[author's note: personally, I use awk a bunch in MySQL DBA work, for tasks like scrubbing data from a production export for use in qa/dev, but usually have to resort to Perl for really complex stuff, but now I know how to do .]

Basics:
By default, fields are separated by any number of spaces. The -F option to awk changes the separator on commandline.
Print the first field, fields are separated by a colon.
awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd

Print the first and fifth field:
awk -F: '{$print $1,$5}' /etc/passwd

Can pattern match and use files, so you can replace:
grep foo /etc/passwd | awk -F: '{print $1,$5}'
with:
awk -F: '/foo/ {print $1,$5}' /etc/passwd

NF = built in variable (no $) used to mean “field number”
This will print the first and last fields of lines where the first …

The Beacon Pattern:
- This is a “Get out of the business” pattern
- Identify an oft-occurring and annoying task
- Automate and document it to the point of being able to hand it off to someone far less technical

Example:
- System admins were being put in charge of scheduling rooms in the building
- They wrote a PHP web application to help them automate the task
- They refined the app, documented how to use it, and handed it off to a secretary
- They have to maintain the app, but it’s far less work.

The Community Pattern:

- Prior to launch of a new service, create user documentation for it.
- Point a few early adopters at the documentation and see if they can use the service with minimal support
- Use feedback to improve documentation, and the service
- Upon launch, create a mailing list, forum, IRC channel, or Jabber chat room and ask early …

I am attending the Professional IT Community Conference – it is put on by the League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA), and is a 2-day community conference. There are technical and “soft” topics — the audience is system administrators. While technical topics such as Essential IPv6 for Linux Administrators are not essential for my job, many of the “soft” topics are directly applicable and relevant to DBAs too. (I am speaking on How to Stop Hating MySQL tomorrow.)

So I am in Seeking Senior and Beyond: The Tech Skills That Get You Promoted. The first part talks about the definition of what it …