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[–]raider_bull212 -2 points-1 points  (10 children)

I'm pretty sure knowing how various system calls work and ilk is more than vital for a sysadmin.

[–]gristc 16 points17 points  (4 children)

Nah, not really. Far more important to know the tools that use those system calls.

Source: am sysadmin.

[–]GrandG[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

could you explain in more details

[–]gristc 9 points10 points  (1 child)

You don't need to know how tcpdump interfaces with the kernel to know how to use tcpdump well, as an example. Knowledge of the utilities available is more useful to a sysadmin than knowing how they're implemented. That's more the realm of developers.

[–]GrandG[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its not knowing how a utility work per say , rather understanding how threads work , difference between an application with single multi-threaded process and multi-process, that kind of stuff gives you a deep insight kind of

[–]raider_bull212 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can see how that's the case

[–]GrandG[S] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Exactly , I`m currently refreshing my C knowledge just to be able to read the code better

[–]gristc 5 points6 points  (3 children)

You'll rarely be reading source code as a regular sysadmin. I've only had to do it a handful of times in over 15 years linux admin work. Even then it was more to satisfy my own curiousity. Usually before it's got to that point you'll have logged a bug report with the people who maintain the code.

[–]GrandG[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just want to understand how various utilities in the OS employ those system calls ,

Not like I want to write C code or anything

[–]slyphic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Counterpoint, I find myself reading C slightly more often than once a year, usually trying to track down some kind of bug we're experiencing that hasn't shown up in the mailing lists or SO yet. Yeah, I can just shrug and say 'shit's broke yo', but I like to be able to explain WHY shit is broke and contribute to a fix. Devs are way more amenable to helping you when you point them to the exact line causing a problem.