The Forgotten Basics
Modern dashboards look impressive. Yet, when systems fail, we return to the shell.
The basics – ps, grep, awk, ip, nmcli, sed, uniq, sort – never left.
They are still the quickest path between question and answer.
This post is not nostalgia. It’s about precision, control, and speed.
The old tools survive because they do exactly what we ask.
The UNIX philosophy is still alive: one task – one tool.
Observation over Decoration
Every shiny monitoring tool uses the same data you can reach in one command.
Example: memory issues.
Instead of checking a web dashboard, run:
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head
You see who’s eating memory, no delay, no abstraction.
The system talks directly to you.
Patterns and Filters
grep, awk, and sed are lenses.
They turn noise into information.
Imagine a full log file of SSH connections:
grep "Failed password" /var/log/auth.log | awk '{print $(NF-3)}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head
This one line answers: who is attacking me the most right now?
No Python, no web UI, just structure and logic.
Seeing the Network
ip and nmcli replaced the old ifconfig.
They are fast and scriptable.
ip -brief addr show nmcli device status
These two tell you the truth about network state – up, down, misconfigured, or missing routes.
You learn what’s really happening without leaving the terminal.
Sorting Signal from Noise
The trio sort, uniq, and awk is often enough for full reports.
Example: count of processes by user:
ps -eo user= | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr
You can build daily summaries, audit reports, or troubleshooting scripts with just these commands.
No dependencies. No waiting.
When Fancy Tools Fail
When your web dashboard breaks or Prometheus stops collecting, the basics still run.
They are installed by default. They don’t need a service, a container, or a browser.
They only need your logic and a working shell.
Field Note
Simplicity wins under pressure.
The shell is the most honest interface in computing.
When you master the core tools, you no longer depend on layers built on top of them.
That independence is what makes a real system administrator.
–
Tom
Tom's IT Cafe 