[H-GEN] Simple Linux editors

[David Jericho]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]

On Mon, Apr 08, 2002 at 03:16:59PM +1000, Robert Brockway wrote:
> Youre right but Greg has a point also.  Things are different for those
> wishing to be Sysadmins.  They'll find themselves working with machines
> that are broken badly from time to time.  They don't have the luxury of
> using Emacs, or maybe even vi to fix the system.

Now fellow sys admins, if you'd done your backups right, and actually
planned for situations like this[1], you wouldn't need to use ed to repair
a system. It would quite probably be quicker to restore your system, or the
broken bits via your bootable restore images.

Unless of course you actually enjoy cutting yourself with a knife. ;)

I've been involved in quite a few large networks before, both HA and
just large in size, and am yet to see a valid reason as to why ed
just had to be used. In fact, I'm yet to hear of one from members of
SAGE-AU. When my pager starts beeping like a mad Hong Kong taxi driver 
at 3am, there's no way in a frozen over Hell that I've arrived at flying  
Pig Airlines, that I'm going to be using ed to repair a broken system 
file. I could have just as easily booted the machine using my Super 
Wonderful Lotso'Sleep bootable cdrom and restore onto my (possibly) newly 
swapped system drives.[2]

I'll analyse the broken system disks in the morning after a coffee and
some sleep, and be content having proved I'm the smarter sys admin.
Proving I'm the one who can carve the Mona Lisa onto parchment using a 
toothpick and the nasal secretions of a Siberian Yak is no longer amusing.[3]

[1] You only "repair" systems that have failed. If a system is munged to
start with, you build a new system and roll that into production.
Trying to repair a munged UNIX box is like trying to repair a crashed
Ferrari with a sledge hammer and a hydraulic ram. It can be done, but
it's just not quite the right thing.

[2] There is also a reason why commodity hardware is a good thing.

[3] I'm forming a cult based around the teachings of the great Rob
Kearey. 

--
David Jericho
,l
wq

--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.  See http://www.humbug.org.au/