this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Really cool tool
Her mentions of awk reminded me of a guy at my last job who was an absolute god with awk, but making changes to scripts he made were a nightmare because no one else could figure out what he was doing, and everything crashed and burned from small changes.
Sometimes a small python script that is readable is better for long term support.
Always*
Shell scripting for serious tasks should crash and burn, wherever possible at least
For all that I shit talk Microsoft, Powershell does seem better suited for production tasks than bash and friends...
Powershell may be better for programming but is worse for shell tasks.
Absolutely, the syntax and API isn't exactly easy, but it is miles better because it's both more familiar to other programming languages and because it is verbose.
I argue that the complaint some have about its verbosity is of little meaning, those people have just used the shell so much that they naturally remember a lot of commands, what they're used for and their specific syntax, but for a beginner it's difficult to string everything together, because a lot of tools are of independent origin. Regardless, Powershell should by default have quite a few aliases to the commands/functions with long names so it's not like you can't have the best of both worlds
Yep.
I use it as a command shell regularly and the verbosity isn't an issue at all, between aliases and tab completion.
Honestly, having used both for years, PowerShell is actually easier in many respects just due to the object pipeline and dotnet, once you get to know them well enough. Being able to just toss output into a variable and mess around with it to understand its structure and contents is huge
Documentation & comments... the most underated part of any system
Oh I've done some wicked shit with awk that things literally magic
Awk is ok but often when I come across a script that I need to optimize because it's too slow, the easiest gains come from replacing awk command. Most of them use awk for the most mundane stuff that can easily be done with shell parameter expansion instead.