Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgs Commentshttps://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgs?atomcommentsDWiki2010-05-25T04:06:09ZRecent comments in Chris's Wiki :: blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgs.By Chris Siebenmann on /blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgs:61a299d8d63200e7e30f0a76e5b64c7438e5124bChris Siebenmann<div class="wikitext"><p>The note I forgot to add is that this script is also a quick hack.
One could work out exactly the same information by reading the 'disks
in use' report (which in fully verbose form also reports on free disks),
knowing our conventions, and pairing up unused disks as appropriate.
But I'm the kind of lazy person who doesn't like doing things by hand
more than once, so I put something together to just tell me the same
information.</p>
<p>(This is also not something that we need to know very often or that
drives automated scripts; we need to know unused natural mirror pairs
only when we are expanding the storage in use, and that happens maybe
once every few months.)</p>
</div>2010-05-25T04:06:09ZBy Chris Siebenmann on /blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgs:724de0f5bc3b71675402cc670d41e4e83f057634Chris Siebenmann<div class="wikitext"><p>I'm talking about the kind of ultra-personal scripts that make no sense
outside of your own environment. For example: we keep data on what disks
are used in our SAN environment, and I have personal script that eats this
data and tells me what natural pairs of SAN disks a given fileserver still
has unused (we normally use certain SAN disks only on certain fileservers).
This script is <em>hopelessly</em> specific to our environment; there is no
possible way to generalize it and make it useful for anyone else.</p>
</div>2010-05-25T04:01:44ZFrom 69.113.211.148 on /blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgstag:CSpace:blog/sysadmin/PrivateScriptErrorMsgs:41c021dd279704d14aa6526ea00a17a5d6214e27From 69.113.211.148<div class="wikitext"><p>A few years ago, I went to my boss and asked him a simple question: if, from intellectual property and productivity perspectives, it would be okay to open-source certain applications and scripts I was writing. I figured there might be a slim chance that I would get a bugfix or two from the community, but for the most part, I was mostly just looking to contribute something back, considering the huge amount of open-source software I use on a day-to-day basis.</p>
<p>But a funny thing happened: the quality of my code went up tremendously when I started writing it as though a thousand eyes were upon it. Instead of one user, I started writing like I had a hundred, and I didn't want anyone to have to email me to clarify something about how my application worked. Hardcoded variables and constants suddenly ended up as command-line switches with sensible defaults. Quick-and-dirty hacks disappeared. Comments started going where they belonged. And yes, thing of things, RPM specfiles started showing up in the source.</p>
<p>It's said that character is how you behave when no one else is looking, but sometimes, a couple of extra eyes can supply all the discipline in the world.</p>
<p>--Jeff</p>
</div>2010-05-25T03:13:33Z