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In 1999, after installing Linux on a mainframe for the first time, I needed to edit a few files. Being in the Linux console, ISPF wasn't an option. But the copy
by ncphil 5y ago
In 1999, after installing Linux on a mainframe for the first time, I needed to edit a few files. Being in the Linux console, ISPF wasn't an option. But the copy of Linux we were working with (Marist College's release) didn't yet have vi available. So I had to go with ed. That, as they used to say, was "a real trip".
- js2 5y agoI was once stuck on a box that didn’t even have ed, and I needed to edit a file. This is maybe 1995 and it’s an HP/UX machine that was used as nothing more than an X console, but its fstab or automount config was messed up so it couldn’t boot anything but single user mode. I managed to cobble together an “editor” with just the shell that as I recall read each line of the existing file and echoed it to stdout. I could press return to keep it as is or retype the entire line with whatever changes I needed. The output went to a new file. When I was done I copied the new file into place. Another time I needed to transfer an executable to a server I could access only over serial console. On the receiving end, I think uudecode was all I had to safely get the binary over serial console. Fun times.
- pastage 5y agoI use cat file|gzip -9c|base64 -w $COLUMNS To copy and paste files, I've even had to use rdiff/zstd with a dictionary. Fun indeed.
- rolandog 5y agoDamn. That's the equivalent of having to walk to school uphill both ways during a snow storm. It makes me feel really grateful for the hundreds of thousands of man-hours that have been spent on giving us good and reliable tools.
- ben_bai 5y agoClever with the shells "read line", I was in a similar situation, and used dd as an "editor" :-)