Generally speaking, Andrew tries his best to avoid the DBA team. It's not just because database administrators tend to be a unique breed (his colleagues were certainly no exception), but because of the "things" that he'd heard about the team. The sort of "things" that keep developers up at night and make them regret not becoming an accountant.

One day, while debugging an issue with their monitoring scripts, Andrew had no choice but to check with Thom, a member of Team DBA. It turned out that one of DBA's had recently updated their database backup script, but Thom wasn't really sure who did it, why it was done, or what it looked like before. So, he just sent Andrew the entire backup script.

Following is a single line of code, line-wrapped by yours truly, that should give a fair idea of what the script was like.

file=$WORKSPACE/ewprd1_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd2_$DATECODE.dm
p,$WORKSPACE/ewprd3_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd4_$DATECODE.dmp,$
WORKSPACE/ewprd5_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd6_$DATECODE.dmp,$WOR
KSPACE/ewprd7_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd8_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSP
ACE/ewprd9_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd10_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPAC
E/ewprd11_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd12_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE
/ewprd13_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd14_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/
ewprd15_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd16_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/e
wprd17_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd18_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ew
prd19_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd20_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewp
rd21_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd22_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewpr
d23_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd24_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd
25_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd26_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd2
7_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd28_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd29
_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd30_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd31_
$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd32_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd33_$
DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd34_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd35_$D
ATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd36_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd37_$DA
TECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd38_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd39_$DAT
ECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd40_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd41_$DATE
CODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd42_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd43_$DATEC
ODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd44_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd45_$DATECO
DE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd46_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd47_$DATECOD
E.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd48_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd49_$DATECODE
.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd50_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd51_$DATECODE.
dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd52_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd53_$DATECODE.d
mp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd54_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd55_$DATECODE.dm
p,$WORKSPACE/ewprd56_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd57_$DATECODE.dmp
,$WORKSPACE/ewprd58_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd59_$DATECODE.dmp,
$WORKSPACE/ewprd60_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd61_$DATECODE.dmp,$
WORKSPACE/ewprd62_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd63_$DATECODE.dmp,$W
ORKSPACE/ewprd64_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd65_$DATECODE.dmp,$WO
RKSPACE/ewprd66_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd67_$DATECODE.dmp,$WOR
KSPACE/ewprd68_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd69_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORK
SPACE/ewprd70_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd71_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKS
PACE/ewprd72_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd73_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSP
ACE/ewprd74_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd75_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPA
CE/ewprd76_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd77_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPAC
E/ewprd78_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd79_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE
/ewprd80_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd81_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/
ewprd82_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd83_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/e
wprd84_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd85_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ew
prd86_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd87_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewp
rd88_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd89_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewpr
d90_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd91_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd
92_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd93_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd9
4_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd95_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd96
_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd97_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd98_
$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd99_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd100_
$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd101_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd102
_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd103_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd10
4_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd105_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd1
06_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd107_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd
108_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd109_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewpr
d110_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd111_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewp
rd112_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd113_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ew
prd114_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/ewprd115_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/e
wprd116_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSAPCE/ewprd117_$DATECODE.dmp,$WORKSPACE/
ewprd118_$DATECODE.dmp

Andrew eventually found the problem, and offered a helpful tip to Thom for shortening up their script:

file="$WORKSPACE/ewprd1_$DATECODE.dmp";
for ((i=2;$i<119;i++)); do {
   FILE="$FILE,$WORKSPACE/ewprd$i_$DATECODE.dmp";
}; done

It accomplished the exact same thing in four little lines. Thom passed on the suggestion, however, perhaps because it would have increased the line count... or, most likely, to keep the developers out.

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