2015  
   

LPIC-­‐1  Exam  101  

Study Sheet
           

LINUX ACADEMY | http://www.linuxacademy.com

 
LPIC-1 Exam 101 – Study Sheet

Table  of  Contents  

Introduction  .................................................................................................................................................  3  
Study  Sheet  Conventions  .............................................................................................................................  3  
Topic  101:  System  Architecture  ...................................................................................................................  4  
101.1  Determine  and  Configure  Hardware  Settings  ................................................................................  4  
101.2  Boot  the  System  .............................................................................................................................  4  
101.3  Change  Runlevels  and  Shutdown  or  Reboot  the  System  ...............................................................  5  
Topic  102:  Linux  Installation  and  Package  Management  .............................................................................  7  
102.1  Design  Hard  Disk  Layout  .................................................................................................................  7  
102.2  Install  a  Boot  Manager  ...................................................................................................................  7  
102.3  Manage  Shared  Libraries  ................................................................................................................  7  
102.4  Use  Debian  Package  Management  .................................................................................................  8  
102.5  Use  RPM  and  YUM  Package  Management  .....................................................................................  8  
Topic  103:  GNU  and  Unix  Commands  ........................................................................................................  10  
103.1  Work  on  the  Command  Line  ........................................................................................................  10  
103.2  Process  Text  Streams  Using  Filters  ...............................................................................................  11  
103.3  Perform  Basic  File  Management  ..................................................................................................  13  
103.4  Use  Streams,  Pipes  and  Redirects  ................................................................................................  14  
103.5  Create,  Monitor  and  Kill  Processes  ..............................................................................................  15  
103.6  Modify  Process  Execution  Priorities  .............................................................................................  16  
103.7  Search  Text  Files  Using  Regular  Expressions  ................................................................................  16  
103.8  Perform  Basic  File  Editing  Operations  Using  Vi  ............................................................................  17  
Topic  104:  Devices,  Linux  Filesystems,  Filesystem  Hierarchy  Standard  .....................................................  18  
104.1  Create  Partitions  and  Filesystems  ................................................................................................  18  
104.2  Maintain  the  Integrity  of  Filesystems  ...........................................................................................  18  
104.3  Control  Mounting  and  Unmounting  of  Filesystems  .....................................................................  19  
104.4  Manage  Disk  Quotas  ....................................................................................................................  20  
104.5  Manage  File  Permissions  and  Ownership  ....................................................................................  20  
104.6  Create  and  Change  Hard  and  Symbolic  Links  ...............................................................................  21  
104.7  Find  System  Files  and  Place  Files  in  the  Correct  Location  ............................................................  21  
2015  Objective  Updates  .............................................................................................................................  25  
Upstart  ...................................................................................................................................................  25  

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LPIC-1 Exam 101 – Study Sheet

Systemd  ..................................................................................................................................................  25  

Systemd  Commands  And  Directories  .....................................................................................................  26  
Managing  MBR  and  GPT  Partitions  ........................................................................................................  27  
Commands  and  Compression  ................................................................................................................  27  
GRUB2  ....................................................................................................................................................  28  
 

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LPIC-1 Exam 101 – Study Sheet

Introduction  
This study sheet is intended to help you do a targeted review of key topics that are very likely to
be covered during your LX0-101 LPIC exam. This is not intended to replace any quizzed, labs or
lectures here at Linux Academy, but can be used as a final review just prior to your exam.

Study  Sheet  Conventions  

This follows the LPIC syllabus for Exam 101 exactly. Each section contains the full LPIC
designation, section title and description and the weighting you can expect for these topics
during the exam.
There are more topics that could potentially be covered than are listed in this review material.
However, the items on this study sheet are the most common topics tested in each section based
on community feedback and experience. Please do take the time to review all the topics from the
formal syllabus available at http://www.lpi.org.  
 

 
 

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Topic  101:  System  Architecture  

 
101.1  Determine  and  Configure  Hardware  Settings  
Weight: 2
Description: Candidate should be able to determine and configure fundamental system
hardware.
• modprobe
• automatically loads (or unloads) any dependent modules and is usually the
preferred way of loading kernel modules (replacing the deprecated ‘insmod’ and
‘rmmod’ utilities)
• lsusb
• a utility for displaying the information about USB buses and associated connected
devices in the system
• by default, reads the /dev/bus/usb directory for contents and configurations
• /proc
• Contains virtual system information
• /proc/interrupts shows the IRQs in use on the system
• /proc/dma displays DMA addresses in use on the system
§ DMAs are an alternate method of communicating with I/O ports
• lsmod
• list modules currently loaded by the running Linux kernel
• insmod
• older method used to insert modules into the running Linux kernel
• rmmod
• older method used to remove modules from the running Linux kernel

101.2  Boot  the  System  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to guide the system through the booting process.
• dmesg
• extracts information about the boot process and can be viewed with the command
directly
• kernel
• this is the main part of the Linux operating system, it is responsible for the entire
OS, threads, devices, filesystems and video
• BIOS
• Basic Input Output System
• responsible for preparing the system to boot, finding the CPU, memory and disk
in order to begin the boot process

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• Boot Process
1. CPU starts and then runs the BIOS.
2. BIOS checks for hardware, configuring hardware and looking for a boot sector.
• Newer systems can use EFI/UEFI instead of BIOS
3. Boot loader (grub) takes over for the bios.
4. Find a kernel, load it into memory and execute it.
5. Kernel takes over, performs systems tasks, and loads the final process of
executing the initial program for your system. By default, this is the program
/sbin/init.
6. The initial program gets the process ID (pid) of 1.
• /var/log/messages
• Contains detailed post boot messages for your system as well as
messages/errors/information from applications that communicate with your
kernel, kernel modules (drivers, etc) – often referred to as the contained of
“global system messages”
• dmesg
• /var/log/dmesg: on some Linux distributions
• Contains “kernel ring buffer information”
• prints number of messages on the screen that display information about the
hardware devices that the kernel detected during the boot process

101.3  Change  Runlevels  and  Shutdown  or  Reboot  the  System  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to manage the runlevel of the system. This objective
includes changing to single user mode, shutdown or rebooting the system. Candidates should be
able to alert users before switching run level and properly terminate processes. This objective
also includes setting the default run level. It also includes basic feature knowledge of potential
replacements to init.
• /etc/inittab
• Run level and default run level configuration is set by the contents of this file
on sysvinit systems
• Pointer to systemd start configuration in /lib/system/system/<target
name>.target
• shutdown
• Can be used to power off the machine, but can notify users before doing so for
a set period of time
• –k: send warning of impending shutdown but do not shutdown
• –r: reboot after shutdown
• –h: halt or power off the system
• –P: half action to turn off power

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• –f: skip fsck on next boot

• –F: force fsck on next boot
• -c: cancel a waiting shutdown
• –t: tell init to wait XX seconds before shutting down
• init
• can be used to change run level and shutdown a machine
• the last process run in the boot process
• run levels
• 0 - Used to shift the system from one state to another, used to shut down and
will power off the system
• 1, s or S - Single-user mode. Typically used for low-level system maintenance
that may be impaired by normal system operation such as resizing partitions.
• 2 - On Debian and its derivatives, it’s a full multi-user mode with X running
and a graphical login. On all other distributions, the run level is undefined.
• 3 - On Fedora, Mandriva, Red Hat and most others, it's a full multi-user mode
with console (non-graphical) login
• 4 - Usually undefined by default and available for customization
• 5 – On Fedora, Mandriva, Red Hat and most others it's the x system (graphical
login)
• 6 - Used to reboot the system. Also a transitional run level. Your system is
completely shut down, and then the computer reboots automatically.
• Change run level with init
• init 1 - Changes to run level 1
• id:2:initdefault: - located in /etc/inittab - Says the default run levels 2
runlevel
• N 2 - n is the previous run level and 2 is the current run level. N if there is
no previous run level
• id:runlevels:action:process
• id - Consists of a sequence of 1-4 characters that identifies its function
• runlevels - consist a list of run levels for which this entry applies.
• action - Wait, tells init to start the process once when entering a run level
and to wait for the processes termination, respawn tells init to restart the
process whenever it terminates.  
 
 

 
 

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Topic  102:  Linux  Installation  and  Package  Management  

102.1  Design  Hard  Disk  Layout  

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux
system.
• /var
• Used to contain files that will change frequently
• /home
• User directories

102.2  Install  a  Boot  Manager  

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to select, install and configure a boot manager.
• Common Type Codes For Disks
• 0x0c - FAT
• 0x05 (old type of extended partition)
• 0x07 ntfs
• 0x0f newer type of extended partition
• 0x82 - Linux swap
• 0x83 - Linux file system
• Grub changes from grub 1 to grub 2
• GRUB1: /boot/grub/menu.lst
• GRUB2: /boot/grub/grub.cfg

102.3  Manage  Shared  Libraries  

Weight: 1
Description: Candidates should be able to determine the shared libraries that executable
programs depend on and install them when necessary.
• ldd
• print shared library dependencies for the indicated program or file
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH
• Bash environment variable that determines additional library locations to be
searched when looking for shared libraries
• ldconfig
• program run to clear the library cache after adding library locations to the
/etc/ld.so.conf file
• /etc/ld.so.conf
• Stores shared library paths for caching with ldconfig

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102.4  Use  Debian  Package  Management  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using the Debian
package tools.
• /etc/apt/sources.list
• Stores the repository locations that apt uses to search for packages specific to your
system
• apt-get
• package handling and installation utility for Debian based distributions
• will install packages by name and include dependent packages during install
• dpkg
• installs .deb package files on Debian based systems
• –i: install as well as configure package
• –r: remove package
• –configure: configures a package
• –c: list contents of a package
• –s: list status of package (installed or not)
• apt-cache
• allows searching of named package or show installed packages
§ apt-cache pkgnames ß show installed
§ apt-cache search ß search for named package
• dpkg-reconfigure
• reconfigure an already installed package
• aptitude
• high level package management interface for Debian based distributions

102.5  Use  RPM  and  YUM  Package  Management  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using RPM and YUM
tools.
• rpm
• package installation utility for Red Hat based distributions
• –nodeps: install the package without worrying about installed dependencies
• –i: install
• –K: check package signature
• –V: verify
• –a: all packages
§ -Va: verify all packages (for example)
• –U: upgrades or installs a new package

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• –F: upgrade a package already installed (if exists only)

• –q: query a package to determine if already installed
• –e: erase or uninstall
• –f query package owning file
• –p package
• –l (lowercase L) List files in a package
• –rebuild: rebuilds a source package
• –rebuilddb: rebuilds the rpm database
• –qa: print all install packages
• –ql: list files in an installed package
• –qf: determine which installed packaged a file belongs to
• –qpl: list all files in an RPM package
• –checksig: same as –K
• /etc/yum.repos.d
• Directory containing yum source repository files
• cpio – create cpio archive
• –d create leading directories where needed
• –i extract
• –u replace all files without asking
• –m Retain previous modification times when creating files
• rpm2cpio
• convert RPM packages to CPIO compressed files
• Used primarily to extract files from a RPM package without installing the rpm
package
§ rpm2cpio file.rpm | cpio –dium

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Topic  103:  GNU  and  Unix  Commands  

103.1  Work  on  the  Command  Line  

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to interact with shells and commands using the
command line. The objective assumes the bash shell.
• make
• utility to read a source configuration file and maintain a group of files or
programs (often used to compile source code and install the binaries once
complete)
• env
• shows your current session environment variables
• pwd
• print the path of the current working directory
• bash
• an ‘sh compatible’ command language shell interpreter that executes commands
read from the standard input or from a file
• uname
• prints system information
• –n: node name
• –s: kernel name
• –v: kernel version
• –r: kernel release
• –m: machine/cpu information
• –p: processor information
• –i: hardware information

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• –o: operating system name

• –a: print all information
• export
• Used to set an environment variable
§ export HOME=/home/user
• unset
• used to remove an environment variable
§ unset $HOME
• man
• The table below shows the section numbers of the manual followed by the types
of pages they contain.
§ 1 Executable programs or shell commands
§ 2 System calls (functions provided by the kernel)
§ 3 Library calls (functions within program libraries)
§ 4 Special files (usually found in /dev)
§ 5 File formats and conventions eg /etc/passwd
§ 6 Games
§ 7 Miscellaneous (including macro packages and conventions), e.g. man(7),
groff(7)
§ 8 System administration commands (usually only for root)
§ 9 Kernel routines [Non standard]

103.2  Process  Text  Streams  Using  Filters  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to apply filters to text streams.
• cat
• a tool used to combine files (concatenate)
• commonly used to display a single file as well
• fmt
• reformats streams or files for display as indicated (WIDTH of columns)
• join
• join lines of two files based on a common field or delimintor
• –t: delimiter
• -1 FIELD: join on this field of file 1
• -2 FIELD: join on this field of file 2
• pr
• covert files for printing (adds header and footer and sets breaks)
• split
• split a file into pieces
• split –l 2 file.txt name ß split file.txt every two lines, output namea nameb

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• unexpand
• converts spaces to tabs
• expand
• converts tabs to spaces
• cut
• used to remove sections from each line of files
• head
• output the first part of a file
• –c: XX bytes
• –n: XX lines
• nl
• add line numbers to a file for display or redirect to another file
• sed
• stream editor for filtering and formatting text
• sed ‘s/ugly/beautiful/g’ myfile.txt ß replace all instances of ‘ugly’ with
‘beautiful’ in myfile.txt
• regex
• short for regular expressions
• referred to as the GNU tool implementation of the regular expression POSIX
standard
• encompasses tools like sed, awk, grep, egrep, ed, etc
• examples:
• [ \t] would match white space tabs
• [ \t\r\n] would match line breaks
• ([A-Z]) would match the alpha characters in caps
• tail
• output the last part of a file
• –c: XX bytes
• –n: XX lines
• uniq
• report or omit repeated lines
• –d: only print duplicate lines
• –u: only print unique lines
• –r: recursive
• od
• dump files in octal format
• paste
• merge lines of files
• sort

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• sort forward/reverse contents by alpha/numeric characters

• tr
• translate/squeeze/delete characters from standard input writing to output
• tr test blah < test
• sends contents of test file to standard input and trims out the blah
contents
• wc
• word count

103.3  Perform  Basic  File  Management  

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to use the basic Linux commands to manage files and
directories.
• cp
• copy files and directories
• –a: archive
• –backup: back up each destination file
• –d: same as preserve links
• mv
• move files and directories
• –f: do not prompt to overwrite
• –i: interactive, prompt for overwrite
• –n: no clobber (do not overwrite existing file)
• touch
• change file date/time attributes
• –a: access time only
• –c: do not create if not exist
• –d: parse string and use it instead of current time
• –m: Change only the modification time
• –r: Use this file’s times instead of current time
• –t: Use specified timestamp
• dd
• copy file, converting and formatting according to operands
• gzip/gunzip
• compression utility, used in conjunction with tar for archiving
• –d: decompress
• –f: force
• –h: help
• –l: list

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• –q: quiet
• –t: test
• –v: verbose
• mkdir
• make directories
• –p: make all directories in parent chain
• tar
• tape archive utility, used for backups
• -d Find differences between archive and file system
• --delete Delete from archive
• -c Create a new archive
• -A Append tar files to an archive
• -r Append files to the end of an archive
• -u Only append files newer than copy in archive
• -t List contents of an archive
• -x Extract files from an archive
• -z filter through gzip
• -j filter through bzip2
• -J filter through xz compression

• file
• Determine file type
• bzip2
• compression utility, used in conjunction with tar for archiving

103.4  Use  Streams,  Pipes  and  Redirects  

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to redirect streams and connect them in order to
efficiently process textual data. Tasks include redirecting standard input, standard output and
standard error, piping the output of one command to the input of another command, using the
output of one command as arguments to another command and sending output to both stdout and
a file.
• &&
• command1 && command2
• In this example, command2 will only run if command1 is successful (i.e.
return code of ‘0’ from the process)
• tee

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• The tee command will save standard input to a file as well as sending it to
standard output. t command can be used to save standard input into a file as
well as send it to standard output
• xargs
• Build and execute command
• -a Reads items from file instead of standard input
• -0 Input items are terminated by a null character instead of by white spaces.
• -d Input items are terminated by the specified character

103.5  Create,  Monitor  and  Kill  Processes  

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to perform basic process management.
• jobs
• Jobs command displays minimal information about processes associated with
the current session
• ps
• By default ps only displays process that were run from its own terminal. –Ae will display
all processes on a system. -u displays processes given by a specified user, H -F group
processes and use indentation to show the hierarchy of relationships between processes.
ps-w >ps.txt tells ps not to truncate to system
• and output to file.
• uptime
• find uptime and display load average
• bg
• restores a job to the running status but in the background
• fg
• use CTRL+Z to pause a program and then fg to send the program to
foreground
• kill
• can be used to stop executing processes, uses PID
• nohup
• run a command immune to hangups, with output to console or non-tty
• killall
• can be used to kill all processes of a certain name
• free
• show free memory and swap
• Common Kill Signals
• SIGHUP 1 HANGUP
• SIGINT 2 INTERRUPT FROM KEYBOARD
• SIGKILL 9 KILL SIGNAL

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§ This signal is unblock able and causes the program to terminate abruptly.
Only use if you can’t terminate with 15.
• SIGTERM 15 TERMINATION SIGNAL
• It asks the program to finish what it is doing then exit. Clean exists and is
the preferred way of killing processes.
• SIGSTOP 17,19,23 STOP THE PROCESS
• When a child process exits from a parent process it sends signal 1.
• Signals in the man page man –k signal

103.6  Modify  Process  Execution  Priorities  

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to manage process execution priorities.
• nice
• run a program with modified scheduling priority
• renice
• alter priority of running processes
• top
• display Linux processes
• while running –
• k Kills processes
• q Quits processes
• r Change process priority
• s Change update rate
• P Sort by CPU usage
• m Sort by memory usage. Can also show uptime, memory info. and load
• average (all the same as w).
• ps - By default ps only displays
• launch parameters –
• -d Specifies delay between updates
• -p Lists of to 20 specific PIDs
• -n Display certain number of updates then quit
• -b Batch mode.
• Commands while

103.7  Search  Text  Files  Using  Regular  Expressions  

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to manipulate files and text data using regular
expressions. This objective includes creating simple regular expressions containing several
notational elements. It also includes using regular expression tools to perform searches through a
filesystem or file content.

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• grep
• -v - Selected lines are those not matching any of the specified patterns.
• egrep is the same as grep -E: interpret pattern as an extended regular
expression.
• fgrep is the same as grep -F: interpret pattern as a list of fixed strings,
separated by new lines any of which is to be matched.
• -i Ignores case and Matches any single character
• [^] Matches any character not contained in brackets [^abc] matches any
character other than a, b, or c.
• ^ Matches the starting position of a line.
• $ Matches the ending position of a string or the position just before a
string ending new line it matches the ending position of any line
• * Matches the preceding element 0 or more times ab*c matches b zero or
more times. IE ac, abc, abbbbc, abbbbbbbbbbbbbc.
• + Matches the preceding element 1 or more times

103.8  Perform  Basic  File  Editing  Operations  Using  Vi  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to edit text files using vi. This objective includes vi
navigation, basic vi modes, inserting, editing, deleting, copying and finding text.
• vi
• text editor
• i,o,a
• /,?
• c,d,p,y,dd,yy
• h - Move left
• j - Move down
• k - Move up
• l - Move right
• ZZ - Save changes and quit
• wq! - save and quit immediatly
• q! - Quit without saving
• e! -
• 1h - Move left one character
• P - Paste above current line
• p - Paste below current line
• O - Open line above cursor
• o - Open line below cursor
• a - Append text after cursor
• A - Append text at the end of the line

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• I Insert text at beginning of line

Topic  104:  Devices,  Linux  Filesystems,  Filesystem  Hierarchy  Standard  

104.1  Create  Partitions  and  Filesystems  

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to configure disk partitions and then create filesystems
on media such as hard disks. This includes the handling of swap partitions.
• fdisk
• partition a disk in preparation for install the Linux operating system or
data storage
• -n: interactive mode
• mkfs
• Build a Linux file system (format)
• -t Specifies the type of file system to build
• -c Check device for bad blocks before building the file system
• mkswap
• Turns a file system into swap. This is done after creating a new swap
partition. swapoff and swap on commands cannot be used until a signature
is created with mkswap.

104.2  Maintain  the  Integrity  of  Filesystems  

Weight: 2

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Description: Candidates should be able to maintain a standard filesystem, as well as the extra
data associated with a journaling filesystem.
• du
• estimate file space usage
• -c Produce a grand total
• -h Human readable
• --max-depth - Print the total for a directory only if it is N or fewer levels
below the command line argument.
• -b – Bytes
• dumpe2fs
• Obtains file system information. xfs_info does the same thing but for ifs
file system
• df
• Displays the filesystem usage, but not a breakdown within the file system
• df . - Will show where your working directory is mounted
• mke2fs
• create an EXT2/3/4 filesystem
• equivalent of “mkfs –t ext2/3/4”
• tune2fs
• Allows you to change the file system parameters such as: maximum
mount count, time between checks, add a journal, set desire reserve
blocks, obtain file system level. FILE SYSTEM CANNOT BE
MOUNTED
• fsck
• checks and repairs filesystems
• -A Walk through /etc/fstab file and try to check all file systems
• -a Attempt to automatically repair all errors
• -C Display completion/progress
• -N Don't execute; just show what would be done
• debugfs
• Interactively modify a file system. Features: program provides abilities of
tune2fs and dump2fs use debug fs to undelete a file if needed. Do not use
on a mounted file system.

104.3  Control  Mounting  and  Unmounting  of  Filesystems  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to configure the mounting of a filesystem.
• mount
• attempts to mount filesystems to directories
• -a Causes all files system mentioned in fstab to be mounted as indicated

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• -o Override mount options in fstab when manually mounting partitions.

• unmounts
• Attempts to unmounts mounted filesystems
• -f attempt to forcibly unmounts a filesystem in use or busy
• /etc/fstab
• Configuration file containing persistent filesystem mounts (for mounting
on boot)

104.4  Manage  Disk  Quotas  

Weight: 1
Description: Candidates should be able to manage disk quotas for users.
• quotaon
• Turns quotas on
• edquota
• Edit a quota
• -p - Duplicate the quotas of the prototypical user specified for each user
specified.
• repquota
• Summarize quotas for a file system
• -a Print quotas of all the file systems configured with a quota mount
option file at its root
• -g Print only group quotas
• -u Print only user quotas
• -v Print a header line before printing each filesystem quota

104.5  Manage  File  Permissions  and  Ownership  

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to control file access through the proper use of
permissions and ownerships.
• setuid/setgid
• normally set with the command ‘chmod’ by setting the high-order octal bit to 4 (for
setuid) or 2 (for setgid).
• chmod 6711 – will set the setuid and setgid bits (6)
• will make the file read/write/executable for the owner and (7), executable
by the group (the first “1”) and others (the second “1”)
• all ‘chmod’ flags are octal
• text shortcuts
• 4 – suid u+s
• 2 – guid g+s
• 1 – +t sticky bit

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• chmod
• change file/directory access attributes
• 1 - execute
• 2 - write
• 4 - read
• chgrp
• change group ownership of files/directories
• umask
• change default user level permissions for files and directories when created
• chown
• change ownership of files and directory
• –R: all “ch” commands use this switch for recursion

104.6  Create  and  Change  Hard  and  Symbolic  Links  

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to create and manage hard and symbolic links to a file.
• ln
• create links between files or directories
• no parameter means hard link
• –s: softlink
• If you remove the source file on a hard link, then the link file will still exist

104.7  Find  System  Files  and  Place  Files  in  the  Correct  Location  
Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be thoroughly familiar with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
(FHS), including typical file locations and directory classifications.
• find
• find files on the local or any mounted file system
• which
• display path the indicated command is in (if in PATH variable)
• whereis
• locates the sources/binary and manuals section for specific files
• /etc/updatedb.conf
• Location database configuration file
• locate
• find files by name, uses the location database
• FHS

“Where things go in Linux"?

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Linux uses unified directory trees - therefore every partition, removable disk, network file
share, and other disk or disk-like storage device is accessible from a single directory tree
(filesystem)
• user files vs system files
• system files - Files that control how the computer operates
• System startup scripts, and daemons
• Program files, both binary and scripts
• Program support files, such as fonts and icons
• Configuration files that define how the system works (ex: network config
settings, disk layout information etc)
• Configuration files that most servers and other daemons
• Data storage for system programs, such as the database that describes what
programs are installed
• System Log files, which record normal system activity
• You would not want regular users to be able to access either read or write for
example on your system configs - other example
• /etc/shadow - this file holds encrypted passwords for instance
• Such systems files are usually owned by root or by system accounts that have
more limited rights
• Many server programs rely on there own specific system users accounts.
• Because ROOT user has access to read and write any files you protect access to
config files of server apps and system settings by having the owned by root.
• User files typically live under the /home/user directories
• Even on personal laptop Linux installs systems files are separated by rights from
root to your user to protect form accidental deletion or modification.

The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)

• Linux distributions should have standardization in where the file system stores key
system configuration files. This is so applications can access these
• FHS is here to address the need for this standardization
• Shareable Files
• Shareable files can be shared between computers, like user data
files and program binary files
• You many not need to share these files but you certainly can
• Normally when shared it would be on an NFS Network File
System
• Un-shareable Files
• Un-sharable files contain system-specific info, like configuration
files We wouldn’t want to share these server files between
computers.

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• Static Files
• Don’t normally change except through direct editing by the
system administrator
• These would be files like the program executables
• Variable files
• Can be changed/edited by users, automated scripts, servers etc
• FHS Common Linux Directories
• / is the root directory - all files appear i the directory and the subdirectories
built off of it
• /etc Holds systems Configuration files
• /boot Holds important boot files, like the Linux kernel, initial RAM disk,
and usually boot loader config files
• /bin Holds program files that are critical for normal operation and that
ordinary users may run
• /sbin Holds program files that are critical for normal operation and that
ordinary users seldom run.
• /lib Holds libraries - code used by many other programs - these are
critical for basic system operation
• /usr Holds programs and data used in normal system operation bu that
aren’t critical for a bare-bones boot of the system
• /home Users’ home directories. By separating this directory in to its own
low-level file system you effectively isolates most user data form the
operating system - which is useful if you want to re install the OS without
losing user data
• /root is the root users home directory this is different than the / folder that
is also pronounced root
• /var Holds miscellaneous transient files. these are things like
files and print spool files. /var/tmp deserves special mention much like
the /mnt (see below) /var/tmp holds temporary files. These files should
not be deleted when the computer reboots
• /tmp Holds temp files - often including temporary files created by users
programs. While many distributions don’t delete these temp files - they
should be deleted when the computer reboots
• /mnt The traditional mount point for removable media; this is usually split
in to subdirectories for each of the then mounted file systems
• /media The new mount point for removable media, again this is split it to
subdirectories for each of the mounted file system
• /dev This holds device files, which in turn provides low-level access to
the systems hardware

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• *Remember normal users should not be able to access most system

directories like the /usr directory so the system can not be damaged
• Every day normal users create there user files in the /home directory that
is broken up typically in the user name such as /home/stephen
/home/Anthony
• Users can then also access where your removable media is like /media or
/mnt
• You can use /tmp /var folders for users access as well - most users will not
need to now about them however applications TYPICALLY user these
folders for application temp files such as incoming emails files
• For System Admins the /etc folder is very important because this is where
MOST of the system configuration files reside
• Example: /etc/fstab where you define where partitions are mounted
• Example: /etc/passwd primary account definition file
• Example: /etc/X11 (X windows system)
• Example /etc/samba Samba file server settings

Executable Directories
• Program files live usually in the /sbin, /bin ,/usr/bin, and /usr/sbin Such
directories further will houses programs files in such directories as
/usr/local/sbin and /usr/local/bin as the locally compiled programs
• Library Directories * Libraries are collections of programming functions
that can be useful to programs. They are stored in separate files to save
disk space and RAM when programs are ran. Most library directories live
in /lib and /usr/lib however some can also reside in /usr/local/lib
• Windows programs typically all live within a single directory (its config
files, binary applications etc) However on LINUX most of the programs
key files are likely to reside in the above standard locations that are shared
with other programs and are scattered out.
• EXAMPLE: Programs executable lives in /usr/bin but its libraries are in
the /usr/lib and even furthermore its configuration files are in the /etc or
even in the users’ home directories.

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2015  Objective  Updates  

Upstart  
Upstart  is  a  replacement  daemon  for  the  old  SysVInit  initialization  program.  A  few  key  differences  
include  

• The  ability  to  start  jobs/services  asynchronously  during  the  startup  process  which  allows  for  a  
faster  bootup  period.  
• Upstart  “listens”  for  events  on  a  system  and  executes  jobs  based  off  of  events  that  jobs  are  set  
to  start/stop  on.    
• Job  configuration  files  are  located  in  the  /etc/init  directory  
• Upstart  replaces  the  SysVInit  but  replicates  backwards  compatibility  with  the  boot  process  as  
well  as  runlevels,  leaving  that  architecture  the  same  on  Upstart  systems  (although  in  some  
cases,  older  configuration  files  simply  being  a  text  file  pointing  to  the  new  location  of  method)  
• Jobs  can  be  managed  with  the  “service”  command    

New  commands  with  upstart  

• initctil  list  (list  all  jobs  located  in  /etc/init  this  does  not  list  service  files  in  /etc/init.d  
• init-­‐chefconfig  /etc/file.conf  -­‐>  Checks  the  syntax  of  the  job  configuration  file  
• start  jobname  -­‐>  starts  a  job  
• stop  jobname  -­‐>  stops  a  job  
• restart  jobname  -­‐>  restarts  a  job  
• Job  management  is  also  backwards  compatible  with  the  service  command.  

Systemd    
• Systemd is a daemon that manages all other system daemons.
• Systemd is the first daemon to start during the boot process and is the last daemon to stop
during shutdown.
• Systemd allows processes, daemons, and services to be started parallel to each other creating a

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faster boot process

• Systemd enables on-demand starting of daemons which doesn’t require an additional service
to be running
• The SysVinit daemon started daemons/services one by one causing the system to have to wait
• Sytemd has more of a central control for many of the regular Linux management tasks.
• Systemd now controls items such as shutdown, cron, journald, and other low level
components
• Systemd is an ever evolving program and will incorporate more Linux utilites as it
goes along
• Systemd is a system and service manager for the Linux operating system, not all distributions
utilize Systemd, most commonly we see RedHat based distributions and soon a version of
Debian 7. Ubuntu 14 utilizes the Upstart init daemon
• Systemd comes with built in support for a new daemon called journald.
• Journald is responsible for event logging in the system
• By default journald does not keep persistent data after a reboot.
• Persistence can be applied to journald through additional configuration
• Service command has been replaced with the systemctl command for managing system
services
• Systemctl also replaces the chkconfig command
• On systems that use the Systemd daemon the concept of runlevels has been completely
replaced with “targets"
• Like SysVinit, it is still the first process to run at boot time with a PID of 1

Display different unit types

systemctl -t help

Journalctl
• Used to query the contents of the systemd journal
 

Systemd  Commands  And  Directories  

• Restart  a  service    
• systemctl  restart  httpd.service  
• Enable  a  service  to  start  at  boot  time  
• systemctl  enable  httpd.sevice  
• Stop  a  service  
• systemctl  stop  httpd.service  
• Move  into  the  graphical.target  
• systemctl  isolate  graphical.target  
• Set  the  default  target  for  system  boot  
• systemctl  set-­‐default  graphical.target  
• Get  current  default  target  
• systemctl  get-­‐default  

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• System  directory  that  contains  the  core  system  unit  configuration  files  
• /usr/lib/systemd/system  
• Custom  configuration  directory  which  is  override  by  any  matching  configurations  in  the  system  
unit  configuration  libraray  
• /etc/systemd/system  
• Display  different  unit  types  on  the  system  
• systemctl  -­‐t  help  
• Overview  of  available  targets  
• systemctl  list-­‐units  -­‐-­‐type=target  |  grep  target  
• systemctl  list-­‐unit-­‐files  -­‐-­‐type=target  -­‐all  (all  will  show  all  enabled  and  disabled)  
• What  is  the  default  target?    
• The  default  target  is  a  sym  link  from  /etc/systemd/system/default.target  to  the  target  
configuration  file    
• Wall command is used to broadcast messages to all logged in users on the system
• wall -n will suppress the “from user” information and wall will open the wall console,
just typing the message and ending with crtl+d will send the message

Managing  MBR  and  GPT  Partitions  

GPT Based partitions can have at 128 Primary partitions
GPT based partitions can have up to 9.4ZB or 8ZiB in disk size
MBR partitions are older and can have only 4 primary partitions
MBR partitions can have only 2TiB in size for each partition

fdisk - Used to managed MBR based partition tables

gdisk - Used to managed GPT based partition tables
parted - Used to manage GPT based partition tables

Commands  and  Compression  

• Screen  
• Screen  is  a  full-­‐screen  window  manager  that  multiplexes  a  physical  terminal  between  
several  processes  
• -­‐d  starts  in  detached  mode  and  forks  a  new  process  
• -­‐D  detach  mode  but  doesn’t  fork  a  new  process  and  command  exists  if  the  session  
terminates  
• -­‐S  session  name  
• -­‐x  attach  to  a  session  that  is  not  detached  
• -­‐X  send  a  specified  command  to  a  running  screen  session  
• screen  -­‐list  will  list  all  your  current  screens  
• screen  -­‐r  name  will  reattach  given  a  given  screen  
• XZ  compression  
• Has  a  better  compression  ration  than  gzip  (compresses  data  more)  

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• Requires  more  memory  during  compression  but  has  lower  file  size  footprint  when  
completed  
• Flags  usage:  xz  -­‐flag  filename  
• -­‐z  filename  will  compress  filename  
• -­‐d  decompresses  also  known  as  uncompressed  
• -­‐l  list  information  about  compressed  files  and  view  compression  ratios  
• To  compress  a  directory  you  must  first  tar  the  directory  then  use  xz  to  compress  it  
• pkill  &  pgrep  
• Used  to  identify  processes  based  off  of  a  pattern  or  regular  expression  
• Examples  
• List  all  process  associated  with  a  user  
• pgrep  -­‐u  username  
• List  all  processes  associated  with  a  user  and  display  process  name  
• pgrep  -­‐l  -­‐u  username  
• Kill  all  processes  started  from  a  specific  terminal  
• pkill  -­‐t  ttyid  
• Show  all  processes  that  DO  NOT  belong  to  a  user  (inverse)  
• pgrep  -­‐v  -­‐u  username  
• Show  the  process  ide  of  the  most  recent  process  started  for  a  user  
• pgrep  -­‐n  
• Show  all  SSHD  processes  associated  with  a  user  
• pgrep  -­‐l  -­‐u  username  sshd  
• Kill  all  httpd  processes  
• pkill  httpd  
• Kill  all  sshd  processes  for  a  specific  user  
• pkill  -­‐u  username  sshd  
• dmesg    
• Used  to  view  the  kernel  messages  in  the  kernel  ring  buffer  
• Most  commonly  used  for  troubleshooting  kernel,  memory,  or  any  issue  related  to  boot  
up  and  the  kernel  activity  
• examples  
• dmesg  >  boot_messages  
• dmesg  |  grep  -­‐I  tty  
• dmesg  |  grep  memory  
• dmesg  will  just  dump  the  entire  ring  buffer  to  standard  output.  

GRUB2  
grub2-­‐mkconfig  >  /boot/grub2/grub.cfg  

/boot/grub2/grub.cfg  is  made  by  the  grub2-­‐mkconfig  command  and  is  made  of  up  files  in  the  
/etc/default/grub  and  the  /etc/grub.d  configuration  locations.  

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grub2-­‐install  /dev/device  -­‐>  will  install  grub  on  the  specified  device.  If  the  GRUB  bootloader  is  having  
issues  then  re-­‐installing  is  the  same  process.  

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