Re: Speedy Hacking

[kschwab]

"Speedy Hacking" is especially useful in the Unix Sys Admin arena, probably more so than in a "real" Software Engineering context.

There are often times when a quick and dirty sh/awk/perl script can save the day.

A few examples:

• Quick hacks during system outages: ps -elf | sort -rn +9 (find top memory pigs)
• Being able to cobble up an LWP script to page you when a backup is finished, allowing you to work on other items in the meantime
• Various uses of perl hashes and sort() on log files. Perhaps to find out very quickly which IP address is flooding your webserver during a hack attack. Perhaps to answer some last minute question for a Marketing VP. ( Who are the top 10 domains for the email addresses on our mailing list ?)
• More quick and dirty perl, like filtering and summarizing sar output when your Oracle database is sucking wind, and some Business Analyst is breathing down your neck.