Google asked me this in an interview.
Haha! The post was actually motivated by a common (interview) question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when. We thought it would make for a fun adaptation for the terminal world
What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
11–20 of 60 posts
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#12Google asked me this in an interview.
Haha! The post was actually motivated by a common (interview) question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when . We thought it would make for a fun adaptation for the terminal world
Would you pass this test if instead you answered what would happen if you open a terminal in a made-up operating system and you essentially designed the whole thing in your answer?
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha! The post was actually motivated by a common (interview) question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when . We thought it would make for a fun adaptation for the terminal world
Would you pass this test if instead you answered what would happen if you open a terminal in a made-up operating system and you essentially designed the whole thing in your answer?
I would prefer this answer, it shows an ability to create anew rather than memorize rote.
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#14Great article. It's amazing how much ancient tech still pulsates in our sleek new machines.
Thanks! Were there any topics in the blog that you think would benefit from more detail in a follow-up post?
Things you might want to add:
a) Escape sequence to set the "dynamic" terminal title
b) how e.g. GNOME notifies you that a long running command has completed
c) how e.g. GNOME asks if you are certain to close a terminal, but only in case you're not in a shell
d) maybe readline or /etc/inputrc
e) bash completions maybe? it's sort of in there already
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#15Nice to see a fun topic on the front page.
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha! The post was actually motivated by a common (interview) question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when . We thought it would make for a fun adaptation for the terminal world
Would you pass this test if instead you answered what would happen if you open a terminal in a made-up operating system and you essentially designed the whole thing in your answer?
I mean, points for creativity; it just depends on this made-up answer. If you're relying on transistors made up of unicorn farts and gumdrops, and the interviewer has no appreciation for whimsy, that's not gonna go over well. OTOH, if they do, that's bonus points. All I'm saying is that it's a gamble.
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#17One thing that is missing is the termcap/terminfo system. For funsies, you can try to run your session with TERM=dumb to get a retro experience :)
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha! The post was actually motivated by a common (interview) question: https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when . We thought it would make for a fun adaptation for the terminal world
Would you pass this test if instead you answered what would happen if you open a terminal in a made-up operating system and you essentially designed the whole thing in your answer?
I have asked this question in interviews before, with focus on low level OS aspects. It depends on whether your made-up OS includes the things we care about.
I usually ask the question in an open way, but guide the candidate to "fast forward" past the (for us) boring parts, and focus on the interesting parts we are looking for along the way.
If your OS covers the concepts we are looking for and the answers seem competent, sure, let's give it a try, but don't be surprised if we veer off of that. If the OS is too simple to cover everything (not unlikely for actually existing toy OS projects, I have one myself), we'd want to branch out to those concepts no matter whether you included them in your hypothetical OS or not. And if your made up OS is just too different, it might not apply either.
In other words, ask yourself why this is part of the interview, and that should answer your question: Because you are going to work on a particular OS with particular characteristics.
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#19Google asked me this in an interview.
I had the same for SRE @ Google - really simple question that probes the entire free-form depth of your systems understanding.
Re: What happens when you open a terminal and enter `ls’
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you pass this test if instead you answered what would happen if you open a terminal in a made-up operating system and you essentially designed the whole thing in your answer?
I would prefer this answer, it shows an ability to create anew rather than memorize rote.
I don't think rote memorization applies very much here. When I ask the question, we start out open, let the candidate drive, but ask lots of questions along the way, and at certain points get very detailed on aspects that we care about particularly (while skipping quickly over, for us, uninteresting ones).
If you "rote memorized" both the high level view and the raw details so well that you can freely think and talk about it during the interview, I'd say you'd have to have had some experience as well.