On Thu, 5 Aug 2010, Les Mikesell wrote: > The part I have trouble understanding is that while it seems > perfectly acceptable to be dumb about most coding languages and ask > for a canned routine to do something you are too lazy to write for > yourself, the same does not apply to shell commands even though > there is not much inherent difference in complexity. Is it just > that coders are more willing to share their work than administrators > even in cases where it is equally reusable? The major difference I've seen in that sort of request is that coders tend to ask for help with a small subset of the overall task (a routine) while erstwhile admins tend to ask for help with the totality of the task. When someone says, "I'm writing a shell script, and hereabouts I need $TOOL to do such and such," a good answer is usually forthcoming. When someone says, "Tell me how to script this $PROJECT," the commmunity usually points the OP off to Google/Manual. Mostly. -- Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/