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                 Sys Admin Magazine -- News and Reviews
                         December 18, 2003

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The first installment in this web-exclusive series introduced the 
Expect tool and language. This installment shows how Expect models 
solutions for tests that matter to systems administrators. 

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Test-driven Development, Expect, and Systems Administration   
by Cameron Laird 

There's a better way to do systems administration. 

That's my belief, anyway. To control at least part of the crisis-driven 
noise that so often plagues systems administration jobs, I favor 
"test-driven development" (TDD) practices. The first installment in 
this 
series introduced the Expect tool and language. This installment shows 
how Expect models solutions for tests that matter to systems 
administrators. 

This article has been a particular challenge for me -- it involves not 
only several different crucial ideas, but different kinds of ideas. 
Precision about the role of Expect is an example of this difficulty. 

Where does Expect fit? 

As the previous article explained, I find Expect nearly indispensable 
for 
rational Unix systems administration. Almost every week, I come across 
a 
task that Expect solves in minutes, where other approaches would 
require 
hours. It consistently pays big returns for the time I invest with it. 

Testing happens to be one of Expect's strengths. DejaGnu is a 
well-known 
testing framework, arguably the most important such framework in the 
history of computing. Still going strong in its second decade, DejaGnu 
is most famous for its role in ensuring the correct function of the GNU 
gcc compiler on which Linux and so many other projects rely. DejaGnu is 
based on Expect. This article will provide a few samples of working 
Expect code you might use to illustrate the role testing can play. 

At the same time, though, the concepts behind Expect, and TDD more 
broadly, are even more important than their expression in any one 
language or tool. Even if you know you'll never write Expect scripts, 
you should keep reading. TDD is that important -- besides, the third 
and 
final installment in this series will show how to do Expect-style jobs 
without Expect. 

TDD practices aren't new. While they've been around from the origins of 
computing, every information technology (IT) generation seems to need 
to rediscover and rename it. Moreover, systems administration has never 
accepted TDD with even a fraction of the enthusiasm I think it 
deserves. 

To read the complete article, visit:
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maabMsdaa22IDa2sokSb/

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	Sys Admin Call for Papers

Sys Admin magazine is looking for systems administrators who have 
solved 
a common problem in an uncommon way and want to share their solution 
with the only people in the world who will understand it: other systems 
administrators. Each issue has a theme, but we’re always interested in 
useful articles on any subject related to managing AIX, BSD, HP-UX, 
Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and other UNIX/Linux variants. 

* Enterprise Administration -- We’re looking for practical, high-end 
discussions of storage, clustering, security, and advanced networking 
solutions based on your expertise and 
insights. 

* Open Source -- We’re looking for original uses of classic tools such 
as Apache, Samba, and MySQL; custom solutions built from open source 
components; and descriptions of useful open source utilities. 

* Scripting -- Describe how you improved your life with the perfect 
Perl, 
shell, PHP, Python, or Tcl/Tk script. 

For more detailed information, visit: 
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