Top all-time · #1651
blog.liw.fi
Personal blog · blog.liw.fiprogrammingsystems
blog.liw.fi is a personal blog at blog.liw.fi about programming and systems. Since 2011, 43 different Hacker News readers have linked it 100 times, most often “Sponsored-By Proposal”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (14) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link posts on C string functions, backup tools (Obnam, rsync), learning Rust and Go, software dependency costs and Radicle CI. One commenter says they enjoy the author's blog and it has come up here often.
- Recommended for · 4 comments
- Described as enjoyable and often discussed; the Radicle CI post is recommended as a read; the Debian article is called worthy of consideration; the Obnam reviva
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 14 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Sponsored-By Proposal3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-05-26
- SSH Host Identity Certification3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-09-28
- What is Debian all about, really? Or: friction, packaging complex applications3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-02-17
- Stopping evil and open source: thoughts2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-12-01
- Debian Git Monorepo2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-01
- On the cost analysis of dependencies2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-08-26
- Rant: Year of Linux on the Desktop2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-30
- A Billion Files2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-10-01
- Strncpy? just say no2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-07-05
- Tickets, Issues, Tasks2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-10-07
What Hacker News says?
I don't think strncpy is the function you are looking for, either. Its for zeroing fixed-size character buffers. And it doesn't indicate problems. https://blog.liw.fi/posts/strncpy/
Comment linking /posts/strncpy/
on “Banned C standard library functions in Git source code”Submitted Unix command line conventions over time as a story · 422 points
HN discussionI like to think of this as a dependency cost . Adding a library may "relieve" implementation cost, but adds a dependency cost (ie. finding+evaluating dependencies, integrating and maintaining the dependency, testing the dependency and so on). This cost varies a lot, for example a library to left pad a string may be easily replaced, but if you choose a library to implement some on-disk format, then that can cement th…
Comment linking /posts/dependency-cost/
on “Modern Software Over-Engineering Mistakes”Submitted Why does Debian change software? as a story · 279 points
HN discussionWhen trying to understand rsync and the rolling checksum I stumbled upon a small python implementation in some self-hosted corner of the web[0], which I have archived on GH[1] (not the author, but things can vanish quickly, as proved by the bzr repo which went poof [2]). [0]: https://blog.liw.fi/posts/rsync-in-python/ [1]: https://github.com/lloeki/rsync/blob/master/rsync.py [2]: https://code.liw.fi/obsync/bzr/trunk/
Comment linking /posts/rsync-in-python/
on “How does rsync work?”Submitted The ReMarkable Tablet: A Review as a story · 251 points
HN discussionThe author's series on learning Rust, not linked in the OP https://blog.liw.fi/learning-rust/ I really enjoy the author's blog, which has been discussed here many times over the years https://hn.algolia.com/?query=liw.fi
Comment linking /learning-rust/
on “On Learning Rust and Go: Migrating Away from Python”Submitted On Learning Rust and Go: Migrating Away from Python as a story · 240 points
HN discussionSee the details here about his project that he maintained in Python for years (since 2006) in Python: https://blog.liw.fi/posts/2017/08/13/retiring_obnam/ I can really understand his: "Obnam has not turned out well, from a maintainability point of view. It seems that every time I try to fix something, I break something else. Usually what breaks is speed or memory use: Obnam gets slower or starts using even more memo…
Comment linking /posts/2017/08/13/retiring_obnam/
on “On Learning Rust and Go: Migrating Away from Python”Submitted Debian Git Monorepo as a story · 222 points
HN discussionhttps://blog.liw.fi/posts/2020/10/01/a_billion_files/
Comment linking /posts/2020/10/01/a_billion_files/
on “Billion file filesystem”Submitted Billion file filesystem as a story · 154 points
HN discussionIt looks like it's ikiwiki (unless I'm mis-reading it -- I had to parse it a couple times). Their first post[1] comments on it [1] https://blog.liw.fi/posts/welcome/
Comment linking /posts/welcome/
on “Billion file filesystem”Submitted What is Debian all about, really? Or: friction, packaging complex applications as a story · 102 points
HN discussionhttps://blog.liw.fi/posts/2025/stop-evil/
Comment linking /posts/2025/stop-evil/
on “Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)”Submitted I don't like Docker or Podman as a story · 89 points
HN discussionI salvaged[0] a simple implementation of the algorithm in Python here: https://github.com/lloeki/rsync/blob/master/rsync.py [0]: from http://blog.liw.fi/posts/rsync-in-python/ but this site has been on and off regularly, hence the scavenging straight from my browser cache. As of today, the site is up again but the bzr repo is out of order (and bzr is not exactly popular).
Comment linking /posts/rsync-in-python/
on “How Rsync Works”Submitted A tiny PC as a router as a story · 61 points
HN discussionThe article to which the post links is just as worthy of consideration. Linking here to add emphasis to the post-link: https://blog.liw.fi/posts/2018/02/17/what_is_debian_all_abou...
Comment linking /posts/2018/02/17/what_is_debian_all_about_really_or_friction_packaging_complex_applications/
on “Futures of distributions”Submitted Sponsored-By Proposal as a story · 41 points
HN discussionThe non-standard strlcpy can easily be replaced with the standard snprintf. Both can, and almost certainly should, be replaced by a library that takes care of memory allocation for strings. Even a simple one will obliterate all of the problems that the usual style of C string handling has. ( http://blog.liw.fi/posts/strncpy/ is my rant about this. Others have made the point better, of course.)
Comment linking /posts/strncpy/
on “On the matter of strlcpy/strlcat acceptance by industry”Submitted Obnam 1.7 (backup software) released as a story · 28 points
HN discussionhttps://www.nitrokey.com/ or print out on paper[1][2][3]/burn a DVD/write on floppy/etc but the encrypted version with very good passphrase. Don’t ever store private keys in plain text. [1] http://www.jabberwocky.com/software/paperkey/ [2] http://ronja.twibright.com/optar/ [3] http://blog.liw.fi/posts/qr-backup/
Comment linking /posts/qr-backup/
on “Ask HN: How do you backup your private keys?”Submitted Stopping evil and open source: thoughts as a story · 14 points
HN discussionfor the state of Radicle CI read this post from the maintainers https://blog.liw.fi/posts/2026/radicle-status-quo-01/
Comment linking /posts/2026/radicle-status-quo-01/
on “Radicle: The Sovereign Forge”Submitted I've closed my Reddit account as a story · 14 points
HN discussionhuh, have not realized Obnam is still alive. I remember Obnam being retired in 2017[0]. I was evaluating backup systems back then, and went to borg (and later to restic). But turns out, it came back 2020. I like the motivation [1]: > Borg and Restic are both fine backup programs. I've been using Borg for a while. The point here for me is that I find implementing backup systems to be a fascinating hobby. Thus, I want…
Comment linking /posts/2020/11/10/why_write_obnam/
on “Obnam Community”Submitted A Year of README Reviews as a story · 13 points
HN discussionSubmitted Stopping evil and open source: my thoughts as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why I Use Debian as a story · 8 points
HN discussion
