Recently someone asked me: what language should a sysadmin learn.
If you are a Windows sysadmin, the answer is simple: learn PowerShell.
If you are a Unix/Linux sysadmin, the answer is more complicated because there are more choices. I don’t want to start a “language war,” but rather say this:
I believe every Unix/Linux sysadmin should know the shell (sh or bash), plus one language among Perl, Ruby, or Python. Which one you choose doesn’t really matter.
Image source: O'REILLY Programming Master
Learning bash is indeed quite important, because bash is extremely critical for many aspects of your work. Whether it’s debugging /etc/init.d scripts or writing a small wrapper. Every Unix/Linux sysadmin should know: how to execute for loops, while loops, if with [[ or [, $1, $2, $3… $* and $@, and case statements, as well as understand how variable substitution works and how to handle simple command-line flags. Only once you’ve mastered those basics can you move deeper. I am surprised to find that many people I know have been exposed to Unix/Linux a lot, yet cannot use bash to execute a loop; sooner or later they will kick themselves for not learning bash sooner.
From a career management perspective, I think it’s critical to be truly good at one of those languages and dabbled in the other two; even if that just means reading the first few chapters of books introducing those languages. Being truly good at one language means you deeply understand how to use that language and what’s going on “under the hood,” so you can make more sound decisions when designing larger programs. The reason I’m elevating this to a career management discussion is that if you want to be hired by a company that uses a different language, “being an expert willing to learn different languages” is far more important than “being someone who only wants to learn the language with the most potential” or “someone who has a superficial knowledge of this or that language but never had the patience to truly learn one well.”
<a data-cke-saved-href="https://www.cnop.net/uploadfile/2014/0115/20140115010119726.jpg" href="https://www.cnop.net/uploadfile/2014/0115/20140115010119726.jpg" class="cboxElement" rel="example4" 255"="" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(1, 150, 227);">Original from: http://everythingsysadmin.com/2012/06/salang.html
