From: jeffl@comix.UUCP (Jeff Liebermann)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: How does a mortal become a UNIX WIZARD ?
Summary: There are different types of wizards.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 21:27:33 PST
Organization: COmmittee to Maintain Independent Xenix

In article <1992Nov19.001512.72408@slate.mines.colorado.edu> mbarkah@slate.mines.colorado.edu (Ade Barkah) writes:

>What does it take for a man, er, person, to become a Unix Wizard ?
Experience.  Unix has become to big for one to be an expert on
all aspects and all flavors of Unix.  Contrary to popular
propaganda, the various flavors (AT&T, Sys V.3, Sys V.4, AIX,
BSD, Ultrix, Mimix, Comix, etc) bear only a supreficial semblence
to each other.  It's also getting worse as features, intefaces,
and enhancements are added.  I consider myself fair at SCO Unix
and Xenix.  I just inherited an AIX customer and I am sweating blood.

It is also hard to distinguish between sophistocated users,
informed VARS, programmers, hardware types, and kernel hacks.
Each would be considered a wiz within their area of expertise
I've cleaned up many a Unix box from the debris left by experts
far better versed than myself in the arcane arts of Unix
internals but who have never had to keep customers and machines
alive for extended periods.  It's an art that must be learned
by experience.  Learn by destroying.

>Which bibles should we study ? (after memorizing O'Rileys to become
>an X Wizzie ?)
You should not memorize anything.  Half of what you know is going
to be obsolete in about 5 years.  It is more imporant to collect
a list of names, phone numbers, email addresses, and such
for those with specific expertise in areas that you expect to
be involved.  Then concentrate on the basics and understand how
things operate.  It is also handy to have access to as many machines
as possible to compare configurations and reliability.  A good
collection of support bbs phone numbers are quite handy when you
need answers at midnight.

I strongly recommend buying and skimming (not memorizing) the
various Nutshell books.  They've saved my ass many times.
Where you get the state of the art information (some of which
is unfortunately wrong) are the magazines.  I suggest:
	Unix World
	Open Systems Today (formerly Unix Today)
	Lan Technology
	The Guru (from the Valar Group Ltd)
	and others
The official SCO documentation with Unix 3.2v4.x and ODT 2.0
are radically better than the previous ugly grey incantations
and are well worth reading.  The really important stuff is in
the release notes.

>How many kernels (and which ones) we need to take apart and reassemble ?
If kernel crunching is your forte, then as many as possible.
However, if you neglect the other aspects of Unix configuration,
kernel crunching is somewhat of a distraction.   On an SCO system,
I suggest you run:
	/usr/sys/conf/configure -x  > filename		(xenix only)
	/etc/conf/cf.d/configure -x  > filename		(unix only)
and study the output.  When you understand:
	What each kernel parmaeter does.
	What software it affects.
	What hardware affects it.
	Which packages change it's values.
	What diagnostics and monitor routines are available to optimize.
	What are reasonable values for common configurations.
	Why it's tweakable in the first place.
then you can start dealing with internals.
 
>Some doth say that the only way thou shall gain salvation is to
>partake in the (sacrireligios) ceremony of rewriting Unix from
>scratch.
Maybe.  To become a race car driver by building the race car
and understand how everything works is helpful.  However, methinks
that first learning to drive the car would be more useful.  Something
like learning to walk before you can run.  It is also helpful to
own the car (or computer).  There is no better incentive to learning
Unix than keeping your own computer alive while your users and friends
complain and/or demand changes.

>So, oh, mylord, how does a mortal become a Unix Wizard ?
Just add "Unix Wizard" to your .signature.  Instant wizard.
 
>(next question: how does a newbie become a net.personality ?)
By spending inordinate amounts of valuable time replying to
questions like this and posting the alleged answers to news.
It also helps to be right so some research is helpful.
 
>Internet  : mbarkah@slate.mines.colorado.edu    (NeXT Mailable)
>CompuServe: 74160,3404


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