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October 27, 2005

Unix Expertise

People often ask why "guru" in my handle. Does it mean that I meditate up a high mountain? Well, I found the perfect explanation in a ranking system for Unix people. Some of the concepts are a bit dated but I can proudly claim to meet all the criteria for Guru - but not all the criteria for Wizard...

People who come into contact with the UNIX system are often told : "If you have trouble, see so-and-so, he's a guru", or "Bob there is a real Unix hacker". Often they are baffled by these appellations, and do not pursue the matter further. What is a "Unix Hacker ?". How does he differ from a "guru" ? To answer these and other questions, here is the UNIX HIERARCHY :

• beginner


• insecure with the concept of a terminal


• has yet to learn the basics of vi


• has not figured out how to get a directory


• still has trouble with typing <RETURN> after each line of input


• novice
  
  • knows that ls will produce a directory
  
  
  • use the editor, but calls it vye.
  
  
  • has heard of C but never used it
  
  
  • has had his first bad experience with rm
  
  
  • is wondering how to read his mail
  
  
  • is wondering why the person next to him seems to like Unix so very much


• user
  
  • uses vi and nroff, but inexpertly
  
  
  • had heard of regular-expr's but never seen one
  
  
  • uses egrep to search for fixed strings
  
  
  • has figured out that '-' precedes options
  
  
  • is wondering how to move a directory
  
  
  • has attempted to write C program and has decided to stick with pascal
  
  
  • thinks that sdb is a brand of stereo component
  
  
  • knows how to read his mail and is wondering how to read the news


• knowledgeable user
  
  • uses nroff with no trouble, and is beginning to learn tbl and eqn
  
  
  • thinks that fgrep is fast grep
  
  
  • has figured out that mv will move directories
  
  
  • has learned that learn doesn't help
  
  
  • somebody has shown him how to write C programs
  
  
  • once used sed to do some text substitution
  
  
  • has seen sdb used but does not use it himself
  
  
  • thinks that make is only for wimps


• expert
  
  • uses sed when necessary
  
  
  • uses macro's in vi, uses ex when necessary
  
  
  • posts news at every possible opportunity
  
  
  • writes csh scripts occasionally
  
  
  • writes C programs using vi and compiles with cc
  
  
  • has figured out what && and || are for
  
  
  • thinks that human history started with !h


• hacker
  
  • uses sed and awk with comfort
  
  
  • uses undocumented features of vi
  
  
  • writes C code with cat > and compiles with !cc
  
  
  • uses adb because he doesn't trust source debuggers
  
  
  • can answer questions about the user environment
  
  
  • writes his own 'nroff' macros to supplement standard ones
  
  
  • writes scripts for Bourne shell (/bin/sh)


• guru
  
  • uses m4 and lex with comfort
  
  
  • writes assembly code with cat >
  
  
  • uses adb on the kernel while system is loaded
  
  
  • customizes utilities by patching the source
  
  
  • reads device driver source with his breakfast
  
  
  • can answer any Unix question after a little thought
  
  
  • uses make for anything that requires two or more distinct commands to archive
  
  
  • has learned how to breach security, but no longer needs to try


• wizard
  
  • writes device drivers with cat >
  
  
  • fixes bugs by patching the binaries
  
  
  • can answer any question before ask
  
  
  • writes his own troff macro packages
  
  
  • is on first-name basis with Dennis, Bill and Ken

Posted by Ozguru at October 27, 2005 06:00 AM

Comments

Posted by: old horsetail snake at October 27, 2005 09:53 AM

Posted by: linc at October 27, 2005 02:16 PM

Posted by: kazza at October 29, 2005 09:40 AM