Today Hynek Learned on Hynek Schlawack

SQLite WAL Mode Can Lock Short-Lived Readers

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Locked SQLite database errors aren’t just for writers.

How to Push and Pull from GitHub Pull Request Branches

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

GitHub has this cool feature where while opening a pull request one can allow the maintainers to push changes to that branch. This is a lot more ergonomic than suggesting larger-scale edits in the insufferably slow GitHub web UI. But it does require setting up remotes and upstream branches correctly.

VS Code Is Hiding Refactoring Tools

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It turns out that VS Code can move symbols between Python modules – but it’s hiding the feature behind the “Quick Fix…” context menu.

What to Do If a Beryl AX Can’t Connect to a Wi-Fi

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’m absolutely in love with my GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX), but occasionally, it has trouble connecting to captive portal Wi-Fis.

How to Stop macOS from Stealing Focus after Switching Apps Across Desktops

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For years, I’ve had a macOS bug that occurred randomly and that I could only fix by rebooting or logging out. The Internet is full of similar problems, but I never found a solution to mine, and my pleas for help on Twitter went unanswered. Now, I have found a workaround myself.

How to Add Justfile Syntax to bat

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Fri, 26 May 2023 12:00:00 +0000

I’m a big fan of bat as a cat replacement, and I’m an even bigger fan of just as a Make replacement. Sadly, bat doesn’t (and won’t) support Justfile syntax. But you can add it yourself with a little extra effort.

How to Automatically Switch to Rosetta With Fish and Direnv

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 12:00:00 +0000

I love my Apple silicon computer, but having to manually switch to Rosetta-enabled shells for my Intel-only projects was a bummer.

How to Fix the set-output GitHub Actions Deprecation Warning

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you have a GitHub Actions workflow that sets an output using echo ::set-output key=value, you have started to see an unhelpful deprecation warning. Here’s how to fix it.

You Can Build Portable Binaries of Python Applications

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Contrary to popular belief, it’s possible to ship portable executables of Python applications without sending your users to Python packaging hell.

Easier Crediting of Contributors on GitHub

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

GitHub has the concept of co-authors of a commit. You’ve probably seen it in the web UI, when multiple people are listed to have committed something. I want to be gracious with credit where it’s due and I’ve found ways to make it easier.

pip-tools Supports pyproject.toml

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 08:00:00 +0000

pip-tools is ready for modern packaging.

Parametrized pytest Fixtures

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:00:00 +0000

If you reuse a @pytest.mark.parametrize many times, it might be time to define a parametrized fixture instead.

Eve Extend

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:00:00 +0000

Don’t buy it.

typing.Protocol Across Python Versions

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 17:00:00 +0000

How to seamlessly support typing.Protocol on Python versions older and newer than 3.8. At the same time.

You Can Stop Updating Copyright Attribution Years

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Every January 1st, an army of open source developers rushes out to update their copyright attributions in licenses and documentation. Why? Because we’ve always done it that way.

Template Links in Sphinx

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 17:00:00 +0000

One of my pet peeves are projects without easily accessible changelogs (secondary pet peeve: changelogs without dates). Currently, I’m moving most auxiliary docs to Markdown, because that’s clearly what GitHub and related tooling wants me to. But I don’t want to compromise on my own pet peeve.

SONOS Shares Its Mesh

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 09:00:00 +0000

The fact that SONOS devices build a transparent Wi-Fi mesh once one of them has wired Internet, is one of the main features of the ecosystem. TIL that at least the Playbar happily shares that mesh with your other devices.

which is not POSIX

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sun, 31 Oct 2021 09:00:00 +0000

I learn a non-trivial number of things, because there’s Debian drama about them. The fact that the which command is not part of any standard just joined the flock.

TLS Troubleshooting 101

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

In my day job I spend a lot of time dealing with sketchy TLS setups. The error messages provided by OpenSSL tend to be quite opaque – fortunately there’s tools to help you.

Python Project-Local Virtualenv Management

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

On UNIX-like operating systems you can have the Python equivalent of node_modules today, for every Python version, without changing your workflows.

Update All Go Modules

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Wanting to update all dependencies in a way that it doesn’t break is somewhat more complicated than expected.

RQ & macOS

hs@ox.cx (Hynek Schlawack) — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Due to fork() semantics, using RQ on macOS can lead to confusing crashes.