NYCPHP Meetup

[Chris Snyder]

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Joelle Tegwen<tegwe002 at umn.edu> wrote:
> I created two files. The first is a shell script that installs all of the
> applications I use, changes settings/permissions and makes copies of config
> files. Then you've always got your back covered. The second is instructions
> and information about how to manually change things that need to be manually
> changed. (config files, etc) . The only trick is being religious about
> updating the files every time you install/configure applications. However,
> this made my last hardware upgrade go wickedly fast.

Yes! This is a great piece of advice, and not immediately obvious to
folks who are new to command line administration. Even if you mix your
instructions and commands, being able to copy and paste the commands
in order saves a LOT of time and allows you the full benefit of your
collected wisdom and experience.

It's a good idea to set up a wiki for your personal use as a sysadmin,
to store recipes like this, and make them easy to update with each new
install. The only thing worse than spending hours getting a
configuration exactly right is realizing two years later that you
didn't paste-and-save it anywhere.