Hi Guys/Gals,

How many of you use scripts to administer your tedious task?

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Joe wrote:
> Hi Guys/Gals,
>
> How many of you use scripts to administer your tedious task?

Oh, admins loves dull, repetitive tasks and frequently choose
not to automate them.

It is ever so much more gratifying than the more traditional methods
of self-flagellation

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"Joe" <spaceyjoe2020@yahoo.com> writes:

> How many of you use scripts to administer your tedious task?

I use monkeys.

- Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@ks.uiuc.edu)
--
Theoretical and Computational    http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~tskirvin/
Biophysics, Beckman Institute, UIUC    Senior Systems Administrator

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Maybe you can use a rench next time..
Tim Skirvin wrote:
> "Joe" <spaceyjoe2020@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
>
>         I use monkeys.
>
>                             - Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@ks.uiuc.edu)
> --
>    Theoretical and Computational    http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~tskirvin/
> Biophysics, Beckman Institute, UIUC    Senior Systems Administrator

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So much for a poll...



Tim Skirvin wrote:
> "Joe" <spaceyjoe2020@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
>
>         I use monkeys.
>
>                             - Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@ks.uiuc.edu)
> --
>    Theoretical and Computational    http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~tskirvin/
> Biophysics, Beckman Institute, UIUC    Senior Systems Administrator

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On 20 Aug 2006 09:51:12 -0700
"Joe" <spaceyjoe2020@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Guys/Gals,
>
> How many of you use scripts to administer your tedious task?
>

I usually make my kid do it for me whenever his grounded. It's working
so well that all my neighbours are making their kids make my tedious
tasks while their grounded. A kid once tried to write a script for doing
the tasks, he got grounded for another week. Such thing was never
attempted again.

Seriously now, how is that a pool? Why would someone not use scripts?!

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On 20 Aug 2006 19:34:10 -0700, Joe <spaceyjoe2020@yahoo.com> wrote:
> So much for a poll...

Two things.

1.  Please don't top-post.  It makes quoting in a thread get all wodgy
and upside-down.  Thanks.

2. Your poll is kind of a silly one, sorry.  Any sysadmin other than a
rank beginner will, I hope, script things.  Doesn't have to be elegant,
some of my best scripts are 3-liners.  But if I'm going to do something
5 times or so, I'll script it.  Less tedium, and less chance for errors.

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Dave Hinz wrote:
> Joe wrote:
> 
>
> 2. Your poll is kind of a silly one, sorry.  Any sysadmin other than a
> rank beginner will, I hope, script things.

It isn't a question of beginner of fossilized old fart.  It's a
question of
competance.  Any UNIX admin who refuses to do programming on
some level, scripting through compiled languages, is incompetant.
Which language doesn't really factor into it - shell, Perl, Python,
C is a trivial issue next to the yes/no of it.  Every so often you'll
encounter someone who transferred in from the Windows world who
thinks they can do everything from the GUI, and they never reach
competance until they get over it and start automating stuff.  Same
with folks from hardware support or operators or whatever.  And it
has nothing to do with the religious war between CLI and GUI,
either.  It's about the drive to automate.  Heck, show me a good
scripting/programming system for driving a GUI (one that works
whether the GUI actually displays or not of course) and that's
just another option for automation as far as I'm concerned.

> Doesn't have to be elegant,
> some of my best scripts are 3-liners.  But if I'm going to do something
> 5 times or so, I'll script it.  Less tedium, and less chance for errors.

Reference the SAGE scale - Being a fluent scripter is mandatory to
call yourself Intermediate, being an expert at least one programming
language is mandatory to call yourself Senior.  And again the scale
does not specify which language so whether it's Korn, Basic or Pascal
is a trivial issue next to the yes/no of it.  PERL and Korn or Bash are
the
most likely choices for most UNIX SAs but those ones aren't required
so long as there's a drive to automate and a willingness to program
to acheive automation.

So is scripting as such required?  Not really.  If you can dash off C
programs as easily as I can dash of Korn scripts, then use C.  The
problem of switching among shell, ask, sed and C is what motivated
the original design of Perl, but that doesn't mean you have to script
in PERL either.

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On 21 Aug 2006 07:09:56 -0700, Doug Freyburger <dfreybur@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dave Hinz wrote: 
>
> It isn't a question of beginner of fossilized old fart.  It's a
> question of
> competance.

Right.  If I gave the impression that it's a crusty old guy technique,
that wasn't my intent.

> Any UNIX admin who refuses to do programming on
> some level, scripting through compiled languages, is incompetant.

And inefficient.

> Which language doesn't really factor into it - shell, Perl, Python,
> C is a trivial issue next to the yes/no of it.

Right.  In a recent job interview (hi guys, see you in September) I as
asked about scripting and gave an answer something like "usually .sh,
sometimes .ksh, sometimes .pl, doesn't really matter.  I'll find
something close and modify from there" or something to that effect.

Hint: If you have something you want to do, say, rotate logfiles, google
for:
rotatelogs.pl
rotatelogs.sh
rotatelogs.ksh

...and you'll find that someone, somewhere, has probably written
something, that does very close to what you want.  So sometimes you
don't even have to write it, or write it from scratch.  It's only
"cheating" if you claim credit.
 
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Reference the SAGE scale - Being a fluent scripter is mandatory to
> call yourself Intermediate, being an expert at least one programming
> language is mandatory to call yourself Senior.

I'm not sure I'd call myself "expert" in any scripting language, I tend
to be more of a generalist.  And I know how to google and RTFM.  AWK,
for some reason, I have a hard time remembering syntax for.  But I know
when and how to apply it and what it can do.  That kind of thing.

> PERL and Korn or Bash are
> the
> most likely choices for most UNIX SAs but those ones aren't required
> so long as there's a drive to automate and a willingness to program
> to acheive automation.

Right.  Again, automation is for at least two reasons.  Yes, time
savings  and reduction of tedium are good, but at least as valuable is
the reduced chance of screwing something up through a simple
tyopgraphical error.  At least with a script, if you did screw up, you
can look at the script and see exactly where and how, and figure out the
impact.

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Doug Freyburger wrote:
> So is scripting as such required?  Not really.  If you can dash off C
> programs as easily as I can dash of Korn scripts, then use C.  The
> problem of switching among shell, ask, sed and C is what motivated
> the original design of Perl, but that doesn't mean you have to script
> in PERL either.

Yeah, my dad still use assembly for simple tasks and C when it's a bit
more complex... I do prefer PERL and bash for scripting, though.

--renato

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