EOL while scanning string literal

The following error might come in python when working with strings that have a "\" in it.

EOL while scanning string literal

This error is generally because of the use of the backslash in a string operation. For example , consider the string

string1="hello \ this \ that"

If we want to split the string using "\" as the seperator, we can not use

string1.split("\")

The above split command will throw the EOL error. To get around this, we need the escape the special meaning of the "\" by using another "\" preceding it.

string1.split("\\") ['hello ', ' this ', ' that']

Using split function by prefixing a "\" with another "\" will ensure that we do not get the EOL error

VMplayer : make: *** [Makefile:117: vmnet.ko] Error 2 Unable to install all modules. See log for details.

A recent update on VMplayer16 version attempted to install the module for vmnet but it was unable to do so broke the vmplayer, with the error message

Unable to install all modules. See log for details.

The log showed an error indicating some issue with the compilation of the vmnet module and was not able to generate the module for it. /tmp/modconfig-8DbDF1/vmnet-only/userif.c:578:13: error: too many arguments to function ‘csum_and_copy_to_user’ [scripts/Makefile.build:287: /tmp/modconfig-8DbDF1/vmnet-only/userif.o] Error 1host-4864| I005: make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... host-4864| I005: make[1]: *** [Makefile:1848: /tmp/modconfig-8DbDF1/vmnet-only] Error 2 host-4864| I005: make: *** [Makefile:117: vmnet.ko] Error 2

The issue was in the vmplayer version 16.0, the simplest workaround for this is to download the vmplayer 16.1.2 from the site or any newer version avaialble and install the same. This issue has been fixed in the newer versions, and the vmplayer is able to lauch successfully.

Generate Indian Flag on the Linux Terminal

Here is a script to generate something close to India Flag on the linux Terminal. The output looks as shown in he figure below .

horizontal() { hrow=$2 hstart=$1 hcols=$3 char=$4 end=$((hstart + hcols)) for((i=hstart;i<=end;i++)) do tput cup $hrow $i printf "$char" done echo"" } set_color(){ tput setaf 2 } clear tput setab 3 for((k=0;k<=7;k++)) do horizontal 2 $k 160 " " #echo $i #horizontal 2 1 80 "*" #horizontal 2 2 80 "*" done tput setab 7 for((k=8;k<=15;k++)) do horizontal 2 $k 70 " " done tput setab 4 for((k=8;k<=15;k++)) do horizontal 50 $k 80 " " #echo $i #horizontal 2 1 80 "*" #horizontal 2 2 80 "*" done tput setab 7 for((k=8;k<=15;k++)) do horizontal 80 $k 160 " " #echo $i #horizontal 2 1 80 "*" #horizontal 2 2 80 "*" done tput setab 2 for((j=16;j<=23;j++)) do horizontal 2 $j 160 " " #echo $i #horizontal 2 1 80 "*" #horizontal 2 2 80 "*" done

Save the file as the flag.sh and run it in the terminal, with terminal in the full screen.

$ bash falg.sh

Record Sound or Voice in Ubuntu

To record sound using linux/ubuntu we don't need and special softwares, a simple command line tool is available called arecord. One of the simple way to use the command in the terminal as follows.

$ arecord filename.wav

The recording is continued as long as Cntrl+C is not pressed, recording infinitely. The recording will get saved in the file named filename.wav

If the recording needs to be stopped after a specific interval we can use the option -d

$ arecord -d 10 filename.wav