Jeff Gapp

Blog

  • Using Claude

    For quite a while I’d been backing up several WordPress sites using Transmit and an AppleScript I wrote. That process only captured site content and had a couple of persistent problems:

    • AppleEvent timeout errors from Transmit
    • Manual database backups for MariaDB

    I wanted to fix both issues but, frankly, was too lazy to bother. The sites aren’t terribly important, so once-a-week backups felt good enough — even if I always knew I should make the process more robust: use rsync for content, automate the database backup, log errors, all the good stuff.

    I’ve been using Claude at work for use cases, specifications, and bits of software coding, so I decided to take a shot at building a proper backup tool with it.
    I sat down with Claude, wrote a prompt with use cases, built test cases, and assembled the script piece by piece — reading and testing each section as I went.

    Three hours later, I had my tool. 

    Dependencies are minimal:

    • sshpass
    • rsync
    • bash
    • osascript (for macOS notifications when the backup completes)

    The result is clean and solid. I run it via launchd with settings to prevent the Mac Mini from sleeping during execution.

    Here is an overview of the functionality

    ‘backup_wordpress.sh’ is a bash script that automates WordPress site backups. It performs two distinct operations:

    • Database backups — connects via SSH to the web server and runs mysqldump remotely, piping output directly to the local backup volume
    • File backups — uses rsync over SSH to incrementally sync all site files from the remote server to the local backup volume

    The script supports four run modes, timestamped logging, macOS notifications, automatic cleanup of old backups, filesystem flushing to ensure files are immediately visible after writing, and unattended scheduled execution via launchd.

  • Article in Macstories about Sky

    There is a great article about the upcoming application called ‘Sky’. Rather than me try to distill the contents take a read here.

    I’m absolutely excited to give this App a try.

  • Post on LinkedIn

    Our Marketing folks introduced our ‘Integration Marketplace’ last week. I’m pretty excited about it as I think we will be providing lots of integration options for our customers. Let me restate that.. we are ALREADY providing a lot of options and will continue to add the list. The big deal is the inclusion of our partners and our technology partners.

    See my interview here.

  • DeepSeek fun

    Here is a pretty good article by M. G. Seigler about DeepSeek, Wall Street, etc.

    Like all tech fads/trends/ideas you had to believe that with all of these companies spending tens of billions of dollars that someone would come along and try something different that could run on cheaper hardware, etc.

    Will be fun, for some, and potentially not so fun for others in this game.

  • Been awhile since I posted here

    As the title states it has been awhile since I have posted anything here. Naturally, quite a bit has happened since then. My plan at this point is to start posting small bits of info here about what I do at my current job. Make this space informative and a little bit of fun. 

    Stay tuned.