VSS Keywords

Very useful link to keywords used in code managed by sourcesafe.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d826hy97(VS.80).aspx

XPath/XQuery SQL counting repeatable nodes in SQL Server 2005

XML is represented in a field, vchr_Xml on table A, trying to count entities - can use xpath in the sql/xquery to get the count of repeatable nodes.

select convert(int, convert(varchar(max),
convert(xml,{a.ntext_xmlRepresentation).query('count(/Entities/Entity)')))

from [DB].dbo.tbl_A A where A.uid_id = [GUID]

How to add GNU Privacy Guard commands to environment variables Windows

Right-Click on MY COMPUTER, select PROPERTIES, then select the ADVANCED tab.

Click on ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES then select PATH in the top box.
Highlight PATH in the bottom box.

Click EDIT and at the end of the line, type ";C:\Program Files\GnuPG\;" without the quotes but including the semi-colons. Where I have used "C:\Program Files", you should put the path where you installed GnuPG.

This will allow you to open the command prompt (START > RUN > CMD) and simply type "gpg" followed by the command switch to use the advanced features of GnuPG.

NB: you may want to put in C:\Program Files (x86) if you have a 64 bit machine.

Gnu Privacy Guard Commands

GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) commands

http://www.gnupg.org/

This blog lists a load of gpg commands which are really useful!

Useful commands

What follows is a list of useful commands

Help (listing all available commands and options)

gpg --help

We get a full list of commands. Note all gpg commands take the format:

gpg [option1, option2, .. option n] [command] [Filename or user to work with]

Listing keys on keyrings

gpg -k (gpg --list-keys)

lists all public keys on the current users public keyring

gpg --list-secret-keys

lists all secret keys on the current users secret keyring

Generating a new private-public key

gpg --gen-key

Select the kind of key, size of encryption, and other details and give the key pair a name.

Importing a public key onto the keyring

Note you can import private keys this way as well.

gpg –import

Removing a key from the keyring

The following commands remove keys from the respective keyrings. Note if you try and remove a public key which has the same private pair then you will need to remove the private (secret) key first.

Public: gpg --delete-keys [Keyname]
Secret: gpg --delete-secret-keys [Keyname]

Exporting Public Key
To make key available for other users to decrypt with you can export the public key by using the command:

gpg -a -u [Local user with private key] --passphrase [Local user pass phrase] --export >[Name of file for exported public key]


Encrypting data

You can encrypt data with a private key using the following command

gpg -e -o [outputfilename] -u [Local Private Key User] [inputFilename]
gpg -e --output [outputfilename] -u [Local Private Key User] [inputFilename]

You can also armour the output with ascii with the following command:

gpg -ea -o [outputfilename] -u [Local Private Key User] [inputFilename]

Armouring makes the encrypted file more readable in text viewers.

If you omit the -o then it will save the file with an appended extension of .gpg

Decrypting data

The following commands can decrypt data encrypted by a specific public key. Note you need the public key of the pair which the private key was used to encrypt the data with.

eg. gpg -da -r [Public Key] [EncryptedFileName] >[NewFileName]

Note if you omit the pipe to the new file name then the decrypted output will be displayed to the screen.

You need to provide a pass phrase to decipher the encrypted file. You will either be prompted for this or you can use the –passphrase switch

eg. gpg -da --passphrase [PassPhrase] -r [Public Key] [EncryptedFileName] >[NewFileName]
Signing keys

When importing in public keys from the client to your public keyring you must sign the key. This can be done by

gpg -u [Local User with Private Key] --passphrase [Local user passphrase] --edit-key [Remote user with Public Key] sign

You will then need to hit yes and then quit to exit

Very Verbose messages :)

Always useful to get as much information returned back when having problems, Use the -vv (very verbose) option.

For example when you listing key information using the -vv option highlights if the public key has been signed.


Very useful resouces:

Justin Millers Guide
Click here to view