The Church of UNIX
We are the faithful. We follow the ancient path of simplicity, composability, and knowing exactly what your machine is doing at three in the morning.
UNIX is more than an operating system. It is a philosophy. It is a discipline. It is a suspiciously well-designed collection of small programs.
OUR BACKGROUND
In the early days, in the Laboratories of Bell, the Ancients sought a better way. They found that software could be small, tools could do one thing well, and text could carry knowledge between programs.
Thus UNIX was born.
Through the ages came BSD, System V, SunOS, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX and their descendants. Some have vanished into the mists of history. Others continue to answer the sacred question:
"Have you read the manual?"
OUR COMMANDMENTS
- Thou shalt use the shell.
- Thou shalt respect thy elders.
- Thou shalt write scripts, not click repeatedly.
- Thou shalt understand thy own man pages.
- Thou shalt keep it simple.
- Thou shalt share knowledge freely.
- Thou shalt automate all the things.
- Thou shalt use the right tool for the right job.
- Thou shalt honor portability.
- Thou shalt have backups.
THE SACRED FILESYSTEM
/ ├── bin/ # sacred tools ├── boot/ # the awakening ├── dev/ # the physical world ├── etc/ # configuration scripture ├── home/ # dwellings of the faithful ├── tmp/ # temporary earthly concerns ├── usr/ # accumulated wisdom ├── var/ # records of past deeds └── lost+found/ # those who wandered```
The filesystem is not merely a collection of directories. It is the ordered structure through which the faithful understand the machine.
- /etc Where configuration becomes doctrine.
- /var/log Where the machine remembers your sins.
- /dev Where everything is a file.
- /tmp Where worldly possessions are discarded.
- /home Where the faithful keep their dotfiles.
THE GREAT SCHISMS
BSD vs. SYSTEM V
The oldest disagreement. Both claim descent from the Ancients. Both insist the other has misunderstood something fundamental.
VI vs. EMACS
A theological dispute so old that nobody remembers how it began. Neither side will surrender.
TABS vs. SPACES
The faithful are encouraged to avoid discussing this matter at family gatherings.
INIT vs. SYSTEMD
One side values small, comprehensible mechanisms. The other side has written significantly more code.
KNOWN HERESIES
THE MONOLITH
A program that does everything, requires everything, and cannot function unless everything else agrees to cooperate.
DEPENDENCY HELL
Installing a simple utility which summons 417 dependencies, 12 runtimes, and a JavaScript framework.
THE UNREAD MANUAL
Asking a question which could have been answered by reading the documentation is considered a minor spiritual failing.
RITUALS OF THE FAITHFUL
Every member is encouraged to observe the following rites at least occasionally:
- Open a terminal.
- Check the system logs.
- Read a manual page.
- Write a small shell script.
- Automate the script.
- Forget that you automated it.
- Rediscover it six months later.
- Wonder who wrote it.
- Realize it was you.
$ whoami pilgrim $ uname UNIX $ man religion No manual entry for religion. $ echo $PATH /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin $ fortune The shell remembers all things.```
THE SAINTS OF COMPUTING
Dennis Ritchie
Patron saint of C, UNIX, and making enormously consequential things look deceptively simple.
Ken Thompson
Patron saint of operating systems, clever hacks, and getting things working anyway.
Brian Kernighan
Keeper of concise explanations and guardian of the first example program.
Bill Joy
Patron of BSD, vi, and editors capable of inspiring theological disputes decades after their creation.
SACRED TEXTS
UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity. -- Dennis Ritchie
The power of UNIX lies in giving you small tools and allowing you to combine them. -- The Old Admins
Write programs that do one thing and do it well. -- The UNIX Philosophy
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A: No. The Church recognizes BSD and other Unix-like systems. The kernel of your faith matters more than the kernel beneath it.
A: Linux is regarded as a respected relative. Arguments regarding its genealogy should be conducted civilly and preferably over coffee.
A: The Church does not judge. It merely asks that you know what the GUI is doing underneath.
A: You restore from your backup. If you do not have a backup, this is considered a lesson from the filesystem itself.
JOIN THE FAITHFUL
If you seek enlightenment, open a terminal.
If you are lost, read the manuals.
If you understand, help someone else.