property(s) of '\\MYCOMPUTER\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_ComputerSystem.Name="LAPTOPUW08"'
Property(s) update successful.

wmic computersystem where name="%computername%" get AutomaticManagedPagefile
AutomaticManagedPagefile
FALSE

wmic.exe pagefileset where name="C:\\pagefile.sys" delete
Deleting instance \\MYCOMPUTER\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_PageFileSetting.Name="C:\\pagefile.sys"
Instance deletion successful.

Sometimes the deletion does not work (see below for workaround):

wmic pagefile list /format:list

AllocatedBaseSize=2944
CurrentUsage=0
Description=C:\pagefile.sys
InstallDate=20181018215808.683376+120
Name=C:\pagefile.sys
PeakUsage=0
Status=
TempPageFile=FALSE

Do not do this:

wmic pagefile delete
Deleting instance \\MYCOMPUTER\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_PageFileUsage.Name="C:\\pagefile.sys"
ERROR:
Description = Provider is not capable of the attempted operation

wmic pagefileset set name="c:\\pagefile.sys",InitialSize=0,MaximumSize=0
No Instance(s) Available.

Sometimes it still fails, so then you have to use the UI:

  1. Run SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe
  2. Under Performance, click on Settings
  3. Click the Advanced tab
  4. Under Virtual memory, click the Change button
  5. Ensure Automatically manage page file size for all drives is disabled
  6. Ensure No paging file is selected
  7. Click the Set button
  8. Confirm you really want no page file
  9. Press on the three OK buttons to fully leave the Advanced System Properties dialog.
  10. Reboot

After resizing the disk, reverse the steps:

  1. Run SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe
  2. Under Performance, click on Settings
  3. Click the Advanced tab
  4. Under Virtual memory, click the Change button
  5. Ensure Automatically manage page file size for all drives is enabled
  6. Confirm you really want no page file
  7. Press on the three OK buttons to fully leave the Advanced System Properties dialog.
  8. Reboot

Bitmap file

Sometimes the file blocking the resize is the NTFS "\$BitMap::$DATA", which few defragmentation tools can move as it is the MFT Bitmap.

Background reading

–jeroen

Posted in CommandLine, Console (command prompt window), Development, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Raspberry Pi 1B OpenSuSE Tumbleweed zypper upgrade problem · GitHub

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/25

It looks like OpenSuSE has stopped supporting Raspberry Pi 1, so the best likely is to recycle it into a Pi-Hole as basically it’s been dead since mid 2017: [WayBack] Raspberry Pi 1B OpenSuSE Tumbleweed zypper upgrade problem · GitHub.

Build status for armv6l support: [WayBack] Project openSUSE:Factory:ARM Status Monitor – openSUSE Build Service

–jeroen

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Debian, Development, Hardware Development, History, Linux, openSuSE, Power User, Raspberry Pi, Raspbian, SuSE Linux, Tumbleweed | Leave a Comment »

Authssh from Windows

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/22

Running autossh from Windows is still on my list, so here are a few links:

–jeroen

Posted in Communications Development, Development, Internet protocol suite, Power User, SSH, TCP, Windows | Leave a Comment »

learning golang

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/21

Interesting course: [WayBack] Go: The Complete Developer’s Guide (Golang) | Udemy Master the fundamentals and advanced features of the Go Programming Language (Golang)

It covers:

  • Basics / Hello world
  • Structs
  • Pointers
  • Interfaces
  • Channels / Go Routines

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Go (golang), Software Development | Leave a Comment »

David Korn Tells All – Slashdot

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/21

Almost 20 years old, but still a very nice read [Archive.is] David Korn Tells All – Slashdot.

Another funny story involving David Korn during the not-so open source times of Microsoft late last century: [WayBack] Korn Shell Story

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, bash, bash, Development, History, Power User, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Why the compiler generates a `”E2018 Record, object or class type required”` on typed types…

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/21

From [WayBack] Why would the compiler generate a "E2018 Record, object or class type required" helper when I use a ToUpperInvariant (or any TStringsHelper call) on t… – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+:

Why would the compiler generate a "E2018 Record, object or class type required" when I use a ToUpperInvariant (or any TStringsHelper call) on the Text property of a TEdit?

Full failing code is at [WayBack] https://gist.github.com/jpluimers/b5e3684f725216622bdcb80bf5f10698

Failing line is this:

Edit1.Text := Edit1.Text.ToUpperInvariant;
// the above line generates this error:
// [dcc32 Error] MainFormUnit.pas(29): E2018 Record, object or class type required

This fails as well:

Edit1.Text := TStringHelper.ToUpperInvariant(Edit1.Text);

Why would the compiler (in this case XE8) throw this error?

Note the workaround is simple:

var
  lText: string;
begin
  lText := Edit1.Text;
  Edit1.Text := lText.ToUpperInvariant;

My suspicion is that the Edit property is of type TCaption which is type string.

Could it be that simple?

To which David Heffernan responded:

Yup, the issue is TCaption has no helper. Pretty distressing.

Typed types are indeed different types. They have been there for a long time (to facilitate generating different type information so you can for instance hook up different property editors to TCaption (a typed string) or TColor (a typed integer).

It is explained at [WayBack] Declaring Types. but has existed since Delphi 1 or Delphi 2.

More on the implications is at [WayBack] pascal – Delphi Type equivalence and Type equality syntax – Stack Overflow.

–jeroen

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Posted in Conference Topics, Conferences, Delphi, Development, Event, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

The Defense Innovation Board wants to help the military recognize ‘agile BS’ – Fedscoop

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/20

From a while back, but still one of the easiest flow charts to see if your organisation really works in an agile way: “graphical flow chart for separating agile from agile BS”

It is part of [WayBack] DIB_DETECTING_AGILE_BS_2018.10.05.pdf (hey, it is military so there are dates and abbreviations).

Source: [WayBack] The Defense Innovation Board wants to help the military recognize ‘agile BS’ – Fedscoop

Via manu links, including:

–jeroen

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Posted in Agile, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

GitHub – NickRing/Delphi-Shortcut-Finder: Shows/find keyboard short-cuts have be assigned, that may be conflicting.

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/20

Reminder to self to eventually try to merge this into GExperts: [WayBack] GitHub – NickRing/Delphi-Shortcut-Finder: Shows/find keyboard short-cuts have be assigned, that may be conflicting.

And a reminder to ensure if I ever bump into XE7 again, I need to ensure it is at least update 1: Source: QualityCentral Report # 127616: registry key has incorrect value, 20 should be 21.

–jeroen

via: [WayBack] I need some help from anyone who knows RTTI better than me. I’m writing an OTA tool to list all the actions or keybindings that are associated with a s… – David Hoyle – Google+

Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

DC12V COB LED Light Strip Panel 5W 10W 20W 50W 200W 300W LED Bulb White Blue Red Flip Chip COB Lamp DIY House Car Lighting 12V-in LED Bulbs & Tubes from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/19

Interesting for some projects: [WayBack] DC12V COB LED Light Strip Panel 5W 10W 20W 50W 200W 300W LED Bulb White Blue Red Flip Chip COB Lamp DIY House Car Lighting 12V-in LED Bulbs & Tubes from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

Note they are not current limited!

This means I need to read more on current limiting; these might be a start:

Via The biggest LED COB panel yet! Voltage/current tests. – YouTube

–jeroen

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Development, DIY, Hardware Development, Power User | Leave a Comment »

delphi – always pass SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS to SafeLoadLibrary

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/05/19

The below is based on [WayBack] delphi – Is there any way to catch the error if loading a dll cannot find a dependency? – Stack Overflow which I got via:

The problem is that the [WayBack] SysUtils.SafeLoadLibrary Function (present since at least Delphi 2007, and a wrapper around the [WayBack] LoadLibrary function (Windows)) does many good things – maybe even too many – so you need to take all of them into account:

function SafeLoadLibrary(const FileName: string; ErrorMode: UINT = SEM_NOOPENFILEERRORBOX): HMODULE;
  1. SafeLoadLibrary loads a Windows DLL or Linux shared object file, as specified by Filename.
  2. SafeLoadLibrary preserves the current FPU control word, preventing library initialization code from permanently overwriting precision and exception masks.
  3. Note:
    • On Windows, SafeLoadLibrary temporarily sets the system error mode to ErrorMode. The default, SEM_NOOPENFILEERRORBOX, suppresses error dialogs. The previous error mode is restored before SafeLoadLibrary exits. For a list of error modes, refer to [Wayback1/Wayback2] SetErrorMode in the Microsoft documentation.
    • Note: On Linux, the Dummy argument is ignored.

Most important tips

Do not ever pass 0 (the number zero) as ErrorMode; I’ve seen lots of applications just passing zero for parameters they are not sure about, but in this case it is the worst solution as it will show all errors as a popup.

Do not forget a parameter either: the default value SEM_NOOPENFILEERRORBOX will only suppress a message box when it fails to find a file. But it will fail to enable SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS which is what you really want.

Loading DLLs from resources

LoadLibrary and SafeLoadLibrary load the DLL from a file. But what if you want to load it from a resource?

Then this post from Thomas Mueller applies: he adopted the SafeLoadLibrary logic to load from a resource:

Other thoughts to keep in mind

The way Delphi sets the FPU control word is not thread safe: QualityCentral Report # 106943: Set8087CW/SetMXCSR are not thread-safe (you could work around in your implementation by using thread safe versions like mentioned in [WayBack] FastMM / Discussion / Open Discussion:Call to GetStackTrace changes 8087CW).

Calling SetErrorMode sets a global application wide setting (by default including all threads) of error code, so it is better to either:

  • decide for your whole application up front which error mode to use, save it and use the same value everywhere:

Because the error mode is set for the entire process, you must ensure that multi-threaded applications do not set different error-mode flags. Doing so can lead to inconsistent error handling.

Second, SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS prevents an error to pop up when dependencies of the loaded file are not available. You might want to combine (bitwise or) it with other values like SEM_NOGPFAULTERRORBOX.

ErrorMode values

There are many more modes you can pass to the [WayBack] SetErrorMode function (Windows):

  • Value Meaning
    0
    		 Use the system default, which is to display all error dialog boxes.
     

    SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS
    0x0001
    		 The system does not display the critical-error-handler message box. Instead, the system sends the error to the calling process.

    Best practice is that all applications call the process-wide SetErrorMode function with a parameter of SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS at startup. This is to prevent error mode dialogs from hanging the application.
     

    SEM_NOALIGNMENTFAULTEXCEPT
    0x0004
    		 The system automatically fixes memory alignment faults and makes them invisible to the application. It does this for the calling process and any descendant processes. This feature is only supported by certain processor architectures. For more information, see the Remarks section.

    After this value is set for a process, subsequent attempts to clear the value are ignored.
     

    SEM_NOGPFAULTERRORBOX
    0x0002
    		 The system does not display the Windows Error Reporting dialog.
     

    SEM_NOOPENFILEERRORBOX
    0x8000
    		 The OpenFile function does not display a message box when it fails to find a file. Instead, the error is returned to the caller. This error mode overrides the OF_PROMPT flag.

–jeroen

all via:

Related:

Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

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