System Access and the File System

Question 1

What is meant by console system access?

Answer 1

Direct access to the OS via video peripherals (VGA/DVI/HDMI)

Question 2

What is meant by remote system access?

Answer 2

Connecting to a system over a network connection (Telnet/SSH) using IP address on port 23/22

Question 3

How do you connect over SSH with a specific username?

Answer 3

‘ssh -l username ip_address’ or ‘ssh username@ip_address’

Question 4

What is the command prompt symbol for a standard user?

Answer 4

$

Question 5

What is the command prompt symbol for the root user?

Answer 5

#

Question 6

What is contained in /boot

Answer 6

Boot loader files used by the system boot loader (grub.cfg)

Question 7

What is contained in /root

Answer 7

The root users home directory

Question 8

What is contained in /dev

Answer 8

System device files (disk/optical drive/audio/keyboard/mouse etc)

Question 9

What is contained in /etc

Answer 9

Configuration files for all system components

Question 10

What is contained in /bin -> /usr/bin

Answer 10

User commands for use within the terminal

Question 11

What is contained in /sbin -> /usr/sbin

Answer 11

Optional 3rd party applications (not shipped with the OS)

Question 12

What is contained in /proc

Answer 12

Running process files that only exist in memory

Question 13

What is contained in /lib -> /usr/lib

Answer 13

C language libraries needed by the OS and applications

Question 14

What is contained in /tmp

Answer 14

Directory for temporary files

Question 15

What is contained in /home

Answer 15

System user home directories

Question 16

What is contained in /var

Answer 16

System and application log files

Question 17

What is contained in /run

Answer 17

System daemon files that start very early in the Linux launch process (systemd/udev etc) - stores temporary files during launch

Question 18

What is contained in /mnt

Answer 18

Used to mount external file systems

Question 19

What is contained in /media

Answer 19

Used for mounting CD-ROMS/ISOs

Question 20

What is contained in /opt

Answer 20

Optional 3rd party applications (not shipped with the OS)

Question 21

What letter denotes a file is a directory?

Answer 21

d

Question 22

What symbol denotes a file is a regular file?

Answer 22

-

Question 23

What letter denotes a file is a link?

Answer 23

l

Question 24

What letter denotes a file is a device or special file?

Answer 24

c

Question 25

What letter denotes a file is a socket?

Answer 25

s

Question 26

What letter denotes a file is a named pipe?

Answer 26

p

Question 27

What letter denotes a file is a block device?

Answer 27

b

Question 28

What command is used for changing passwords?

Answer 28

passwd

Question 29

How do you change the password for the current user?

Answer 29

Just type 'passwd'

Question 30

How do you change the password for a specific user?

Answer 30

sudo passwd user_id |

Question 31

How do you list files in chronological order?

Answer 31

ls -ltr (oldest at the top) or ls -lt (newest at the top)

Question 32

How do you enable the 'locate' command to work properly?

Answer 32

Install package 'mlocate' and run 'sudo updatedb' to update the file system index

Question 33

When should you run 'sudo updatedb'?

Answer 33

When you have added/removed a file/directory from the file system

Question 34

How are square brackets used as string wildcards?

Answer 34

*[abc]* finds anything containing 'a', 'b', or 'c' - requires **

Question 35

How do you use wildcards symbols to match exact substrings?

Answer 35

*abc* matches exactly 'abc'

Question 36

What is an inode?

Answer 36

A pointer/number to a file on disk

Question 37

What is the difference between soft and hard links?

Answer 37

A soft link is pointer to a file that points to an inode. A hard link points directly to an inode

Question 38

What happens to soft links when the pointer file is deleted?

Answer 38

The soft link is also deleted

Question 39

What happens to hard links when the pointer file is deleted?

Answer 39

The hard link remains pointing to the inode

Question 40

How do you create a hard link?

Answer 40

ln /path/to/file /path/to/hard/link (the hard link path is created by the command)

Question 41

What do hard links look like in a file list?

Answer 41

-rwxrwxrwx hard_link

Question 42

What do soft links look like in a file list?

Answer 42

lrwxrwxrwx soft_link -> /path/to/linked/file

Question 43

What command displays inode numbers?

Answer 43

ls -i

Question 44

How does disk partitioning affect hard links?

Answer 44

Hard links must exist on the same disk partition