101-500 LPIC-1 Exam 101, Part 1 of 2, version 5.0 Questions and Answers

The correct command to locate programs and their corresponding man pages and configuration files is whereis. The whereis command searches for the binary, source, and manual files for a given command name in a list of standard Linux directories. It can also accept a list of directories to search in by using the -B, -M, or -S options. The whereis command is useful for finding the location and documentation of a program. The other commands are not suitable for this task. The dirname command strips the last component from a file name and returns the directory name. The which command shows the full path of a command that is in the $PATH variable. The basename command strips the directory and suffix from a file name and returns the base name. The query command is not a standard Linux command. References:

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.1 The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.2 Finding Your Way on a Linux System]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.4 Finding Files]

whereis command in Linux with Examples - GeeksforGeeks

Whereis Command in Linux | Linuxize

Linux whereis Command Explained for Beginners (5 Examples) - HowtoForge

whereis command | Linux# - Geek University

whereis command in Linux - LinuxForDevices

The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is a distribution neutral description of locations of files and directories. According to the first result, it is a reference describing the conventions used for the layout of Unix-like systems. It is maintained by the Linux Foundation and the latest version is 3.0

The df command is used to report the disk space usage of the filesystems on a Linux system. The -i option is used to display the inode usage of each mounted filesystem. An inode is a data structure that stores the metadata of a file or directory, such as its size, owner, permissions, etc. Each filesystem has a fixed number of inodes, which limits the number of files and directories that can be created on it. The df -i command shows the total number of inodes, the number of used and free inodes, and the percentage of inode usage for each filesystem. For example:

[tcarrigan@rhel ~]$ df -i Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/sda2 1310720 83167 1227553 7% / devtmpfs 249974 386 249588 1% /dev tmpfs 251374 1 251373 1% /dev/shm tmpfs 251374 570 250804 1% /run tmpfs 251374 16 251358 1% /sys/fs/cgroup /dev/sda1 524288 312 523976 1% /boot tmpfs 251374 1 251373 1% /run/user/1000

The other options are not valid commands or options. The du command is used to estimate the disk usage of files and directories, but it does not have an -i option. The lsfs and printfs commands do not exist on a standard Linux system. References:

Inodes and the Linux filesystem | Enable Sysadmin

filesystems - Find where inodes are being used - Unix & Linux Stack …

filesystems - How much space does an inode occupy? - Unix & Linux Stack …

The tr command is used to translate, squeeze, or delete characters from a file or a stream. The -d option is used to delete characters that appear in the first operand. The \r and \n are escape sequences that represent the carriage return and the line feed characters, respectively. The CR-LF pair is the standard line ending for Windows text files, while the LF character is the standard line ending for Linux text files. Therefore, the command tr –d ‘\r’ < userlist.txt > newlist.txt will delete all the CR characters from the userlist.txt file and redirect the output to the newlist.txt file, effectively converting the line endings from Windows to Linux format. The other commands are incorrect because they either use the wrong syntax, the wrong operands, or the wrong redirection. References:

LPI 101-500 Exam Objectives, Topic 103.7, Weight 4

LPI Learning Materials, Chapter 3.7, Basic Scripting

Web Search Results, 1

QUESTIONNO: 54

When in Normal mode invi, which character can be used to begin a reverse search of the text?

A.?

B./

C.F

D.r

Answer: A

 In vi, the ? character can be used to begin a reverse search of the text. This means that the search will start from the current cursor position and move backwards towards the beginning of the file. The search pattern can be any regular expression that matches the desired text. To repeat the search, the user can press n for the previous match or N for the next match. The / character can be used to begin a forward search of the text, which means that the search will start from the current cursor position and move forwards towards the end of the file. The F and r characters are not used for searching, but for other commands in vi. The F command is used to move the cursor to a previous occurrence of a specified character in the current line. The r command is used to replace the character under the cursor with another character. References:

LPI 101-500 Exam Objectives, Topic 103.8, Weight 4

LPI Learning Materials, Chapter 3.8, Advanced Scripting

Web Search Results, 

 The signal that is sent by the kill command by default is SIGTERM(15). The kill command sends a signal to a process to terminate it. The signal can be specified by name or number as an option to the kill command. If no signal is specified, the default signal is SIGTERM(15), which means terminate. The process can catch this signal and perform any necessary cleanup before exiting. The SIGHUP(1) signal means hang up and is usually sent when the terminal or network connection is disconnected. The SIGQUIT(3) signal means quit and is usually sent when the user presses Ctrl-\ on the keyboard. The SIGKILL(9) signal means kill and is used to force the process to terminate immediately, without any chance to catch the signal or perform any cleanup. References: LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Weight: 25, Objective 103.3: Perform basic file management, kill command, Signal List

Pressing the Ctrl-C combination on the keyboard while a command is executing in the foreground sends the SIGINT(2) signal code. The SIGINT(2) signal means interrupt and is usually sent when the user presses Ctrl-C on the keyboard. The signal causes the process to terminate, unless it is caught or ignored by the process. The SIGHUP(1) signal means hang up and is usually sent when the terminal or network connection is disconnected. The SIGQUIT(3) signal means quit and is usually sent when the user presses Ctrl-\ on the keyboard. The SIGKILL(9) signal means kill and is used to force the process to terminate immediately, without any chance to catch the signal or perform any cleanup. The SIGTERM(15) signal means terminate and is the default signal sent by the kill command. References: LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Weight: 25, Objective 103.3: Perform basic file management, Signal List

The command yum check-update prints a list of available package updates when using RPM-based package management. This command queries all enabled repositories and shows the packages that have updates available, along with the new version number. This command does not actually update any packages, but only lists them. To update the packages, the command yum update can be used. The other commands are either invalid or belong to a different package management system. dpkg is a low-level tool for Debian-based package management, and yum list shows all available packages in the repositories, not just the ones that have updates. References:

Linux Package Management with Yum, RPM, Apt, Dpkg, Aptitude and Zypper - Part 9

rpm - RPM package management tool | Linux Docs

RPM Command in Linux | Linuxize

The most likely reason for getting an error when creating a hard link to an ordinary file is that the source and the target are on different filesystems. A hard link is a directory entry that points to the same inode as the original file. An inode is a data structure that stores the metadata and location of a file on a filesystem. A hard link cannot span across different filesystems because each filesystem has its own inode table and numbering scheme. Therefore, a hard link can only refer to a file that exists on the same filesystem as the link. This is mentioned in the article by How-To Geek1 and the man page of ln2. The other options are not valid reasons for getting an error when creating a hard link. The source file being hidden, read-only, or a shell script does not affect the ability to create a hard link, as long as the user has the appropriate permissions. The source file being already a hard link also does not prevent creating another hard link to the same file, as long as the maximum number of links per inode is not exceeded. This is explained in the article by Linuxize3 and the man page of ln

The -a option to the tee command will cause the output to be appended to the end of the output file instead of overwriting the existing file contents. The tee command reads from standard input (STDIN) and writes to standard output (STDOUT) and one or more files simultaneously. For example, ls | tee file.txt will display the output of the ls command and also write it to file.txt. If file.txt already exists, it will be overwritten unless the -a option is used. References: LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Weight: 25, Objective 103.3: Perform basic file management, tee command

 Linux swap spaces are designated as type 82 on MBR (Master Boot Record) partition tables, which are used to store information about the partitions on a hard disk drive. This type code identifies the partition as a Linux swap area, which can be used by the Linux kernel to supplement the system RAM by holding idle memory pages. The mkswap command can be used to initialize a partition of type 82 as a swap partition. Other type codes are used for different purposes, such as 83 for Linux native partitions, 8e for Linux LVM partitions, fd for Linux RAID partitions, and 7 for NTFS partitions. References:

How to create swap partition in Linux

Choosing partition types for swap and root and choosing device for bootloader installation

Creating and Using a Swap Partition

Swap

The cut command is used to extract selected portions of each line of a file or a stream. The -f option is used to specify the fields to be extracted, separated by commas. The -d option is used to specify the delimiter that separates the fields. The default delimiter is the tab character. The cut command can only select output by field position, not by field content. The cut command can also work on non-ASCII text, such as UTF-8 encoded text. The cut command can use different input and output delimiters, but only if the output delimiter is specified by the --output-delimiter option. The cut command cannot reorder fields, meaning that the output fields will always appear in the same order as the input fields. To reorder fields, other commands such as awk or sed can be used. References:

LPI 101-500 Exam Objectives, Topic 103.7, Weight 4

LPI Learning Materials, Chapter 3.7, Basic Scripting

Web Search Results, 

The command that can be used to download the RPM package kernel without installing it is yumdownloader kernel. This command is part of the yum-utils package, which contains a suite of helper tools for yum package manager. To use this command, you need to install the yum-utils package first1. The downloaded package will be saved in the current directory. You need to use root privilege because yumdownloader will update package index files during downloading. Unlike yum command, yumdownloader will not download any dependent packages1.

The other commands are either invalid or do not have the desired functionality. yum download --no-install kernel is not a valid yum command, as yum does not have a --no-install option2. rpm --download --package kernel is not a valid rpm command, as rpm does not have a --download or a --package option3. rpmdownload kernel is not a standard Linux command. rpm has a native support to download a package from a URL and install it, but not to download a package without installing it4.

The correct commands to display all currently mounted filesystems are cat /proc/self/mounts and mount. The cat /proc/self/mounts command reads the contents of the /proc/self/mounts file, which is a symbolic link to /proc/mounts. This file contains information about all the filesystems that are currently mounted on the system, as reported by the kernel. The mount command without any arguments shows all the mounted filesystems, as recorded by the mount and umount commands. The other options are incorrect because they do not display the mounted filesystems. The free command shows the amount of free and used memory in the system. The lsmounts command is not a standard Linux command. The cat /proc/filesystems command shows the filesystem types that are supported by the kernel. References:

[LPI Linux Essentials - 2.2 Mounting, Unmounting Filesystems]

How to get the complete and exact list of mounted filesystems in Linux? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

4 Commands to List Mounted File Systems in Linux - Linux Shell Tips

How To Show Mounted Devices In Linux Operating System

How to Check if a Filesystem is Mounted in Linux?

 The RPM command that will output the name of the package which supplied the file /etc/exports is rpm -qf /etc/exports. This command will query the RPM database and find the package that owns or provides the file /etc/exports1. The output will show the package name, version, release, and architecture. For example:

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

rpm -F /etc/exports. This command will try to freshen or upgrade the package that contains the file /etc/exports, if it is already installed2. This command will not output the package name, but rather install the latest version of the package from a specified source. For example:

rpm -Kl /etc/exports. This command is not valid, as RPM does not have a -Kl option. The -K option is used to verify the signatures of the RPM package files, not the installed files3. The -l option is used to list the files in a package, not to query the package name. For example:

rpm -qp /etc/exports. This command will try to query the package information of the file /etc/exports, as if it was an RPM package file. This command will not output the package name, but rather an error message, as /etc/exports is not a valid RPM package file. For example:

rpm -qi /etc/exports. This command will try to query the information of the package /etc/exports, as if it was an installed package name. This command will not output the package name, but rather an error message, as /etc/exports is not a valid package name. For example:

 The apt-cache command is used to query the APT cache for information about packages. The depends option shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency. For example, apt-cache depends ubuntu-restricted-extras will show the dependencies of the ubuntu-restricted-extras package. The other options are not valid for the apt-cache command. References:

How to Check Dependencies of a Package in Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux Distributions

Check DEB package dependencies on Ubuntu / Debian

 The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is a tool that allows the creation and management of logical volumes on Linux systems. Logical volumes are partitions that can span multiple physical disks and can be resized or deleted without affecting the rest of the system. Some of the benefits of using LVM are:

To dynamically change the size of logical volumes. LVM allows the user to increase or decrease the size of a logical volume without having to repartition the disk or reboot the system. This can be useful for allocating more space to a volume that is running out of space, or freeing up space from a volume that is not needed anymore.

To create snapshots. LVM allows the user to create a snapshot of a logical volume, which is a copy of the volume at a certain point in time. Snapshots can be used for backup purposes, as they can be restored to the original volume if needed. Snapshots can also be used for testing purposes, as they can be mounted as read-only or read-write volumes without affecting the original volume.

To dynamically create or delete logical volumes. LVM allows the user to create or delete logical volumes on the fly, without having to repartition the disk or reboot the system. This can be useful for creating temporary volumes for specific purposes, or deleting volumes that are no longer needed.

LVM cannot be used for the following purposes:

To create RAID 9 arrays. RAID 9 is not a valid RAID level, and LVM does not support RAID functionality. RAID is a technique that uses multiple disks to provide redundancy, performance, or both. RAID can be implemented at the hardware level, by using a RAID controller, or at the software level, by using tools such as mdadm or dmraid. LVM can work on top of RAID devices, but it cannot create them.

To encrypt logical volumes. LVM does not provide encryption functionality. Encryption is a technique that protects data from unauthorized access by using a secret key to transform the data into an unreadable form. Encryption can be implemented at the disk level, by using tools such as dm-crypt or LUKS, or at the file system level, by using tools such as eCryptfs or EncFS. LVM can work on top of encrypted devices, but it cannot encrypt them.

 The command that updates the linker cache of shared libraries is ldconfig. This command creates, updates, and removes the necessary links and cache for the run-time linker, ld.so, to the most recent shared libraries found in the specified directories. To add a new library directory to the cache, you need to edit the /etc/ld.so.conf file and rerun ldconfig. You can use the -p option to print the current cache contents1.

The other commands are either invalid or unrelated to the linker cache. mkcache, soconfig, and mkldconfig are not standard Linux commands. lddconfig is a typo for ldd, which is a command that prints the shared libraries required by a program2.

 The dpkg-reconfigure command is used to reconfigure an already installed package. It asks configuration questions for the package, just as if the package were being installed for the first time. This can be useful if the user wants to change some settings or options for the package without reinstalling it. The dpkg-reconfigure command can also be used to fix a broken package configuration or to restore the default settings. References:

dpkg-reconfigure(8) - Linux man page

Linux Professional Institute: Exam 101 Objectives

The signal that is missing from the following command that is commonly used to instruct a daemon to reinitialize itself, including reading configuration files, is SIGHUP. The command should be:

kill -HUP pid

The option -HUP specifies the signal to be sent to the process, which is the hangup signal (SIGHUP). This signal is traditionally used to notify a process that the controlling terminal has been closed, but it is also commonly used to instruct a daemon to reinitialize itself, such as reloading its configuration files or reopening its log files. The argument pid is the process ID of the daemon to be reinitialized. For example, to reinitialize the nginx web server daemon with the PID 1234, the command would be:

kill -HUP 1234

This will cause the nginx daemon to reload its configuration files and gracefully restart its worker processes1. The other signals are not commonly used for this purpose, as they have different meanings and effects. For example, SIGTERM requests the process to terminate gracefully, SIGKILL forces the process to terminate immediately, SIGSTOP suspends the process, and SIGCONT resumes the process2. References:

Controlling nginx — nginx 1.21.3 documentation

Linux Signals - GeeksforGeeks

The /etc/apt/sources.list file is the main configuration file for the Advanced Package Tool (apt), which is used to manage Debian installation package files. This file contains a list of repositories, or sources, from which apt can download and install packages. Each repository is specified by a line that has the following format:

type uri suite [component1] [component2] […]

Where:

type is the access method, such as http, ftp, file, etc.

uri is the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the repository, such as http://deb.debian.org/debian

suite is the distribution code name or archive name, such as stable, testing, unstable, etc.

component is an optional section of the repository, such as main, contrib, non-free, etc.

For example, a typical sources.list file for Debian stable could look like this:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ stable/updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stable-updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian stable-updates main contrib non-free

The first two lines specify the main repository for Debian stable, with both binary (deb) and source (deb-src) packages. The next two lines specify the security updates repository for Debian stable, which contains important security fixes. The last two lines specify the stable-updates repository, which contains packages that have been updated after the release of Debian stable.

By editing the /etc/apt/sources.list file, one can select the network locations from which Debian installation package files are loaded. However, it is recommended to use a graphical or command-line tool, such as aptitude or synaptic, to manage the sources.list file, as they can handle the syntax and avoid errors.

After modifying GNU GRUB’s configuration file, which is usually located at /etc/default/grub, the command that must be run for the changes to take effect is grub-install12. The grub-install command is used to install GRUB on a device or partition, and to update the boot sector and the core image of GRUB3. The command takes the following basic syntax:

$ grub-install [options] install_device

The install_device argument specifies the device or partition where GRUB should be installed, such as /dev/sda or /dev/sda1. The options can be used to control various aspects of the installation, such as the target platform, the boot directory, the force mode, the verbosity level, etc3.

The grub-install command also invokes the grub-mkconfig command, which generates the GRUB configuration file (usually located at /boot/grub/grub.cfg) based on the settings in /etc/default/grub and the scripts in /etc/grub.d4. The grub-mkconfig command can also be run separately to update the GRUB configuration file without reinstalling GRUB on the device or partition4.

The other options in the question are not correct because:

A. kill -HUP $(pidof grub): This command would send the hangup signal (HUP) to the process ID (PID) of grub, which is a command-line interface for GRUB. This would not update the GRUB configuration file or install GRUB on the device or partition.

C. grub: This command would run the command-line interface for GRUB, which allows the user to interact with GRUB and execute various commands. This would not update the GRUB configuration file or install GRUB on the device or partition, unless the user explicitly runs the appropriate commands within the interface.

D. No action is required: This option is false, because modifying the /etc/default/grub file alone does not affect the GRUB configuration file or the GRUB installation. The user needs to run either grub-install or grub-mkconfig to apply the changes.

 The environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH is used to tell the dynamic linker to look in a specific directory for some of a program’s shared libraries. It is a colon-separated list of directories that are searched by the dynamic linker when looking for a shared library to load1. The directories are searched in the order they are mentioned in. For example, if we have a program that depends on a shared library libfoo.so that is located in /home/user/build/lib, we can run the program with:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/user/build/lib ./program

This will instruct the dynamic linker to search for libfoo.so in /home/user/build/lib before the default directories. The environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH can also be appended to an existing value with the += operator, for example:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH+=:/home/user/build/lib

This will add /home/user/build/lib to the end of the LD_LIBRARY_PATH list. The other options are not valid environment variables for the dynamic linker. LD_LOAD_PATH, LD_LIB_PATH, and LD_SHARE_PATH are not recognized by the dynamic linker. LD_RUN_PATH is a linker option that can be used to embed a library search path in the executable at link time, but it is not an environment variable that can be set or modified at run time2. References:

LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, section 1.101.3

ld-linux(8) — Linux manual page

Setting the dynamic linker with an environment variable - narkive

 The dpkg command is a tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages. The option --remove is used to remove an installed package, but it does not remove the configuration files that may have been modified by the user. The option --purge is used to remove an installed package and also delete its configuration files. This can be useful if the user wants to completely uninstall a package and start from scratch if it is reinstalled later. The syntax is: dpkg --remove package or dpkg --purge package. For example, dpkg --remove nginx will remove the nginx web server package, but it will leave the configuration files in /etc/nginxdpkg --purge nginx will remove the nginx package and also delete the configuration files in /etc/nginx1. The other options are not correct because:

–remove only removes the program, --purge only removes the config files: This is false, because --purge also removes the program, not just the config files.

–remove removes a package, --purge also removes all packages dependent on it: This is false, because --purge does not remove any other packages, only the specified one. To remove a package and its dependencies, the apt-get command can be used with the option --auto-remove2.

–remove removes only the package file itself, --purge removes all files related to the package: This is false, because --remove also removes the files that are installed by the package, not just the package file itself. --purge only removes the configuration files that are not removed by --remove. References:

dpkg(1) — dpkg — Debian buster — Debian Manpages

How to remove a package and its dependencies with dpkg? - Ask Ubuntu

 The main configuration file for GNU GRUB is grub.cfg, which is usually located in /boot/grub/ or /boot/grub2/ depending on the distribution. This file contains the menu entries for the boot loader, each with a title, a kernel image, an initrd image, and optional parameters. The grub.cfg file is not meant to be edited manually, as it is generated by the grub-mkconfig command, which reads the settings from /etc/default/grub and the scripts in /etc/grub.d/. The /etc/default/grub file contains the global options for GRUB, such as the default menu entry, the timeout, the theme, etc. The /etc/grub.d/ directory contains executable scripts that are run by grub-mkconfig to generate the menu entries for each operating system or kernel found on the system. For example, the script 10_linux generates the entries for the Linux kernels installed by the package manager, while the script 30_os-prober generates the entries for other operating systems detected on the system, such as Windows. To make changes to the GRUB configuration, one should edit the /etc/default/grub file and/or the scripts in /etc/grub.d/, and then run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg to update the grub.cfg file. References:

2, 102.2 Install a boot manager

4, 102.2 Install a boot manager

man grub-mkconfig

The dd command is used to copy data from one device or file to another, with optional parameters to specify the block size (bs), the number of blocks to copy (count), and other options. The bootloader is typically located in the first 440 bytes of the disk, which is the Master Boot Record (MBR) area. The MBR also contains the partition table, which starts at byte 446 and occupies 64 bytes. Therefore, to overwrite the bootloader without affecting the partition table or any data following it, the command should copy 440 bytes from /dev/zero (a special device that provides null bytes) to /dev/sda (the disk device) and stop after one block. This is achieved by the command: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=440 count=1 References:

LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, section 1.101.3

dd man page

Master Boot Record

 When using rpm --verify to check files created during the installation of RPM packages, the following information is taken into consideration:

Timestamps. RPM compares the modification time of the installed files with the original time stored in the RPM database. If the file has been modified after installation, the timestamp will differ and RPM will report it with an M flag1.

MD5 checksums. RPM calculates the MD5 checksum of the installed files and compares it with the original checksum stored in the RPM database. If the file has been altered in any way, the checksum will differ and RPM will report it with an 5 flag1.

File sizes. RPM compares the size of the installed files with the original size stored in the RPM database. If the file has been truncated or appended, the size will differ and RPM will report it with an S flag1.

RPM does not take into consideration the following information:

Inodes. RPM does not check the inode number of the installed files, as it is not a reliable indicator of file identity. The inode number can change if the file is moved, copied, or restored from a backup2.

GnuPG signatures. RPM does not verify the GnuPG signatures of the installed files, as they are not part of the RPM package format. The GnuPG signatures are used to verify the authenticity and integrity of the RPM package files before installation, not after3.

 When removing a package on a system using dpkg package management, the --purge option ensures that configuration files are removed as well. The --purge option is equivalent to the --remove option followed by the --purge-config-files option, which removes any configuration files that are marked as obsolete. The --remove option only removes the package files, but leaves the configuration files intact. The --clean option removes any .deb files from the local cache, but does not affect the installed packages. The --delete option is not a valid option for dpkg. References:

1, 102.4 Lesson 1

3, 101-500 Exam - Free Questions and Answers - ITExams.com

man dpkg

 The command that lists all currently installed packages when using RPM package management is rpm --query --all. This command displays information about all the packages that are currently installed on the system, including their name, version, release, and architecture1. The output can be customized by using various query options and format specifiers2.

The other commands are either invalid or related to YUM, not RPM. yum --query --all is not a valid YUM command, as YUM does not have a --query option3. yum --list --installed is a valid YUM command, but it lists the packages from the YUM repositories, not the RPM database3. rpm --list --installed is not a valid RPM command, as RPM does not have a --list option2.

The /tmp directory should be on a separate partition if possible because it is world writable. This means that any user can create, modify, or delete files and directories in /tmp. This can pose a risk of filling up the / partition, which can cause system instability or failure. By having /tmp on a separate partition, we can limit the amount of disk space that can be used by temporary files and prevent users from affecting the / partition. The /tmp directory is also a common target for malicious attacks, so having it on a separate partition can improve the security and isolation of the system. The /tmp directory is one of the few directories that are world writable by default, according to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)1. The other directories that are usually world writable are /var/tmp and /var/lock, which are also used for temporary or lock files. However, these directories are not as frequently used or as large as /tmp, so they are less likely to fill up the / partition. The /tmp directory also has the sticky bit set, which means that only the owner of a file or directory can delete or rename it2. This prevents users from deleting or modifying other users’ files in /tmp. However, this does not prevent users from creating new files or directories in /tmp, which can still consume disk space and resources. Therefore, it is advisable to have /tmp on a separate partition if possible. References:

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Sticky bit - Wikipedia

The correct answer when talking about mount points is that every existing directory can be used as a mount point. A mount point is a directory in the Linux file-system where a file system, partition, or storage device can be attached and accessed1. To create a mount point, you need root privileges. Mounting means making the contents of the attached file system, partition, or storage device available in the mount point directory1.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

Only empty directories can be used as a mount point. This is not true, as any directory can be used as a mount point, regardless of whether it contains files or not. However, if the directory is not empty, the files inside it will be hidden by the mounted file system until it is unmounted2. Therefore, it is recommended to use empty directories as mount points to avoid confusion and data loss2.

Directories need to have the SetUID flag set to be used as a mount point. This is not true, as the SetUID flag is a special permission that allows a file to be executed with the privileges of its owner, regardless of who runs it3. This flag has nothing to do with mounting file systems, and it is not required for a directory to be used as a mount point4.

Files within a directory are deleted when the directory is used as a mount point. This is not true, as the files within a directory are not deleted when the directory is used as a mount point. They are only hidden by the mounted file system until it is unmounted2. The files are still present on the disk and can be recovered by unmounting the file system or using another mount point to access them2.

The boot sequence of a PC using a BIOS is the process of loading and executing the operating system from the power-on state. The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is a firmware program that is stored in a ROM chip on the motherboard and provides the interface between the hardware and the software. The BIOS performs the following tasks during the boot sequence12:

It runs the power-on self-test (POST) to check the integrity and functionality of the hardware components and peripherals.

It reads the BIOS settings from the CMOS memory and applies them to the system configuration. Some parts of the boot process, such as the boot device order, can be configured from the BIOS by pressing a specific key (usually F2, F10, or Del) during the POST.

It locates and loads the boot loader program from the first sector of the boot device, which is usually the hard disk. The boot loader program can be GRUB, LILO, or Windows Boot Manager, depending on the operating system installed. The boot loader is responsible for loading the kernel and the initial ramdisk (initrd) into memory and passing control to them.

It transfers the execution to the boot loader and exits the boot sequence.

The other options are false or irrelevant. Linux does require the assistance of the BIOS to boot a computer, at least until the kernel takes over the hardware control. The BIOS boot process does not start only if secondary storage is functional, it can also boot from other devices such as USB drives, CD-ROMs, or network. The BIOS is not started by loading hardware drivers from secondary storage, it is stored in a ROM chip and runs before any secondary storage is accessed. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute2

The Linux Booting Process - 6 Steps Described in Detail - freeCodeCamp.org3

Guide to the Boot Process of a Linux System - Baeldung4

The command that installs all packages with a name ending with the string foo is zypper install “*foo”. The zypper command is the command line interface of the ZYpp package manager for SUSE Linux. The install (in) subcommand is used to install packages with specified capabilities or RPM files with specified location. The argument “*foo” is a glob pattern that matches any package name that ends with foo. For example, zypper install “foo" will install packages like barfoo, bazfoo, and foo itself. The other commands are either invalid or do not perform the desired task. The zypper get, zypper update, zypper force, and zypper add subcommands do not exist. The “foo?” and "foo” arguments are also invalid glob patterns, as they do not match the end of the package name. The “.*foo” argument is a valid glob pattern, but it matches any package name that contains foo, not just the ones that end with foo. References:

Zypper package manager - SUSE Documentation1

zypper(8) [suse man page] - The UNIX and Linux Forums2

45 Zypper Commands to Manage ‘Suse’ Linux Package Management - Tecmint

The command chmod g+s sales sets the setgid bit on the directory sales, which means that any new file or subdirectory created within sales will inherit the group ownership of the directory. The command chmod 2775 sales does the same thing, but also sets the permissions of the directory to rwxrwxr-x, which means that the owner, group, and others can read, write, and execute files in the directory. Both commands ensure that new files created within the directory sales are owned by the group sales. The other commands are either invalid or do not affect the group ownership of new files. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute

The command that searches for packages owning the file /etc/debian_version is dpkg –S /etc/debian_version. The dpkg command is the low-level tool for installing, removing, configuring, and querying Debian packages. The -S or --search option takes a file name or a pattern as an argument and searches for the packages that contain the matching files. The output shows the package name and the file name separated by a colon. For example, running dpkg -S /etc/debian_version will produce the output base-files:/etc/debian_version, indicating that the file /etc/debian_version belongs to the base-files package. The other commands are either invalid or do not perform the desired task. The apt-get command is used to download and install packages from the Debian repositories, but it does not have a search option. The apt command is a high-level tool for managing packages, but it does not have a -r option. The find command is used to search for files in the file system, but it does not have a -dpkg option. The apt-file command is used to search for files in the packages available in the Debian repositories, but it requires a subcommand such as search or show before the file name or pattern. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute2

dpkg(1) - Linux manual page3

apt-get(8) - Linux manual page

apt(8) - Linux manual page

find(1) - Linux manual page

apt-file(1) - Linux manual page

The apt-get subcommand that installs the newest versions of all currently installed packages is dist-upgrade. The dist-upgrade subcommand performs the same function as the upgrade subcommand, which is to install the latest versions of the packages that are already installed on the system, but it also intelligently handles the dependencies and removes the obsolete packages if necessary. The dist-upgrade subcommand is useful when upgrading the entire system to a new release or distribution12.

The other options are either invalid or do not perform the desired task. The auto-update subcommand does not exist, and the update subcommand only updates the list of available packages from the repositories, but does not install any packages. The full-upgrade subcommand is an alias for the dist-upgrade subcommand, so it performs the same function, but it is not the standard name for the subcommand. The install subcommand installs new packages or specific versions of packages, but it does not upgrade all the currently installed packages. References:

Linux Essentials - Linux Professional Institute Certification Programs1

Exam 101 Objectives - Linux Professional Institute2

APT-GET Command in Linux {Detailed Tutorial With Examples} - phoenixNAP3

How do I get help on apt-get’s install subcommand?

APT Cheat Sheet | Packagecloud Blog

 The find command can be used to search for files and directories that match certain criteria, such as ownership, permissions, size, type, name, etc. The syntax of the find command is:

find [options] [path...] [expression]

The options can modify the behavior of the find command, such as how to handle symbolic links, how to optimize the search, or how to enable debugging. The path argument specifies the starting point of the search, which can be one or more directories. The expression argument consists of one or more tests, actions, and operators that are applied to each file or directory that is found.

The -user test matches files or directories that are owned by a given user. The user can be specified by name or by numeric user ID (UID). The -print action prints the full file name of the matching file or directory on the standard output, followed by a newline. If no action is specified, -print is assumed by default.

Therefore, to list all files and directories within the /tmp/ directory and its subdirectories which are owned by the user root, we can use either of the following commands:

find /tmp -user root -print

find /tmp -user root

Both commands will search recursively from the /tmp/ directory and print the full file names of the files or directories that are owned by the user root. The -print action is optional in this case, since it is the default action.

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

find -path /tmp -uid root : The -path test matches files or directories whose full file name matches the given pattern. This command will not search recursively from the /tmp/ directory, but only match files or directories whose name is exactly /tmp. The -uid test is equivalent to the -user test, but it requires a numeric UID instead of a user name. This command will not match any files or directories, unless there is a file or directory named /tmp that is owned by the user with UID root (which is usually 0).

find -path /tmp -user root -print : This command has the same problem as the previous one. It will not search recursively from the /tmp/ directory, but only match files or directories whose name is exactly /tmp and are owned by the user root. This command will not match any files or directories, unless there is a file or directory named /tmp that is owned by the user root.

find /tmp -uid root -print : This command will search recursively from the /tmp/ directory, but it will use the -uid test instead of the -user test. The -uid test requires a numeric UID instead of a user name. This command will match files or directories that are owned by the user with UID root (which is usually 0), but it will not match files or directories that are owned by other users who have the same user name as root (such as root2 or root3).

 This option to the find command is useful if the filenames contain spaces when redirecting the output of find to the xargs command. The syntax of the option is:

find [where to start searching from] [expression determines what to find] -print0

The -print0 option tells the find command to print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a null character (ASCII code 0) instead of the newline character. This allows file names that contain spaces or other special characters to be correctly interpreted by the xargs command, which can use the -0 option to read items from the standard input that are terminated by a null character. The syntax of the xargs command with the -0 option is:

xargs -0 [command]

The -0 option tells the xargs command to expect the items from the standard input to be separated by a null character, and to execute the command using the items as arguments.

Therefore, the command find … -print0 | xargs -0 … will search for files and directories using the find command, print the results with a null character as the separator, pipe the output to the xargs command, which will read the items with a null character as the separator, and execute another command using the items as arguments. This will avoid any problems with filenames that contain spaces or other special characters.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

A, -rep-space: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to replace spaces in the filenames with another character in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.

B, -printnul: This option does not exist in the find command. There is a similar option, -print0, which prints the filenames with a null character as the separator, but -printnul is not a valid option. The command will report an error and exit.

C, -nospace: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to ignore spaces in the filenames in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.

D, -ignore-space: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to ignore spaces in the filenames in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.

The mount --bind command is used to create a bind mount, which is an alternate view of a directory tree. A bind mount takes an existing directory tree and replicates it under a different point. The directories and files in the bind mount are the same as the original. Any modification on one side is immediately reflected on the other side, since the two views show the same data. For example, after issuing the command:

mount --bind /some/where /else/where

the directories /some/where and /else/where have the same content, which is the content of /some/where. A bind mount can be useful for accessing hidden files, creating chroot environments, or changing the permissions or ownership of files.

The other options are not correct because:

B. It mounts all available filesystems to the current directory: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a single directory tree. To mount all available filesystems to the current directory, one would need to use the mount -a command with the -t option and specify the current directory as the target.

C. It mounts all user mountable filesystems to the user’s home directory: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a single directory tree. To mount all user mountable filesystems to the user’s home directory, one would need to use the mount -a command with the -t option and specify the user’s home directory as the target. However, this is not a common or recommended practice, as it may cause conflicts or errors with the existing files and directories in the user’s home directory.

D. It mounts all file systems listed in /etc/fstab which have the option userbind set: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a single directory tree. To mount all file systems listed in /etc/fstab which have the option userbind set, one would need to use the mount -a command with the -O option and specify userbind as the option. However, this is not a standard or supported option for the mount command or the /etc/fstab file, and it may not work as expected.

E. It permanently mounts a regular file to a directory: This is not what the mount --bind command does. The mount --bind command only creates a bind mount for a directory tree, not a regular file. To mount a regular file to a directory, one would need to use the mount command with the -o loop option and specify the file and the directory as the source and the target. However, this is only possible for files that contain a valid filesystem image, such as an ISO file or a disk image. A bind mount is not permanent, and it can be unmounted with the umount command.

The GRUB boot process consists of three stages1:

Stage 1: This stage is located in the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the first hard disk or the boot sector of a partition. Its main function is to load either Stage 1.5 or Stage 22.

Stage 1.5: This stage is located in the first 30 KB of hard disk immediately following the MBR or in the boot sector of a partition. It contains the code to access the file system that contains the GRUB configuration file. Its main function is to load Stage 22.

Stage 2: This stage is located in an ordinary file system, usually in the /boot/grub directory. It contains the code to display the GRUB menu and to load the kernel and initrd images. It can also load additional modules to support other file systems or features2.

The message “Hard Disk Error” is displayed on the screen during Stage 1 of the GRUB boot process. This indicates that the next Stage (either Stage 1.5 or Stage 2) cannot be read from the hard disk because GRUB was unable to determine the size and geometry of the disk3. This could occur because the BIOS translated geometry has been changed by the user or the disk is moved to another machine or controller after installation, or GRUB was not installed using itself (if it was, the Stage 2 version of this error would have been seen during that process and it would not have completed the install)3.

The other options in the question are not correct because:

A. The kernel was unable to execute /bin/init: This error would occur in Stage 2, after the kernel and initrd images are loaded, not in Stage 14.

C. One or more of the filesystems on the hard disk has errors and a filesystem check should be run: This error would also occur in Stage 2, when GRUB tries to access the file system that contains the GRUB configuration file, not in Stage 15.

D. The BIOS was unable to read the necessary data from the Master Boot Record to begin the boot process: This error would prevent GRUB from starting at all, not in Stage 16.

The shutdown command is used to bring the system down in a safe and controlled way. It can take various options and arguments, such as the time of shutdown, the message to broadcast to users, the halt or reboot mode, etc. The option -r instructs the shutdown command to reboot the system after shutting down. The argument now means to shut down immediately. Therefore, shutdown -r now will reboot the system without delay. The telinit command is used to change the run level of the system. It takes a single argument that specifies the new run level. The run level 6 is reserved for rebooting the system. Therefore, telinit 6 will also reboot the system. The other options are either incorrect or irrelevant. shutdown -r “rebooting” will also reboot the system, but with a delay of one minute and a message to the users. telinit 0 will halt the system, not reboot it. shutdown -k now “rebooting” will only send a warning message to the users, but not actually shut down or reboot the system. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.2, LPI Linux Administrator - 101.3

The quiet kernel parameter instructs the kernel to suppress most boot messages, except for critical errors12. The quiet parameter can be added to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable in the /etc/default/grub file and then run sudo update-grub to apply the changes3. The quiet parameter can also be used in combination with other parameters, such as splash, to enable a graphical boot screen4.

The other options in the question are not valid or do not have the same functionality as the quiet parameter:

silent: There is no such kernel parameter in Linux.

verbose=0: This parameter is used to set the verbosity level of the kernel messages, but it does not suppress them completely. The valid values for this parameter are from 0 (quiet) to 7 (debug)5.

nomesg: This parameter is used to disable all kernel messages on the console, including the emergency ones. This parameter is not recommended for normal use, as it can hide critical errors and prevent troubleshooting.

The bootloader is a program that is executed by the BIOS after it completes its tasks of initializing the hardware and performing the POST (Power-On Self Test). The bootloader is responsible for loading the kernel and other necessary files into memory and passing control to the kernel. The bootloader can be either installed in the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the disk or in a separate partition. Some examples of bootloaders are GRUB, LILO, and SYSLINUX. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.1, LPI Linux Administrator - 102.1

The /etc/inittab file is used by the SysV init system to configure the behavior of different runlevels and the actions to be taken when certain events occur. One of the events that can be configured is the ctrl-alt-delete key combination, which by default triggers a system reboot. To disable this feature, the /etc/inittab file should be modified to comment out or remove the line that starts with ca::ctrlaltdel:. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.2, LPI Linux Administrator - 101.1

The file that you should check within the /proc tree to learn which IRQs are being used by which kernel drivers is /proc/interrupts1 Comprehensive Explanation: The /proc/interrupts file is a virtual file that provides information about the number and type of interrupts per CPU per I/O device12. It displays the IRQ number, the number of that interrupt handled by each CPU core, the interrupt type, and a comma-delimited list of drivers that are registered to receive that interrupt12. For example, the following output shows the contents of /proc/interrupts on a system with two CPUs and several devices:

The first column shows the IRQ number, followed by one column for each CPU core showing the number of interrupts handled by that core. The last column shows the interrupt type and the driver name. Some interrupt types are:

IO-APIC-edge: An edge-triggered interrupt from the I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC), which is a hardware device that handles and distributes interrupts.

IO-APIC-fasteoi: A fast end-of-interrupt from the I/O APIC, which means that the interrupt is acknowledged early to allow nesting interrupts.

PCI-MSI-edge: A Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI) from the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which is a hardware bus that connects devices to the system. MSI is a method of sending interrupts using special messages instead of dedicated lines.

NMI: A Non-Maskable Interrupt, which is a hardware interrupt that cannot be ignored by the CPU and usually indicates a critical error.

LOC: A Local timer interrupt, which is a periodic interrupt generated by a local APIC on each CPU core for scheduling purposes.

RES: A Rescheduling interrupt, which is a type of inter-processor interrupt (IPI) that is sent to a CPU core to force it to reschedule its current task.

To check if a new ethernet card might be conflicting with another device, you can look for the driver name of the ethernet card in the /proc/interrupts file and see if it shares the same IRQ number with another device. If so, you can try to change the IRQ assignment of the devices or use the smp_affinity file to control which CPU cores can handle the interrupt12.

The file in the /proc filesystem that lists the parameters passed from the bootloader to the kernel is /proc/cmdline. This file contains a single line of text that shows the command line arguments that were used to boot the kernel. These arguments can include various options, such as the root device, the init process, the console device, and more. The /proc/cmdline file is read-only and cannot be modified at runtime. The parameters in this file are determined by the bootloader configuration, such as GRUB or LILO, and can be changed by editing the corresponding files12.

The lspci command can display information about the system hardware, such as:

Device IRQ settings1: The lspci command can show the interrupt request (IRQ) number assigned to each device by using the -v option. The IRQ number indicates how the device communicates with the CPU.

PCI bus speed2: The lspci command can show the speed of the PCI bus by using the -vv option. The speed is expressed in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz) and indicates how fast the data can be transferred between the device and the bus.

Device vendor identification3: The lspci command can show the name and identification number of the device vendor by using the -n or -nn option. The vendor identification helps to identify the manufacturer and model of the device.

systemd, Upstart, and SysV init are all init systems used within Linux systems. An init system is the first process executed by the kernel at boot time, which has a process ID (PID) of 1, and is responsible for starting and managing all other processes on the system. Different init systems have different features, advantages, and disadvantages. Some of the most common init systems are:

systemd: A relatively new and modern init system that aims to provide a unified and efficient way of managing system and service states. It is compatible with SysV and LSB init scripts, and supports features such as parallel processing, socket activation, logging, job scheduling, and more. It is the default init system for many popular Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and others12.

Upstart: An event-based init system developed by Ubuntu as a replacement for SysV init. It starts and stops system tasks and processes based on events, such as hardware changes, network availability, filesystem mounting, etc. It is a hybrid init system that uses both SysV and systemd scripts, and supports features such as parallel processing, dependency tracking, logging, and more. It is the default init system for some older versions of Ubuntu, and some other Linux distributions, such as Linux Mint and Chrome OS12.

SysV init: A mature and traditional init system that follows the System V (SysV) design of Unix operating systems. It uses a series of runlevels to define the state of the system, and executes scripts in the /etc/rc.d or /etc/init.d directories according to the current runlevel. It is simple and stable, but lacks some features of modern init systems, such as parallel processing, event handling, dependency tracking, etc. It is still used by some Linux distributions, such as Slackware, Gentoo, and others12.

The first program that is usually started, at boot time, by the Linux kernel when using SysV init is /sbin/init. This program is responsible for reading the /etc/inittab file and executing the appropriate scripts and programs for each runlevel. The other options are not valid programs that are started by the kernel. /lib/init.so is a shared library that is used by some init programs, but not by SysV init. /etc/rc.d/rcinit is a script that is run by init, not by the kernel. /proc/sys/kernel/init is a kernel parameter that can be used to specify a different init program, but the default value is /sbin/init. /boot/init is not a standard location for an init program, and it is unlikely that the kernel would find it there. References:

1: SysVinit - ArchWiki

2: Linux: How to write a System V init script to start, stop, and restart my own application or service - nixCraft

3: sysvinit - Gentoo wiki

 The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is a firmware that is stored in a ROM chip on the motherboard and is responsible for initializing the hardware and loading the bootloader. The BIOS has a setup utility that allows the user to configure various settings, such as the boot device order, the hardware configuration, the system date and time, the security options, etc. The BIOS does not store information about the Linux kernel version, the time zone, or the system’s hostname, as these are part of the operating system and are not relevant for the BIOS. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.1, LPI Linux Administrator - 102.1

 Run levels are predefined modes of operation in the SysV init system that determine which processes and services are started or stopped. The default run level is the one that the system enters after booting. It is usually specified in the /etc/inittab file with a line like id:5:initdefault:. The run levels 0 and 6 should never be declared as the default run level because they are used to halt and reboot the system, respectively. If they are set as the default, the system will enter an endless loop of shutting down and restarting. The other run levels (1-5) have different meanings depending on the distribution, but they usually correspond to single-user mode, multi-user mode, network mode, graphical mode, etc. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.2, LPI Linux Administrator - 101.3

The usual way to pass this change to the kernel from the boot loader is to pass init=/bin/sh on the kernel parameter line12. The init kernel parameter is used to specify the program that is run as the first process after the kernel is loaded3. By default, this program is /sbin/init, which is responsible for starting and managing other processes and services4. However, by passing init=/bin/sh, the kernel will run /bin/sh instead, which is a shell program that allows the user to execute commands interactively or from a script5. This way, the user can bypass the usual initialization process and run /bin/sh as the root user, which can be useful for troubleshooting or recovery purposes12.

The other options in the question are not correct because:

A. Start in runlevel 1: This option would not bypass the /sbin/init program, but rather instruct it to start the system in single-user mode, which is a mode that allows only the root user to log in, and disables all network services and graphical interfaces. To start in runlevel 1, the user would need to pass single or 1 on the kernel parameter line, not init=/bin/sh.

C. Pass /bin/sh on the kernel parameter line: This option would not work, because the kernel would not recognize /bin/sh as a valid parameter and would ignore it. The kernel only accepts parameters that have a specific format, such as name=value or name.flag3. To specify the init program, the user would need to use the init= prefix, as in init=/bin/sh3.

D. Pass start=/bin/sh on the kernel parameter line: This option would also not work, because the kernel does not have a start parameter. The user would need to use the init parameter, as in init=/bin/sh3.

The p command in vi inserts the content of the buffer below the current line. The buffer is where the deleted or yanked text is stored temporarily. The P command inserts the buffer above the current line. The i command enters the insert mode before the cursor position. The U command restores the current line to its original state. The u command undoes the last change made to the file. References:

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.3 Basic Editing]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.4 I/O Redirection]

[LPI Linux Essentials - 1.5 Manage Simple Partitions and Filesystems]

The USB device filesystem can be found under /proc/bus/usb/1. This is a virtual filesystem that provides information about the USB devices and buses connected to the system12. It contains files and directories that correspond to the USB host controllers, hubs, and devices12. For example, the following output shows the contents of /proc/bus/usb/ on a system with one USB host controller and two USB devices:

The directories 001 and 002 represent the USB buses, and each contain files that represent the USB devices on that bus. The file devices contains a summary of all the USB devices and their configurations. The file drivers contains a list of the USB drivers and the devices they are bound to12.

The /proc/bus/usb/ filesystem is deprecated and should not be used anymore3. It has been replaced by the /sys/bus/usb/ filesystem, which is a sysfs mount that provides more detailed and structured information about the USB devices and buses3 .

The program that is run after the BIOS completes its tasks is the bootloader12. The bootloader is a small program that loads the operating system into memory and executes it. The bootloader can be located in the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the first hard disk or the boot sector of a partition for BIOS systems, or in an .efi file on the EFI System Partition for UEFI systems12. The bootloader can also display a menu to allow the user to choose from different operating systems or kernel versions to boot12.

The other options in the question are not correct because:

B. The inetd program: This is a program that listens for incoming network connections and launches the appropriate service for them. It is not involved in the boot process3.

C. The init program: This is a program that is executed by the kernel as the first user-space process. It is responsible for starting and managing other processes and services. It is not run by the BIOS.

D. The kernel: This is the core of the operating system that controls everything in the system. It is loaded and executed by the bootloader, not by the BIOS.

 udev is a device manager that dynamically creates and removes device nodes in the /dev/ directory. It also handles device events, such as adding, removing, or changing the attributes of devices. udev uses rules to match devices and assign properties, permissions, names, symlinks, and other actions. The rules are stored in files under /lib/udev/rules.d/ and /etc/udev/rules.d/. The latter directory can be used to create additional or override existing rules. The /dev/ directory is not a regular directory on the root filesystem, but a virtual filesystem of type tmpfs that is mounted by udev during system startup. tmpfs is a filesystem that resides in memory and can grow and shrink dynamically. The content of /dev/ is not stored in /etc/udev/dev, but is created by udev based on the rules and the available devices. udev does not prevent the creation of block or character devices in /dev/ using mknod, but it may overwrite or remove them if they conflict with the rules or the device events. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.2, LPI Linux Administrator - 102.4

 The command dmesg will display messages from the kernel that were output during the normal boot sequence. The dmesg command reads the kernel ring buffer, which is a data structure that stores the most recent messages generated by the kernel. The dmesg command can also be used to display messages from the kernel that were output after the boot sequence, such as hardware events, driver messages, or system errors. The dmesg command has various options to filter, format, or save the output. For example, dmesg -T will display human-readable timestamps for each message, and dmesg -w will display the messages in real time as they occur. References:

1: How to view all boot messages in Linux after booting? - Super User

2: dmesg(1) - Linux manual page

3: Kernel ring buffer - Wikipedia

The << character is used to create a here document, which is a special type of redirection that reads input from the current source until a line containing only the delimiter (with no trailing blanks) is seen. The delimiter is specified after the << operator, and can be any string. For example, the following command will print everything between the << EOF and EOF lines:

cat << EOF This is a here document It can span multiple lines EOF

The output is:

This is a here document It can span multiple lines

The < character is used for normal input redirection, which reads data from a file or another command. The <| and !< characters are not valid redirection operators in Linux. The &< character is used to duplicate input file descriptors, which is an advanced topic not covered by the Linux Essentials exam. References:

[LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives], Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Objective 103.4: Use streams, pipes and redirects, Weight: 4, Key Knowledge Areas: Redirecting standard input, standard output and standard error.

[LPI Linux Essentials Certification All-in-One Exam Guide], Chapter 5: Working with Files, Page 167, Using Here Documents.

QUESTIONNO: 16

Which of the following commands will NOT update the modify timestamp on the file /tmp/myfile.txt?

A. file /tmp/myfile.txt

B. echo "Hello" >/tmp/myfile.txt

C. sed -ie "s/1/2/" /tmp/myfile.txt

D. echo -n "Hello" >>/tmp/myfile.txt

E. touch/tmp/myfile.txt

Answer: A

The file command will not update the modify timestamp on the file /tmp/myfile.txt because it only reads the file content and determines its type. It does not write or change anything in the file.

The other commands will update the modify timestamp on the file /tmp/myfile.txt because they either overwrite the file content (B and C), append to the file content (D), or explicitly change the file timestamp (E).

 The jobs command displays a list of all background tasks running in the current shell. A background task is a process that is started with the & operator or suspended with Ctrl+Z and resumed with the bg command. The jobs command shows the job number, the status, and the command name of each background task. For example, the following output shows two background tasks: one is running (sleep 10) and one is stopped (ping www.howtogeek.com).

1- Running sleep 10 & 2+ Stopped ping www.howtogeek.com

The cut command is used to extract sections from each line of a file or input stream. The -d option specifies the delimiter that separates the fields in each line. The -f option specifies the fields to select. In this case, the delimiter is a colon (:) and the fields are 1 and 7. The first field is the user name and the seventh field is the login shell. Therefore, the cut command with these options will generate a list of user names and their login shells from /etc/passwd. References:

Linux cut Command Explained with 6 Examples

How to Use the Linux cut Command

cut command in Linux with examples

The bg command is used to move and resume in the background the last stopped shell job. A stopped job is a process that has been suspended by using Ctrl+Z or the kill -STOP command. The bg command will resume the execution of the stopped job and allow it to run in the background, without blocking the current shell. The bg command can also take a job number as an argument, which can be obtained by using the jobs command. For example, if the last stopped job is 1+ Stopped sleep 500, then the following command will move and resume it in the background:

bg %1

The output will be:

1+ sleep 500 &

The fg command is used to move and resume in the foreground the last stopped or backgrounded job. The run and back commands are not valid commands in Linux. References:

[LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives], Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Objective 103.5: Create, monitor and kill processes, Weight: 4, Key Knowledge Areas: Use of jobs, fg and bg commands.

Linux Commands: jobs, bg, and fg, Topic: The bg Command.

The command dd can be used to create a USB storage media from a disk image. The command dd is a low-level utility that can copy and convert data from one source to another, such as files, devices, or pipes. It can be used to create a bootable USB drive from an ISO image or a raw disk image. The syntax is: dd if=input of=output [options]. For example, to create a USB storage media from a disk image file named linux.img, the command would be:

dd if=linux.img of=/dev/sdb

This will copy the contents of linux.img to the device /dev/sdb, which is assumed to be the USB drive. The device name may vary depending on the system, so it is important to check the correct device name before running the command. The command dd can also accept various options, such as bs to specify the block size, status to show the progress, or conv to apply conversions to the data. For example, to create a USB storage media from an ISO image file named linux.iso, with a block size of 4 MB and a progress indicator, the command would be:

dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress

The command dd is also known as "disk destroyer" because it can overwrite data without warning or confirmation. Therefore, it is advisable to use it with caution and backup any important data before using it. The other options are not correct because:

gdisk is a command to create and manipulate GUID partition tables (GPT), but it does not create a USB storage media from a disk image1.

cc is a command to compile C programs, but it does not create a USB storage media from a disk image2.

fdisk is a command to create and manipulate DOS partition tables, but it does not create a USB storage media from a disk image3.

mount is a command to mount file systems, but it does not create a USB storage media from a disk image4. References:

How to Create a Bootable Linux USB Flash Drive, the Easy Way

dd(1) — Linux manual page

How to use the dd command in Linux - TechRepublic

LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, section 1.101.3

The ? symbol within regular expressions represents an optional match of the preceding qualifier. A qualifier is a character or a group of characters that can be repeated a certain number of times, such as , +, ?, {n}, {n,}, or {n,m}. The ? symbol means that the qualifier can occur zero or one times, but not more. For example, the regular expression colou?r matches both “color” and “colour”, but not “colouur” or “colr”. The ? symbol can also be used to make other qualifiers lazy, meaning that they will match the smallest possible number of characters, instead of the largest (greedy). For example, the regular expression a.?b matches the shortest string that starts with “a” and ends with “b”, such as “ab” or “a-b”, but not “a-b-c”. References:

[LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives], Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Objective 103.7: Perform basic file management, Weight: 4, Key Knowledge Areas: Use of egrep to search for extended regular expressions in text output.

[Regular expression syntax cheat sheet], Topic: Quantifiers.

∗∗Thegrepcommandthatwillprintonlythelinesthatdonotendwitha/inthefilefooisgrep−v′/’ foo. This command uses the following options and pattern:

-v: Inverts the matching, meaning that it only outputs the lines that do not match the pattern. /:Matchesa/characterattheendofaline.The symbol represents the end of a line in regular expressions. foo: The name of the file to search.

The output of this command will show all the lines in the file foo that do not have a / as the last character. For example, if the file foo contains the following lines:

/home/user/ /var/log/messages /etc/passwd /usr/bin/

The output of the command will be:

/var/log/messages /etc/passwd

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

grep ‘/$’ foo: This command will print only the lines that do end with a / in the file foo, which is the opposite of what is required.

grep ‘/#’ foo: This command will print only the lines that contain the string /# in the file foo, which is not related to the question.

grep -v ‘/#’ foo: This command will print only the lines that do not contain the string /# in the file foo, which is also not related to the question.

The command that will reduce all consecutive spaces down to a single space is tr -s ’ ’ < a.txt > b.txt. This command uses the following options and syntax:

-s: Squeezes repeated characters listed in the first set with single occurrence.

’ ': Specifies a space character as the first set.

< a.txt: Redirects the input from a file named a.txt.

b.txt: Redirects the output to a file named b.txt.

The output of this command will be a new file called b.txt that contains the same text as a.txt, except that any sequence of multiple spaces will be replaced by a single space. For example, if the file a.txt contains the following text:

This is a text file with multiple spaces.

The file b.txt will contain the following text:

This is a text file with multiple spaces.

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

A. tr ‘\s’ ’ ’ < a.txt > b.txt: This command will replace every whitespace character (\s) with a space character, which will not reduce the number of spaces, but rather convert tabs and newlines into spaces.

B. tr -c ’ ’ < a.txt > b.txt: This command will complement the first set, meaning that it will apply the operation to all characters that are not spaces. This will not affect the spaces at all, but rather squeeze all other characters.

C. tr -d ’ ’ < a.txt > b.txt: This command will delete all spaces from the input, which will not reduce them to a single space, but rather remove them completely.

D. tr -r ’ ’ ‘\n’ < a.txt > b.txt: This command will replace all spaces with newlines, which will not reduce the spaces, but rather create a new line for each word.

In the vi editor, one of the ways to issue commands multiple times or apply them to multiple rows is to specify the number right in front of a command. This will repeat the command as many times as the number indicates. For example, the command 4l will move the cursor four characters to the right, and the command 2yj will copy two lines from the current line to the buffer. This method can be used for most of the vi commands that operate on single characters, words, lines, or blocks of text. Another way to issue commands multiple times or apply them to multiple rows is to use the . (dot) command, which repeats the last command. For example, after deleting a line with dd, pressing . will delete another line. However, this method is less precise and efficient than specifying the number before the command. References:

Basic vi commands (cheat sheet), Topic: Moving within a File (Navigation).

Vi Editor with Commands in Linux/Unix Tutorial, Topic: VI Editing commands.

The file /proc/mounts contains a list of all currently mounted devices in the system. It is a pseudo-file that is dynamically generated by the kernel and reflects the actual state of the mount table. It has a similar format to /etc/fstab, but shows the actual mount options and file system types used by the kernel. The file /proc/mounts can be read by any user, but only the root user can modify it. The file /proc/mounts is also known as /proc/self/mounts, which is a symbolic link to the mounts file for the current process. References:

Understanding the /proc/mounts, /etc/mtab and /proc/partitions files

How to get the complete and exact list of mounted filesystems in Linux?

The /proc Filesystem

 When a hard link pointing to a file is created, the link count of the file is increased by one. The link count is the number of hard links that refer to the same inode. The file size, modify timestamp, inode number and permissions are not affected by creating a hard link. References:

LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, Weight: 9, Objective 104.5: Create and change hard and symbolic links

LPI Linux Essentials Study Guide, Chapter 4: The Linux Filesystem, Section 4.3: Hard and Symbolic Links, Page 81

SysVinit is a program for Linux and Unix-based systems that initializes the system and spawns all other processes. It runs as a daemon and has PID 1. The boot loader starts the kernel and the kernel starts SysVinit. A Linux or Unix based system can be started up into various runlevels, which are modes of operation that define what services and processes are running. The /etc/inittab file is the configuration file for SysVinit, which defines the default runlevel, the available runlevels, and the actions to be taken when entering or leaving a runlevel.

The telinit command is used to change the current runlevel of the system or to send a signal to SysVinit. The telinit command takes a single argument, which can be either a runlevel number (0-6) or a special character. The syntax of the telinit command is:

telinit [runlevel|character]

The runlevel argument instructs SysVinit to switch to the specified runlevel. For example, to switch to runlevel 3, which is the multi-user mode with networking, use the following command:

telinit 3

The character argument instructs SysVinit to perform a special action. For example, to reboot the system, use the following command:

telinit 6

The q character argument instructs SysVinit to reload its configuration file, /etc/inittab, without changing the current runlevel. This is useful when the /etc/inittab file has been modified and the changes need to be applied. For example, to reload the /etc/inittab file, use the following command:

telinit q

The other options are not correct because:

A. reinit: This command does not exist in the Linux system. There is no such command as reinit in the Linux documentation or the man pages.

B. initreload: This command does not exist in the Linux system. There is no such command as initreload in the Linux documentation or the man pages.

C. telinit 7: This command is not valid because 7 is not a valid runlevel number. The valid runlevel numbers are 0-6, where 0 means halt, 1 means single-user mode, 2 means multi-user mode without networking, 3 means multi-user mode with networking, 4 means user-defined, 5 means graphical mode, and 6 means reboot. If you run this command, you will get an error message saying:

telinit: invalid runlevel: 7

E. init reinit: This command is not valid because reinit is not a valid argument for the init command. The init command is a synonym for the telinit command, and it takes the same arguments as the telinit command. The valid arguments for the init command are either a runlevel number (0-6) or a special character. If you run this command, you will get an error message saying:

init: invalid runlevel: reinit

The sed command is used to perform various text processing tasks on a file or a stream. The s command is used to substitute a pattern with a replacement. The g flag is used to replace all occurrences of the pattern in a line. The / character is used to separate the pattern, the replacement, and the flags. Therefore, the command sed‘s/bob/Bob/g’ data will change all occurrences of the word “bob” in file data to “Bob” and print the result to standard output. The other commands are incorrect because they either use the wrong syntax or do not replace all occurrences of the word “bob”. References:

LPI 101-500 Exam Objectives, Topic 103.7, Weight 4

LPI Learning Materials, Chapter 3.7, Basic Scripting

Web Search Results, 1

The i and a commands are two of the most commonly used commands in the vi editor to enter the insert mode. The insert mode allows the user to insert text into the file. The difference between the i and a commands is that the i command inserts text before the current cursor position, while the a command inserts text after the cursor position. For example, if the cursor is on the letter “e” in the word “editor”, then pressing i will allow the user to insert text before the “e”, while pressing a will allow the user to insert text after the “e”. The user can exit the insert mode by pressing the Esc key, which will return to the command mode. References:

Basic vi commands (cheat sheet)

VI Editor with Commands in Linux/Unix Tutorial

How to use Vi editor in Linux (with examples)

The export command is a Bash built-in command that exports environment variables and functions for use in other shell sessions1. Environment variables are named values that affect the behavior of applications and processes2. For example, the PATH variable stores a list of directories where executable programs are located, and the LANG variable sets the language and locale of the system2. By using the export command, you can make these variables available to any child process spawned by the current shell1. For example, if you want to set the EDITOR variable to vim for all subshells, you can run:

export EDITOR=vim

The export command can also be used to export functions, which are blocks of code that can be reused by invoking their name3. For example, if you want to create and export a function that prints “Hello world”, you can run:

hello () { echo “Hello world”; } export -f hello

Then, you can call the hello function in any subshell or script that inherits the environment from the current shell.

The other options are not related to the export command. Option A refers to the mount command, which attaches a filesystem to a directory4. Option B refers to the command substitution feature, which runs a command in a subshell and replaces it with its output5. Option C refers to the history command, which displays the command history of the current shell. Option E refers to the exportfs command, which maintains the table of exported NFS shares.

 The commands that directly execute the instruction from the file /usr/local/bin/runme.sh without starting a subshell are source /usr/local/bin/runme.sh and . /usr/local/bin/runme.sh. These commands use the source or dot builtins, which read and execute commands from the given file in the current shell environment. This means that any changes made by the file, such as setting variables, defining functions, or changing directories, will affect the current shell. This is different from running the file as a script, which will create a new shell process and execute the commands in a separate environment. The source or dot commands are useful for loading configuration files, such as ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile, or for running scripts that modify the current state of the shell.

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

C. /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/runme.sh: This command will run the file as a script using the /bin/bash interpreter. This will create a new shell process and execute the commands in a separate environment. Any changes made by the file will not affect the current shell.

D. /usr/local/bin/runme.sh: This command will also run the file as a script, but using the interpreter specified by the shebang line (#!) at the beginning of the file. If the file does not have a shebang line, it will use the default shell interpreter, which may or may not be /bin/bash. This will also create a new shell process and execute the commands in a separate environment. Any changes made by the file will not affect the current shell.

E. run /usr/local/bin/runme.sh: This command is not valid, as there is no builtin or external command called run. This will produce an error message.