The eight levels of Unix knowledge

Beginner

• Insecure with the concept of a terminal.
• Has yet to learn the basics of vi.
• Has not figured out how to get a directory listing.

Novice

• Knows that ls will produce a directory.
• Uses the editor but calls it vye.
• Has heard of C but never used it.
• Has had his first bad experience with rm.
• Is wondering how to read his mail.

User

• Uses vi and nroff, albeit inexpertly.
• Has heard of regular expressions but never seen one.
• Has figured out that "-" precedes options.
• Has attempted to write a C program and decided to stick with Pascal.
• Is wondering how to move a directory.
• Thinks that dbx is a brand of stereo component.
• Knows how to read his mail and is wondering how to read the news.

Knowledgeable user

• Uses nroff with no trouble and is beginning to learn tbl and eqn.
• Uses grep to search for fixed strings.
• Has figured out that mv(1) will move directories.
• Has learned that help doesn't.
• Somebody has shown him how to write C programs.
• Once used sed to do some text substitution.
• Has seen dbx used but does not use it himself.
• Thinks that make is only for wimps.

Expert

• Uses sed when necessary.
• Uses macros in vi, and ex when necessary.
• Posts news at every possible opportunity.
• Write csh scripts occasionally.
• Write C programs using vi and compiles with cc.
• Has figured out what && and || are for.
• Thinks that human history started with !h.

Hacker

• Uses sed and awk with comfort.
• Uses undocumented features of vi.
• Write C code with cat> and compiles with !cc.
• Uses adb because he doesn't trust source debuggers.
• Can answer questions about the user environment.
• Writes his own nroff macros.
• Write scripts for Bourne shell (/bin/sh).
• Knows how to install bug fixes.

Guru

• Uses m4 and lex with comfort.
• Writes assembly code with cat>.
• Uses adb on the kernel while system is loaded.
• Customizes utilities by patching the source.
• Reads device driver source with his breakfast.
• Can answer any unix question after a little thought.
• Uses make for anything that requires two or more distinct commands to achieve.
• Has learned how to breach security but no longer needs to try.

Wizard

• Fixes bugs by patching the binaries.
• Writes his own troff macro packages.
• Writes device drivers with cat>.
• Can answer any question before you ask.