Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 22 Nov 2000 12:09:25 +1100
From:      Zero Sum <count@shalimar.net.au>
To:        Chip <chip@wiegand.org>, "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: 'find' is running all by itself
Message-ID:  <00112212092503.05727@shalimar.net.au>
In-Reply-To: <3A1A880A.25BC4A01@wiegand.org>
References:  <3A19E749.E9E048E2@wiegand.org> <00112117251600.37336@shalimar.net.au> <3A1A880A.25BC4A01@wiegand.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wednesday 22 November 2000 01:34, Chip wrote:
> Zero Sum wrote:
> > 
> > On Tuesday 21 November 2000 16:15, Chip wrote:
> > > John P. Campbell wrote:
> > > >
> > > > A look at /etc/periodic/daily on my box shows that find runs quite
> > often.
> > > > It's a good chance that is what you are seeing.
> > > >
> > > > <rubina>: jpc % cd /etc/periodic/daily/
> > > > <rubina>: daily % grep find *
> > >
> > > I tried this command as you have it shown above and get
> > > daily: command not found
> > > Besides that, in my daily directory is a whole bunch of stuff,
> > > and
> > > find is not amoung any of it. Should it be? It's not any big
> > > deal,
> > > I'm just curious where it's starting and what is telling it to
> > > start. None of the other fbsd machines do this.
> > >
> > 
> > This is a joke, right?
> > 
> > You didn't really fail to recognise the '%' as a c-shell prompt, did 
you?
> > 
> > You didn't type "daily % grep find *" instead of "grep find *", did you?
> > 
> > You weren't really expecting the 'find' command to be there were you?
> > 
> > If the answer to ANY one of the aboce was yes, then you need to get
> > yourself some basic books on Unix.  Asking questions here won't do you 
much
> > good as you won't understand the answers.
> > 
> > The explanation that was given you was most probably accurate.  You
> > mightcheck the system time, though.
> > 
> > Geoff
> > --
> > count@shalimar.net.au
> > Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione
> 
> I am quite sure that you too were once a beginner in the *nix 
> environment. I doubt very much that you were born with all this
> great store house of knowledge. Maybe it has been so long that
> you have forgotten those days of learning though, and now don't
> have the patience for people who are learning, so feel compelled
> to lash out at them in a childish manner. A serious question 
> should only be returned with a serious answer, which most people
> on this list do. You appear to be an exception, I'm sorry.
> 

You misjudge me.  I was genuinely incredulous. I don't consider that I have 
"great storehouse of knowlege".  And no, I wasn't born with what I do have, 
but I was born learning to look at what I see.  I have plenty of sympathy 
for beginners, and I provide quite a bit of help to those I can help both 
on list and (mainly) off-list. In fact I usually pick the beginners to 
help, because they need it most and for five years I wrote and taught Unix 
courses in the industry.

However, it is a lot easier to help people who think and analyise what they 
see.  For example, you were provided with two lines of shell code, and you 
completely failed to look at it with any degree of analysis.

The lines were...

<rubina>: jpc % cd /etc/periodic/daily/
<rubina>: daily % grep find *

Now the first one is a 'cd' command.  Surely that is obvious.  I could not 
and cannot believe that it could be misconstrued.  That tells you that 
"<rubina>: jpc % " was the prompt.  Is there any way in which this could be 
more obvious?  Is there any way in which you could have failed to interpret 
this if you *looked* at it?

For the second line, the prompt has clearly changed and reflects the 
directory to which the last command changed.  Note the 'daily'.  Again, 
what could be more obvious when you *look*.

This leaves only "grep find * " as the command to use.  Not "daily %....".
This isn't a matter of "great storehouse of knowlege", it is a matter of 
basic attitude.  "Thinking about things" vs "silver platter".  

I said to you "If the answer to ANY one of the aboce was yes, then you need 
to get yourself some basic books on Unix.  Asking questions here won't do 
you much good as you won't understand the answers".  Doesn't the above 
*prove* that statement.  You asked a question, you got a good reply and you 
didn't even understand the most basic two lines of code that could probably 
be written. A "cd" and a "grep".  I gave you good (and necessary) advice.  
if you want to take it as a put down, that's your problem.

When I first encountered Unix, there was no help available, I was in the 
"commercial" world and the only access to the internet was in the 
"acadaemic world". So even the (then limited) Internet was not available.  
O'Reilly didn't exits and there were no readily available books on Unix.

So, what did I have?  "man" and that was it.  I would recommend to anyone 
on first encountering Unix to (1) Read, learn and understand everything on 
the "man sh" or "man ksh" pages.  (2) Read every other man page on the 
system.  You won't understand every thing on every page, but you will start 
to see paterns involved, and you will learn much and remember where to find 
things. (3) Make a listing of every file on the system (yes, every one!) 
and find out why they are there and what they do.  Cross each one off the 
list as you find out.  But that is too much like work, isn't it?  (Learning 
usually is).

As for not having patience and lashing out in a childish manner.  My take 
on it is this.  There is no reason to have patience with those who ask 
questions and do not listen to the answers (or think about them).  To want 
things handed to you on a "silver platter" is childish, to protest when 
silliness is pointed out is childish.  If you think I "lashed out" you must 
have had a very "gentle" life.

If you consider I am ill-mannered, I like you consider what sort of manners 
are involved, when somebody (not me) gave you a good answer to your 
question and you effectively "ignored" it.  Whyfore then, should I be 
"gentle"?


Geoff
-- 
count@shalimar.net.au
Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?00112212092503.05727>