UNIX career path for Admin Post: 302882017

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The Lounge What is on Your Mind? UNIX career path for Admin Post 302882017 by Neo on Friday 3rd of January 2014 02:36:35 PM

01-03-2014

Administrator

In my view, it is not a good idea to follow buzzwords and trendy tech words like "Big Data" or pie-in-the-sky governance models such as TOGAF.

It is better to be comfortable programming, which means have the creative talent to direct computers what to do.

When you can program, you can create. When you can program, you can take your ideas and concepts and implement them yourself. When you can program, you understand programmers and developers.

I started my career in unix writing C client-server code to control production HP-UX machines used in a RF radio factory to test and document the test results of these products on the production floor.

Since that time, I have worked "up in the clouds" with enterprise architecture models and "down in the weeds" programming.

To me, a techie person who cannot create an idea or concept and write code in at least one programing language is disadvantaged. The ability to create an idea and write the code to realize the idea is an important skill to have.

The guy who created Facebook was a programmer... the Google founders were programmers.... the early Apple and MS guys were programmers.....

You must be able to work in at least one programming language and write applications, even if only small ones, to be "the best you can be" in the IT world.

As a side note, I know a lot of people who work as "IT Security Consultants" and call themselves "experts". SO, I ask them "what production web site do you manage?" "what hacker attack have you defended against in real time?" ... "what is your actual experience writing any code at all?".... almost all reply "none".. "none" and "none"... in other words, they call themselves "experts" in computer security but never write code, never actually defend a server against an attack... and basically just blah. blah. blah.... about it all.

My advise is not to just be someone who "talks the big talk and uses the big words and concepts".. but be someone "who can actually develop something when needed"......

Big words and concepts are mostly marketing fluff.... the stuff of sales people who could not write a simple app in any programming language.

To be the best IT person you can be.. you must be comfortable programming in at least one programming language, in my view.

As a final note: I am inside "PHP code" sometimes every day of the week... I am not a great PHP programmer, but I really like it... It's fun to have a idea and to build it.. and see the results. To me, programming is a creative license to explore and enjoy the world of IT.

Neo

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LEARN ABOUT HPUX

chdir

chdir(2)							System Calls Manual							  chdir(2)

NAME

       chdir, fchdir - change working directory

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

       and  cause  a  directory pointed to by path or fildes to become the current working directory, the starting point for path searches of path
       names not beginning with path points to the path name of a directory.  fildes is an open file descriptor of a directory.

       For a directory to become the current working directory, a process must have execute (search) access to the directory.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       fails and the current working directory remains unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

	      A component of the path name is not a directory.

	      The named directory does not exist.

	      Search permission is denied for any component of the path name.

	      path		    points outside the allocated address space of the process.	The reliable detection of this error is  implemen-
				    tation dependent.

	      path		    is null.

	      The length of the specified path name exceeds
				    bytes, or the length of a component of the path name exceeds bytes while is in effect.

	      Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the path name.

       fails and the current working directory remains unchanged if one or more of the following are true:

	      Search permission is denied for
				    fildes.

	      fildes		    is not an open file descriptor.

	      The open file descriptor
				    fildes does not refer to a directory.

AUTHOR

       and were developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories and HP.

SEE ALSO

       cd(1), chroot(2), privileges(5).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																	  chdir(2)