LPIC-1 Practice Test 9 — 10 Questions

Question 1

Arrange the steps to troubleshoot a service that fails to start.

Accepted Answer

Check service status and logs, then examine configuration files, then fix the issue, then restart the service.. Troubleshooting starts with checking status and logs, then examining config files, fixing, and restarting.

Answer

Examine configuration files, then check service status and logs, then fix the issue, then restart the service.

Answer

Check service status and logs, then fix the issue, then examine configuration files, then restart the service.

Answer

Restart the service, then check service status and logs, then examine configuration files, then fix the issue.

Question 2

An administrator needs to identify the device file for the first SATA SSD in a server. Which device file should they use?

Accepted Answer

/dev/sda. The first SATA SSD in a Linux system is typically assigned the device file /dev/sda. SATA drives use the SCSI subsystem via the libata driver, which names them /dev/sdX, with 'a' representing the first detected drive. This is the standard naming convention for SATA SSDs in modern Linux kernels.

Answer

/dev/hda

Answer

/dev/sdb

Answer

/dev/nvme0n1

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. The /var partition is nearly full. Which of the following is the most appropriate first step to free up space?

Accepted Answer

Delete old log files in /var/log and clear package cache.. The most common cause of a full /var partition is accumulated log files in /var/log and cached package data. Deleting old logs (e.g., via logrotate or manual cleanup) and clearing the package manager cache (e.g., apt-get clean or yum clean all) directly reclaims space without requiring disk resizing or additional hardware. This is the safest and fastest first step before considering more invasive actions.

Answer

Move some files from /var to / and create a symbolic link.

Answer

Increase the size of /dev/sdb2 using resize2fs.

Answer

Add a new disk and mount it to /var.

Question 4

A server has a partition /dev/sda2 that is almost full. The admin suspects a large file has been deleted but is still held open by a process. Which command can identify such a file?

Accepted Answer

lsof | grep deleted. The `lsof` command lists open files and their associated processes. When a file is deleted but still held open by a process, `lsof` shows the filename with a '(deleted)' marker in its output. Piping through `grep deleted` filters for exactly those entries, allowing the admin to identify the file and the process keeping it alive, which is the precise scenario described.

Answer

du -sh /

Answer

find / -size +100M

Answer

df -h

Question 5

The /proc filesystem is described as a virtual filesystem. Which statement best describes its purpose?

Accepted Answer

It provides an interface to kernel data structures and processes.. The /proc filesystem is a virtual filesystem that does not contain actual files on disk but instead provides a runtime interface to kernel data structures, including process information, system memory, CPU details, and hardware configuration. This allows users and system tools (like ps, top, and free) to read kernel state in real time without needing direct kernel memory access.

Answer

It contains configuration files for system services.

Answer

It holds binary executables for system administration.

Answer

It stores temporary files that survive reboots.

Question 6

Which TWO commands can be used to display the contents of a compressed file without decompressing it to disk? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

zcat file.gz. Option A, zcat file.gz, is correct because zcat (equivalent to gzip -dc) decompresses the gzip stream and writes the contents to standard output, so the file is displayed on screen without ever being written back to disk. Option D, bzcat file.bz2, is correct for the same reason with bzip2-compressed files: it decompresses to stdout, letting you view the contents without creating a decompressed file on disk. Option B, gzip -d file.gz, is wrong because the -d flag decompresses the file on disk, replacing file.gz with the uncompressed file rather than displaying it. Option C, tar -xzf file.tar.gz, is wrong because -x extracts the archive's members to the filesystem, writing files to disk instead of showing them. Option E, uncompress file.Z, is wrong because it restores the original uncompressed file on disk and removes the .Z file, not displaying contents to stdout.

Answer

gzip -d file.gz

Answer

tar -xzf file.tar.gz

Answer

uncompress file.Z

Question 7

Which TWO options in /etc/fstab affect whether a filesystem is mounted at boot? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

auto. Option C (auto) is correct because it explicitly marks the filesystem as mountable by the mount -a command, which is what the boot process runs to mount all entries in /etc/fstab, so an entry with auto will be mounted at boot. Option E (noauto) is correct because it does the opposite: it tells mount -a to skip that entry, meaning the filesystem will not be mounted automatically at boot and must be mounted manually. The other options do not control boot-time mounting: A (user) permits non-root users to mount the filesystem, B (defaults) is a shorthand for rw,suid,dev,exec,auto,nouser,async (it includes auto but is a general option bundle, not the specific boot-mount toggle), and D (ro) only sets the filesystem read-only, which is unrelated to whether it is mounted at boot.

Answer

user

Answer

defaults

Answer

ro

Question 8

A server has a backup script that runs daily at midnight. The system administrator notices that the script sometimes fails because the filesystem is mounted read-only. Which approach is the best practice to ensure the script runs only when the filesystem is writable?

Accepted Answer

Wrap the backup command in a script that checks if the filesystem is writable before proceeding. It implements a proactive check within the script itself, using a command like `touch /mountpoint/testfile 2>/dev/null` or checking `/proc/mounts` to verify write access before executing the backup. This avoids unnecessary remounts and ensures the script only proceeds when the filesystem is writable, which is a robust and self-contained solution.

Answer

Add a cron job that runs before the backup to remount the filesystem read-write

Answer

Use anacron to run the job after boot

Answer

Change the cron job to run every hour until it succeeds

Question 9

A script produces both standard output and error messages. An administrator wants to save the output to 'out.log' and the error messages to 'err.log', but also wants to see both on the terminal. Which command achieves this?

Accepted Answer

./script.sh > >(tee out.log) 2> >(tee err.log). Uses process substitution to redirect stdout and stderr into separate tee commands, which both write to files and pass the streams through to the terminal. The syntax `> >(tee out.log)` redirects stdout to a tee process that writes to out.log and also echoes to the terminal, while `2> >(tee err.log)` does the same for stderr. This ensures both streams are saved to separate files and displayed on the terminal simultaneously.

Answer

./script.sh 2>&1 | tee out.log 2>&1 | tee err.log

Answer

./script.sh > out.log 2> err.log

Answer

./script.sh 2>&1 | tee out.log

Question 10

Which TWO of the following commands can be used to create a new filesystem on a partition?

Accepted Answer

mkfs.ext4. Option B, mkfs.ext4, is correct because it is a front-end to the mkfs family that specifically writes an ext4 filesystem onto a block device or partition, e.g. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1. Option E, mkfs, is correct because it is the generic filesystem-creation utility that, when invoked with a type such as mkfs -t xfs /dev/sdb1, builds a new filesystem on the target partition. The unmarked options do not belong: fdisk (A) and parted (C) are partitioning tools that create/modify partition tables and partitions, not filesystems, and fsck (D) is a consistency-checking and repair utility for existing filesystems, not a creator.

Answer

fdisk

Answer

parted

Answer

fsck