# Thanking hosts at the end of the year ## Introduction Every year, in the last Community News recording (for December) it has been the norm to list all of the hosts who have contributed. A list of host names is assembled for this purpose, included in the notes and read out by the volunteers. ## Method A Bash script exists, called `thanks_to_hosts`, which manages the generation of the list of hosts. The end product is a piece of HTML for insertion into the notes. The script is invoked simply by typing: ``` thanks_to_hosts ``` By default, the script uses the current year when generating the list of hosts. If, as may happen, the list is being generated in the next year, then a 4-digit year can be given in as an argument. ### Items required to run The `thanks_to_hosts` script requires a number of tools and files to run: - `query2tt2` - this is a Perl script which performs a database query and hands the results to Template Toolkit template. - `hpr.db` - a SQLite database which contains a copy of the live HPR database. This needs to have been refreshed in the recent past. - `.hpr_sqlite.cfg` - the configuration file for `query2tt2` to indicate what type of database is being used and where to find it. - `hosts_in_year.sqlite.sql` - a file containing the query used (using SQLite syntax) - `hosts_list.tpl` - the template which will be used to generate HTML ### Output file Running the script `thanks_to_hosts`, if successful, will result in the generation of a file called `hosts_in_year_${YEAR}.html`, where `${YEAR}` is replaced by the default or explicit year. The script will report the name of this file for convenience.