From owner-freebsd-arch Wed Dec 20 9:44:49 2000 From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 20 09:44:47 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mail.rpi.edu (mail.rpi.edu [128.113.100.7]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6782837B400 for ; Wed, 20 Dec 2000 09:44:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.acs.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by mail.rpi.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA542774; Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:40:48 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: drosih@mail.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20001219233816.H19572@fw.wintelcom.net> References: <3A405A43.5C10697C@cup.hp.com> <20001219233816.H19572@fw.wintelcom.net> Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:40:46 -0500 To: Alfred Perlstein , Marcel Moolenaar From: Garance A Drosihn Subject: Re: gensetdefs using sh(1),sed(1),grep(1) and awk(1) Cc: arch@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 11:38 PM -0800 12/19/00, Alfred Perlstein wrote: > >This should have just been done a week ago when it was proposed. >There's no reason for you to jump through hoops and have >to write obfuscated shell scripts to accomplish this. > >Now can we end the bikeshed and just use the fast and _READABLE_ >perl version? I would also prefer writing perl scripts for operations which get too damn complicated and too expensive to do in shell scripts. Here at RPI we have a number of sysadmin-type scripts which we tried to shoehorn into sh-scripts by using increasingly complicated incantations of grep, awk, tr, and other tiny unix programs. We're starting to give up on that, and just use a perl for the more complicated things. The perl scripts run in MUCH less time, because we aren't forking another unix command every time we want to look at some byte in a character string. We had some scripts which would chew thru >10,000 unix process id's trying to get their job done. That is just nuts. Or maybe use python, if people are scared of trusting perl's size and build-complexity for "lower level" sysadmin duties. I can sympathize with that concern, given that was exactly why we (RPI) stuck so slavishly to sh-scripts for so long. Not that I know python, but perhaps it would be a suitable choice. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@eclipse.acs.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message