From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 17417 invoked from network); 1 Mar 2023 22:59:16 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (2600:3c01:e000:146::1) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 1 Mar 2023 22:59:16 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29C34434A8; Thu, 2 Mar 2023 08:59:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from out5-smtp.messagingengine.com (out5-smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.29]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 71B73434A7 for ; Thu, 2 Mar 2023 08:59:05 +1000 (AEST) Received: from compute5.internal (compute5.nyi.internal [10.202.2.45]) by mailout.nyi.internal (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E7EC5C0037; Wed, 1 Mar 2023 17:59:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from imap45 ([10.202.2.95]) by compute5.internal (MEProxy); Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:59:04 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=cc :content-transfer-encoding:content-type:date:date:from:from :in-reply-to:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version:references :reply-to:sender:subject:subject:to:to; s=fm3; t=1677711544; x= 1677797944; bh=sxz6k6hc+/ZU/OWOzMRbfyVzX2uJI1lxbAOZDg1/jVs=; b=C hw+UaIWVc1thlPZZdJlQVRwRnrTkuac0B2tIeTLGBE0HqFO+AzQeRfIPsDbF1IkN r96UdW5VNsR5V/nfTYNQcLrfdQ7YNwvXPn73mqw1DLofGaoiFGCVwYbc1dgBhw0b HP1RyW/VnBqEe2iZo864g01VhDcU0BfBvNNEX4NhK3QsEUfrcxtl44UZ74DsOBvq ZGQbfJ7aMCFtiheERqcZ67h2+5NQJ8rBYlCSRDqQyWrhl9gr0okGbjREc9oq0erq mRJ0vTKZGy7lxIcmzm+O/EBHj5k8KX6ub1hOERnQzEQWxGxta18+6qgSY+SJdGwJ iCLiHnMJqxW7PvQQkNGLw== DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d= messagingengine.com; h=cc:content-transfer-encoding:content-type :date:date:feedback-id:feedback-id:from:from:in-reply-to :in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version:references:reply-to:sender :subject:subject:to:to:x-me-proxy:x-me-proxy:x-me-sender :x-me-sender:x-sasl-enc; s=fm1; t=1677711544; x=1677797944; bh=s xz6k6hc+/ZU/OWOzMRbfyVzX2uJI1lxbAOZDg1/jVs=; b=UfQmeOXzGj1ds6tcd j8AGDxSXRYbWgVZWX0jqi25G3tZj2Vc+X7DI4pQUZNbCvD1QO4E5yvHT+uIsiOCq S/wnZbcVaPo0JrzqUEhIuNi8GADbvUk+vHVD2kaLW7+QBrzhxvGDIDL6Cw7XB2KU hORUT+ZeQ/V0O2tuKMoHBaCmHwaSMvi1aeY+v2t6AnxYvUD6yThI0W65HApovQlp rBfgQ8rUde2aU6cRIOvUdy6fxg/vXwYUKbIXvM1MyoAFQFR1f34z1DWJz3sY7qDb u0T3cQA/KS7tSKAR5WVORCcTbf69rIO6pKW6ooaINoo86e6Ptk1M1KVsICLWCADJ Zcp9A== X-ME-Sender: X-ME-Proxy-Cause: gggruggvucftvghtrhhoucdtuddrgedvhedrudeliedgtdegucetufdoteggodetrfdotf fvucfrrhhofhhilhgvmecuhfgrshhtofgrihhlpdfqfgfvpdfurfetoffkrfgpnffqhgen uceurghilhhouhhtmecufedttdenucesvcftvggtihhpihgvnhhtshculddquddttddmne cujfgurhepofgfggfkjghffffhvffutgfgsehtqhertderreejnecuhfhrohhmpedftehl rghnucffrdcuufgrlhgvfihskhhifdcuoegrughssehsrghlvgifshhkihdrvghmrghilh eqnecuggftrfgrthhtvghrnhephffftdfhteelvdehheeifedvteetkefgleevleefheel gfejudeuffeigfffkeffnecuffhomhgrihhnpegrrhgthhhivhgvrdhorhhgpdgtrghtsg drohhrghdpghhithhhuhgsrdgtohhmnecuvehluhhsthgvrhfuihiivgeptdenucfrrghr rghmpehmrghilhhfrhhomheprggushesshgrlhgvfihskhhirdgvmhgrihhl X-ME-Proxy: Feedback-ID: if9414728:Fastmail Received: by mailuser.nyi.internal (Postfix, from userid 501) id 39AB0272007A; Wed, 1 Mar 2023 17:59:04 -0500 (EST) X-Mailer: MessagingEngine.com Webmail Interface User-Agent: Cyrus-JMAP/3.9.0-alpha0-183-gbf7d00f500-fm-20230220.001-gbf7d00f5 Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: <2cfef728-ef06-20e4-e29e-9a0c83af8334@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:57:11 -0500 From: "Alan D. Salewski" To: "TUHS (The Unix Heritage Society)" Content-Type: text/plain;charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID-Hash: 4IEH7X6KJ63OHBK3NIVMEX3YF6BJYT5I X-Message-ID-Hash: 4IEH7X6KJ63OHBK3NIVMEX3YF6BJYT5I X-MailFrom: ads@salewski.email X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Unix Systems Administration Texts List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Tue, Feb 28, 2023, at 21:34, Dan Cross wrote: > On Tue, Feb 28, 2023 at 8:38=E2=80=AFPM Will Senn wrote: >> I'm curious about the experience of those of y'all who actually used = them. Were there any early standouts and why did they stand out? > > This is not going to be popular, but... > >> Nemeth, E., Synder, G., & Seebass, S. (1989). UNIX System Administrat= ion Handbook (5th edition is another fatty) > > This book gave me some terrible advice when I was very young and impre= ssionable. > > In there somewhere it says something about not doing something unless > you're prepared to do it right lest one spend more time working around > a work-around than one would have spent just doing it well in the > first place. > > The conclusion is, of course, true, but the admonition ignores all > sorts of externalities, like waiting users. And in some cases it could > really lead to paralysis [...] > Hopefully nowadays we have a better appreciation of the power of > incrementalism; those grand plans for the perfect system rarely come > to fruition. It's better to be flexible and make small, impactful > changes along the way towards a better system, always being mindful of > and tamping down encroaching entropy. > > - Dan C. Yeah, good or bad advice at just the right time can have quite an impact. In the under-celebrated "Minimal Perl"[0], Tim Maher notes in the last paragraph of section 5.8: In your own career, I'd advise you to develop an appreciation an appreciation and an aptitude for both the /quick-and-dirty/ and /elegant-and-formal/ styles of programming, and to cultivate the ability to produce either kind on demand, as circumstances warrant. Seems obvious, in retrospect -- but of course many things do with the benefit of hindsight. For me, that articulated something that I sensed was the right way to approach things, but was contrary to much of the one-dimensional advice I had received up to that point. It pairs well with one of the "lesser tenets" noted by Gancarz: "Look for the 90 percent solution"[1]. In my own career, I've found I can often use the quick-and-dirty approach to buy myself time to afford the "detour to build the tools"[2] that could not be justified (to others) up-front. And nothing gets it done faster than a shell script. Five or ten scrappy N-line shell scripts that get the job done sub-optimally, and lacking any real thought toward usability or generality buy time to build better tools (usually more, better-written shell scripts). And sometimes a scrappy script is "good enough" (for years, even). -Al [0] Minimal Perl for Unix People and Linux People by Tim Maher Forward by Damian Conway Manning 2007 p. 175 ISBN-10: 1-932394-50-8 [1] The Unix Philosophy by Mike Gancarz Digital Press 1995 p. 117 ISBN-10: 1-55558-123-4 [2] [McIlroy78] The Bell System Technical Journal. Bell Laboratories. M. D. McIlroy, E. N. Pinson, and B. A. Tague. "Unix Time-Sharing System Forward". 1978. 57 (6, part 2). p. 1902. https://archive.org/details/bstj57-6-1899/page/n3/mode/2up Also quoted in ESR's "The Art of Unix Programming" Addison-Wesley 2004 p. 12 ISBN-13: 9-780131-429017 https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html --=20 a l a n d. s a l e w s k i ads@salewski.email salewski@att.net https://github.com/salewski