The collected works of DraconianTimes

I asked a question about a year or so back about making my own mirror of techpubs but was unsuccessful. In light of recent SGI developments, I'd like to create my own snapshots of all the current SGI & IRIX docs should they become unavailable in the future. I've got original IRIX CD media with various docs, but I'd really like to grab the newest document versions direct from SGI themselves and then burn them onto my own DVDs.

In my previous attempts I had tried using wget in various ways to grab the info, but this ended up giving me all sorts of issues with their CGI setup. Has anyone here got a sure-fire way of grabbing the docs (preferably PDFs) off of the SGI Techpubs site (in an automated fashion)?

Many thanks in advance!
Nick

I've tried the suggestions in the link but am having trouble getting it working.



It runs and dumps the html for each download's link page e.g.


Any ideas where I might be going wrong?

Thanks!
Nick

I changed /bin/bash to /bin/sh (ksh) here on OpenBSD and it seems to be working just fine. Am now downloading the needed 6.5 and Hardware docs to my local server.

Really great scripts - very much appreciated.

Many thanks again.

Nick

My real name is Nick and I am rapidly approaching thirty. My wife is called Nicola and on Sunday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary

I work as an information security consultant through my own company which I set up about 18 months ago after spending many years at the UK Ministry of Defence. Am currently contracted to a large US insurance firm working on UNIX hardening, SOX/HIPPA/FSA/DPA compliance, general incident response and risk assessment work.

I'm doing a part-time MSc in Information Security at the Royal Holloway and am due to graduate next year. After that I'd like to study Modern Arabic (recent holiday to Jordan made me fall in love with the language). My interests are archery, heavy metal, anime and I love old UNIX kit (esp SGI/SUN). I've been working with UNIX systems for about 12 years.

Nice to meet you all.

Nick

I did the CCNA last year, passed it and then had the good intentions of going on to study towards the CCSP (more my area of work), but have not found enough free time to study for it because I'm also doing a part-time MSc ( glutton for punishment here... ). What I do remember well from the exam is the need to know your calculations for working out the subnetting/no. of hosts etc etc - I clicked "Finish" with about 3 secs to spare, mostly owing to the fact that I panicked and fluffed up my calculations. Those who are more maths capable than me probably say "WTF, that stuff's easy" but I found it tough.

Good luck with your exam.

Nick

Congratulations on passing! One thing to remember is that for most tech jobs the expectation is that staff know a wide range of products (Good chances your network admin post will have you looking after some Juniper/Extreme/Foundry etc etc too). It isn't so much knowing every single undocumented feature or quirky wierdness out there, but knowing where to go to find that information. A manager doesn't need to know every single detail of the job function/team he is managing, but he does need to know which team members have the various skills to get stuff done, and you need to approach situations in the same fashion. Get to know the Cisco site layout, tech support areas, main independent support forums (start lurking and making note of answers to their FAQs) and how to go about searching for info. You'll find most CCIEs still having to look up references from time to time.

The Cisco books are very good, but as with anything nothing beats hands-on experience and time in the field. Start preparing now for the CCNP. Get the router sims, maybe even buy some cheap routers off eBay or from liquidation - setup a home network with various protocols, then maybe ask a mate to serial in and break something for you so you have to diagnose & fix. This is a great way of learning without having your salary on the line.

Good luck with the job hunt.

Nick

The CCDA/CCDP is more aimed at the sales and high-level architecture type people. If you want to get your hands dirty in techy network stuff, stick with the CCNP route. If you're interested in the security aspects & firewalls side, go for the CCSP. However, for the security route also be sure to get experience in Checkpoint's stuff too as many orgs use both.

Nick