# Mack Hankins — Stuff & Things > Developer & Creator. Building tools, applications, and systems that solve real problems. ## About Mack Hankins is a full-stack developer specializing in Laravel, Vue.js, and internal tooling. Most of his work is proprietary internal tools and systems. This site showcases public work and writing. ## Sections - [Stuff (Projects)](https://mackhankins.com/projects): Portfolio of public projects and tools - [Things (Blog)](https://mackhankins.com/blog): Writing about development, tools, and technology - [About](https://mackhankins.com/#about): Background and skills - [RSS Feed](https://mackhankins.com/feed): Atom feed of blog posts ## Blog Posts (Things) - [GitLab as a Business Asset: Inventory, Valuation, and Disaster Recovery](https://mackhankins.com/blog/gitlab-as-a-business-asset-inventory-valuation-and-disaster-recovery): A self-hosted GitLab instance is more than a code repository. By using the GitLab API to inventory projects, issues, merge requests, contributors, and pipeline configurations, organizations can better understand replacement cost, institutional knowledge, and disaster recovery risk. - [ZFS Snapshot Replication Between TrueNAS Systems](https://mackhankins.com/blog/zfs-snapshot-replication-between-truenas-systems): A practical guide to setting up automated ZFS replication between two TrueNAS systems with asymmetric retention — short on the source, long on the destination. - [Cleaning Up Old Kernels on Ubuntu](https://mackhankins.com/blog/cleaning-up-old-kernels-on-ubuntu): A simple bash script to safely remove old kernels on Ubuntu when apt autoremove doesn't get the job done. - [Cheap Cold Storage Backups with AWS Glacier Deep Archive and TrueNAS](https://mackhankins.com/blog/cheap-cold-storage-backups-with-aws-glacier-deep-archive-and-truenas): How to set up a monthly off-site backup from TrueNAS to AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive for about $1/TB/month using Cloud Sync Tasks. - [A Simple Bash Script for Multi-Server MySQL Backups](https://mackhankins.com/blog/a-simple-bash-script-for-multi-server-mysql-backups): A Bash script that automates MySQL backups across multiple servers using mysqldump, with daily and monthly snapshots, JSON configuration, retention cleanup, and simple restore workflows. - [Automated Multi-Server PostgreSQL Backups with a Simple Bash Script](https://mackhankins.com/blog/automated-multi-server-postgresql-backups-with-a-simple-bash-script): A JSON-configured Bash script that backs up every database on every PostgreSQL server you own, with daily/monthly rotation and automatic retention cleanup. - [Dynamic OG Images in Laravel with Intervention Image](https://mackhankins.com/blog/dynamic-og-images-in-laravel-with-intervention-image): Generate branded social cards for your blog posts on the fly using Intervention Image v4, with caching, custom fonts, and zero external services. - [Replacing Two Legacy Systems with a Single Python Service](https://mackhankins.com/blog/replacing-two-legacy-systems-with-a-single-python-service): For years, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History relied on two separate systems to track changes on the preservation storage array: a bash script (`pres-audit.sh`) that logged file changes, and a multi-server ZFS snapshot pipeline (`pres_snap`) that involved TrueNAS cron jobs, a Redis queue, and a dedicated Ubuntu processing server. They worked, mostly, but the complexity was becoming a liability. When something broke, debugging meant jumping between three different machines and piecing together what happened. - [Process Files 4.0 — Batch File Processing for Digital Archives](https://mackhankins.com/blog/process-files-40-batch-file-processing-for-digital-archives): How I built a modular Bash toolkit to convert messy archive collections into clean, web-ready access copies. ## Projects (Stuff) - [Xtra Hands](https://mackhankins.com/projects/xtra-hands): A family chore / allowance plaform for households that would like their evenings back. - [DJ 51-50](https://mackhankins.com/projects/dj-51-50): Premier Mississippi DJ website featuring wedding and event services, testimonials, and booking information. - [Network Integrated Solutions Group](https://mackhankins.com/projects/network-integrated-solutions-group): Enterprise WiFi solutions company offering site surveys, network design, and nationwide installation services. - [Opac2](https://mackhankins.com/projects/opac2): A modern search and discovery platform for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, providing unified access to 25+ historical record collections including genealogical files, court records, newspaper holdings, and Civil War-era documents. - [Process Files](https://mackhankins.com/projects/process-files): A modular batch file processing toolkit that converts archives of TIFFs, documents, audio, and video into web-ready access copies — with optional watermarking and deep-zoom tileset generation. - [Preservation Monitor](https://mackhankins.com/projects/preservation-monitor): A real-time file change monitoring system for the MDAH preservation storage array, replacing two legacy tools with a single lightweight service. - [Chores](https://mackhankins.com/projects/chores): A family chore management app with rotating schedules, kid-friendly PIN check-in, and SMS reminders. - [Digital Archives Platform](https://mackhankins.com/projects/digital-archives-platform): A digital archive platform for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, providing public access to digitized historical documents, photographs, government records, and other archival materials from Mississippi's rich history. - [DigiAdmin](https://mackhankins.com/projects/digiadmin): A digital asset management platform built for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to streamline archival operations and preservation workflows. The first commit to this project was in 2015. ## Full Content For complete article content, see: [https://mackhankins.com/llms-full.txt](https://mackhankins.com/llms-full.txt)