010-160 Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A user reports that a script located in their home directory will not run when they type its name, even though the file exists and has execute permission. The user is currently in that home directory. Which action explains why the script is not found and how to run it?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The current directory is not in the PATH, so the script must be invoked as ./scriptname.. The shell resolves bare command names by searching the directories in the PATH variable, and the current working directory is deliberately excluded from the default PATH to prevent accidental execution of malicious files. Supplying a relative path with ./ tells the shell exactly where to find the script, which resolves the command-not-found error without relocating or re-permissioning the file.

Answer

The script must be moved to /usr/local/bin before it can be executed.

Answer

The script lacks the setuid bit, so it must be run with sudo scriptname.

Answer

The execute permission must be granted with chmod +x scriptname first.

Question 2

A user reports that a script stored on a mounted USB drive will not execute when invoked by name, even though it runs when called explicitly through the shell with bash script.sh. The file has execute permission set for the user. Which is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The filesystem is mounted with the noexec option, preventing execution of binaries from that mount.. The noexec mount option allows files to be read but forbids executing them directly from that filesystem. That precisely matches a script failing when invoked by name on a USB drive while still running when handed to an interpreter explicitly, since interpretation only requires read access.

Answer

The user's PATH does not include the mount point of the USB drive.

Answer

The script is owned by root and the user is not root.

Answer

The script lacks a shebang line, so the kernel cannot determine an interpreter.

Question 3

A user named alice is working in /home/alice/projects and wants to navigate to the parent directory of her current location. Which command should she execute?

Accepted Answer

cd ... The parent directory is represented by the special entry '..', which exists in every directory on a Linux filesystem. Issuing cd .. from /home/alice/projects therefore moves the shell's working directory to /home/alice. The other commands change to different locations: the previous directory, the home directory, or the filesystem root, none of which specifically means 'one level up'.

Answer

cd ~

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cd /

Answer

cd -

Question 4

A user wants to change the permissions of a file named 'data.txt' so that the owner can read and write, the group can read, and others have no access. Which command achieves this?

Accepted Answer

chmod 640 data.txt. The octal permission 640 translates to rw- for the owner, r-- for the group, and --- for others. This precisely matches the requested access: owner read/write, group read, others none. The other modes either grant others access, omit group read, or both, so they do not fulfill the requirement.

Answer

chmod 644 data.txt

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chmod 600 data.txt

Answer

chmod 604 data.txt

Question 5

A user wants to see the manual page for the 'passwd' command, but is unsure which section contains the command documentation. Which command displays the manual page for 'passwd' from section 1?

Accepted Answer

man 1 passwd. Manual pages are organized into numbered sections, and section 1 holds user commands. Because 'passwd' also appears in section 5 as a file format, explicitly specifying section 1 with 'man 1 passwd' guarantees the command documentation is shown, which is exactly what the user requested.

Answer

man -k passwd

Answer

man 5 passwd

Answer

man -f passwd

Question 6

A junior administrator is at a shell prompt in /home/alex and wants to see a compact, one-line-per-entry listing that includes hidden files along with their permissions and sizes. Which command accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

ls -la. A long listing is produced with -l, and hidden entries are included with -a. Combining the two flags gives permissions, ownership, size, timestamps, and dotfiles in a single-column format, which matches the administrator's goal of inspecting everything in the current directory without recursion or extra inode data.

Answer

ls -i

Answer

ls -R

Answer

ls -d

Question 7

A hospital IT team is evaluating a Linux distribution for its patient-record servers. The team wants a distribution whose packages are maintained by a vendor that offers commercial support contracts, certified hardware compatibility, and long-term security updates, rather than relying solely on community volunteers. Which type of distribution best fits these requirements?

Accepted Answer

An enterprise Linux distribution such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The hospital needs vendor accountability, formal support contracts, certified hardware, and a defined long-term security update stream. Commercial enterprise distributions such as RHEL and SLES are built around exactly that business model, with subscription-based access to patches and support. Rolling releases, self-built systems, and live-only images all lack the contractual maintenance guarantees required in a regulated healthcare environment.

Answer

A live-only distribution intended for USB troubleshooting

Answer

A bleeding-edge rolling release community distribution

Answer

A minimal distribution built from source by the hospital's own staff

Question 8

A junior administrator opens a terminal in their home directory and runs the command `cd /var/log` followed by `cd ..`. Which directory are they now in?

Accepted Answer

/var. The shell tracks a current working directory, and `cd` modifies it. An absolute path such as `/var/log` jumps directly to that location regardless of where the user started, while the special entry `..` always denotes the parent of the current directory. Applying `..` once from `/var/log` therefore lands in `/var`, the immediate parent of the log directory.

Answer

/var/log

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/home

Answer

/

Question 9

A user has a file named notes.txt in /home/alex and wants to create a copy named notes_backup.txt in the same directory without altering the original. Which command accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

cp notes.txt notes_backup.txt. Copying a file while keeping the original is exactly what cp does. The syntax cp source destination creates a new file with the same content and leaves the source in place. Renaming with mv, linking with ln, or redirecting with cat either removes the original name, shares the same inode, or lacks the robustness of a dedicated copy utility.

Answer

ln notes.txt notes_backup.txt

Answer

cat notes.txt > notes_backup.txt

Answer

mv notes.txt notes_backup.txt

Question 10

An administrator wants to create a hard link named 'report_link' to an existing file '/data/report.txt' on the same filesystem. Which command creates this hard link?

Accepted Answer

ln /data/report.txt report_link. A hard link is created with ln followed by the existing file and the new link name, producing two directory entries that share one inode. The -s flag would create a symbolic link instead, and the link utility lacks that flag. While cp -l can also hard-link, ln is the direct, standard command for this operation.

Answer

cp -l /data/report.txt report_link

Answer

link -s /data/report.txt report_link

Answer

ln -s /data/report.txt report_link

Question 11

While exploring a system, an administrator runs `ls -a` inside a directory and sees entries named `.` and `..` in addition to regular files. What do these two entries represent?

Accepted Answer

The current directory and its parent directory. The single dot is a reference to the directory containing it, and the double dot references that directory's parent. Both are ordinary directory entries maintained by the filesystem, hidden from default listings because their names begin with a dot. They underpin relative path resolution, allowing commands to address the current or parent directory without spelling out full absolute paths.

Answer

Symbolic links pointing to the filesystem root

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Hidden configuration files created by the user

Answer

Temporary files scheduled for deletion by the system

Question 12

A developer working in /srv/project wants to create a symbolic link named latest that points to the file releases/v2.1/app.tar.gz, keeping the link inside /srv/project. Which command creates this link correctly?

Accepted Answer

ln -s releases/v2.1/app.tar.gz latest. Symbolic links are created with ln -s, and the operand order is target first, link name second. Naming the relative path releases/v2.1/app.tar.gz as the target and latest as the new link places the symlink in the current directory and stores the relative path, which is what the developer intended.

Answer

cp -s releases/v2.1/app.tar.gz latest

Answer

ln -s latest releases/v2.1/app.tar.gz

Answer

ln releases/v2.1/app.tar.gz latest

Question 13

A technician needs to inspect a configuration file located at `/etc/example/app.conf` without changing the current working directory, and they want the shell prompt to keep showing their present location afterward. Which command accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

cat /etc/example/app.conf. Reading a file never requires the shell to relocate. Supplying the absolute path `/etc/example/app.conf` to `cat` lets the kernel resolve the file from the filesystem root while the process working directory stays unchanged. The prompt continues to report the original directory because no `cd` was executed, which is precisely the behavior the technician requested.

Answer

cd /etc/example && cat app.conf

Answer

less /etc/example/app.conf

Answer

cd /etc/example; cat app.conf; cd -

Question 14

A technician needs to locate every file under '/usr/share' whose name ends with '.conf'. Which command produces this list by searching the directory tree?

Accepted Answer

find /usr/share -name '*.conf'. Searching a directory tree for files by name pattern is the purpose of find with the -name test. The which command only checks PATH executables, locate relies on a possibly stale database and does not handle anchored globs the same way, and grep examines file contents rather than names. Quoting the pattern ensures the shell passes it literally to find.

Answer

which '*.conf' /usr/share

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locate '/usr/share/*.conf'

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grep -r '/usr/share' '*.conf'

Question 15

A system administrator is troubleshooting a Linux server that has become unresponsive. The administrator wants to view a snapshot of all currently running processes, including those not attached to a terminal, along with their process IDs and CPU usage. Which command should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

ps aux. The ps aux command generates a static snapshot of all processes on the system, including those without a controlling terminal, and shows PID, CPU usage, memory usage, and other details. This matches the administrator's requirement to inspect all running processes with their identifiers and processor utilization. The other commands either provide live updates, cover only shell jobs, or emphasize process hierarchy over resource metrics.

Answer

pstree

Answer

jobs

Answer

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