How to become good UNIX engineer Post: 302468081

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The Lounge What is on Your Mind? How to become good UNIX engineer Post 302468081 by vedder191 on Monday 1st of November 2010 02:29:03 PM

11-01-2010

Registered User

Recently promoted Jr Engineer

I was recently promoted to a jr engineer postion where the environment is about 90% Solaris.

I would say that this is my dream job accept for the fact that I haven't earned the title yet.

You have to understand that it may take years before you attain a level where you SHOULD even be considered for one of these positions. It's a combination of luck and opportunity that has gotten me this far.

I had been working in either desktop or customer support roles for the last 10years. The fact that the company I work for now was hit so hard by the recession forced many people to double and even triple the word responsibilities that they had been accustomed to. That's a good and bad thing. Good because you learn more than what your job description is.

This got me comfortable with Unix. When the opportunity arose that they needed a new unix engineer I jumped at the chance. I probably am not ready but I am hitting the books like nobody's business.

No one here can really tell you all the books you should be studying. Your companies needs are going to vary. The company I work for tends to have a very Oracle, websphere centric environment. So those are the additional skills I must have.

But there are time tested books that will really never go out of style in the foreseeable future. Unix shell programming (again based on your companies needs e.g. Korn, Bash) and Awk and sed skills. Of course the editor of your choice. I am loving the process of getting more and more comfortable of learning advanced editing with VI. But I must say I love emacs. It's actually more my style but this company is more of a vi shop. Not at a point where I want to edit my .profile on all the servers I have login's for.

The important thing is get comfortable with Unix flavor that your company uses. Then focus on the external things that will make your work more efficient. There are going to be a million ways to do the same things so tapping into and developing your own style is important.

Again I am fairly new at this so if there is anyone who needs a unix buddy, maybe we can travel this road together, just contact me and I would be more than willing to share my experiences and learn from yours.

vedder191

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io_nonblock

io_nonblock(3)						     Library Functions Manual						    io_nonblock(3)

NAME

       io_nonblock - switch to non-blocking I/O

SYNTAX

       #include <io.h>

       void io_nonblock(int64 fd);

DESCRIPTION

       io_nonblock  puts  UNIX descriptor fd into ``non-blocking mode.'' Calling io_nonblock(fd) before io_fd(fd) makes io_tryread and io_trywrite
       faster and more efficient.

       Actually, current UNIX kernels do not support non-blocking descriptors; they support non-blocking open files.  Furthermore,  many  programs
       will  break  if they encounter non-blocking mode. This means that you must not use io_nonblock for a descriptor inherited from another pro-
       gram.

       io_nonblock has no return value; it always succeeds. If d is not the number of a UNIX descriptor, io_nonblock has no effect.

       If io_fd is given a descriptor in blocking mode, io_tryread and io_trywrite go through the following contortions to avoid blocking:

       1  Stop if poll says that the descriptor is not ready. Otherwise there's a good chance, but not a guarantee: even if poll says the descrip-
	  tor is ready, the descriptor might not be ready a moment later. (Furthermore, poll can fail on some systems.)

       2  Catch SIGALRM. SIGALRM must not be blocked, and must not be used elsewhere in the program.

       3  Set  an  interval  timer  so	that any blocking call will be interrupted by SIGALRM within 10 milliseconds. (Current UNIX kernels do not
	  allow any shorter interval.) Of course, this may still mean a 10-millisecond delay.

       If io_fd is given a descriptor in non-blocking mode (or a descriptor for a regular disk file), io_tryread and io_trywrite avoid these  con-
       tortions.

SEE ALSO

       io_wait(3), io_canwrite(3)

																    io_nonblock(3)