this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I have condensed almost all of my workflows into pure bash scripts that will run on anything from bare metal to a vm to a docker container (to set up and/or run an environment). My dockerfiles mostly just run bash scripts to set up environments, and then run functions within the same bash scripts to do whatever things they need to do. That process is automated by the bash scripts that built my main host. For the very few workflows I have that aren't quite as appropriate for straight docker (wireguard for example) I use libvirt to automate building and running virtual machines as if they were ephemeral containers. Once the abstraction between container and vm is standardized in bash, the automation doesn't really need to care which is which, it just calls start/stop functions that change based on what the underlying tech is. Because of that, I can have the canary system build and run containers/vms in a sandbox, run unit tests, and return whether or not they passed. It does that via cron once a week and then supplants all the running containers with the canary versions once unit tests pass.
Basically I got sick of reinventing the wheel every time a new technology came out and eventually boiled everything down into bash so that it'll run on anything it needs to. Maybe podman in userland becomes the new hotness next year, or maybe I run a full fat k8s like I do at work. Pure bash lets me have control over everything, see how everything goes together, and make minor modifications to accommodate anything I need it to.
It sounds more complicated than it really is, It took me like a week of evenings to write and it's worked flawlessly for almost a year now. I also really really really hate clicking things by hand lol, so I automate anything I can. Since switching off proxmox, this is the first environment that I have entirely automated from bare-metal to fully running in a single command.
I'm incredibly lazy; it's one of my best qualities.
That sounds pretty slick. I envy your scripting prowess. You really have to know your system top to bottom to be able to boil it all down like that.
I’m just beginning my journey into this whole space, and it’s really interesting how many different ways people have to deal with the same basic things.
I’m also incredibly lazy, so maybe more scripting is in my future! Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed reply!
I certainly wasn't just born good at this. Unironically if you want to learn how something works, try to automate it. By the time it's automated you'll understand basically every part of it at at least a basic high-level.
That is incredibly true. I try to automate everything I can. That’s where laziness is a superpower.