The Dell Server Update Utility script on Linux is really helpful when it can’t run:
The Software Update Utility was unable to collect inventory on this system. [/mnt/suu/./bin/Linux/invcol] which: no lockfile in (/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin) invcol Error: Cannot find utilities on the system to execute Inventory Collector. Make sure the following utilities are in the path: tar gzip tail rm mkdir chmod ls basename wc lockfile stat exiting SUU application ...
This is exactly how errors should be: informative. Instead of quitting suddenly and quietly it’s nice that it tells you what utilities should be installed and in the path, and the “which” error tells you exactly what isn’t there. Excellent.
Nice.
‘Course, the only possible way that error could be made better is if, for example, it said, “Are you root?” or maybe, “Become root by using ‘su -‘, not by using ‘sudo -s’.”
But it’s pretty good as it is.
Just mentioning that because I often find myself explaining to Jr. admins that they can’t run something as root is because their environment isn’t root’s environment.