LPIC-1 GNU and Unix Commands — 10 Questions

Question 1

A systems administrator needs to change the permissions of the file /home/user/script.sh so that the owner can read, write, and execute; the group can read and execute; and others have no access. Which command accomplishes this?

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

Accepted Answer

chmod 750 /home/user/script.sh. Chmod 750 sets the permissions to rwxr-x---, which gives the owner read, write, and execute (7), the group read and execute (5), and others no access (0). This matches the requirement exactly.

Answer

chmod 755 /home/user/script.sh

Answer

chmod 770 /home/user/script.sh

Answer

chmod 741 /home/user/script.sh

Question 2

Which TWO commands can be used to view the contents of a compressed file named archive.tar.gz without extracting it to disk?

Accepted Answer

tar -tzf archive.tar.gz. The `tar -tzf` command lists the contents of a tar archive compressed with gzip without extracting it. The `-t` flag tells tar to list the table of contents, `-z` handles the gzip decompression on the fly, and `-f` specifies the archive file. This is the standard, single-command method for viewing the contents of a `.tar.gz` file without writing any files to disk.

Answer

gzip -d archive.tar.gz

Answer

bunzip2 -c archive.tar.gz | tar -t

Answer

gunzip -l archive.tar.gz

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator needs to edit /etc/example.conf to change setting1 to 'production' and add a new line 'setting2=value' after the include line. The file must be edited in place without creating a backup. Which command sequence achieves this?

Accepted Answer

sed -i 's/setting1=default/setting1=production/' /etc/example.conf; sed -i '/^include /a
setting2=value' /etc/example.conf. The first sed command uses the -i flag to edit the file in place without a backup, and the substitution 's/setting1=default/setting1=production/' changes the existing setting. The second sed command uses the 'a' (append) command after the line matching '^include ' to add the new line 'setting2=value' after it, also with -i to avoid creating a backup.

Answer

sed -i 's/setting1=default/setting1=production/' /etc/example.conf; sed -i '/^include /i
setting2=value' /etc/example.conf

Answer

sed -i.bak 's/setting1=default/setting1=production/' /etc/example.conf; sed -i.bak '/^include /a
setting2=value' /etc/example.conf

Answer

sed -i.bak 's/setting1=default/setting1=production/' /etc/example.conf; sed -i.bak '/^include /a
setting2=value' /etc/example.conf

Question 4

You are a Linux administrator for a company that runs a web server on a system with limited disk space. The web server logs are stored in /var/log/httpd/access_log and grow quickly. The operations team requires that the most recent logs be available for troubleshooting, but logs older than 7 days must be compressed to save space. You decide to implement log rotation using logrotate. The logrotate configuration file for httpd currently contains:

/var/log/httpd/*.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /bin/systemctl reload httpd 2>/dev/null || true
    endscript
}

After applying this configuration, you notice that log files are being compressed immediately instead of after one rotation. What is the most likely cause and the correct step to fix this?

Accepted Answer

Change the rotation frequency to 'weekly' so that the most recent week's logs remain uncompressed and older logs are compressed.. The issue is that with daily rotation, the delaycompress directive delays compression by only one rotation (one day). This means that rotated logs are compressed after one day, not after the desired 7 days. To meet the requirement that logs older than 7 days are compressed, the rotation frequency should be changed to weekly. With weekly rotation, delaycompress delays compression by one week, so logs younger than 7 days remain uncompressed and the most recent week's logs are available for troubleshooting.

Answer

Remove the 'sharedscripts' directive to ensure the postrotate script runs for each log file individually.

Answer

Remove the 'delaycompress' directive to ensure compression occurs at each rotation.

Answer

Add the 'copytruncate' directive to avoid moving the log file, allowing the web server to continue writing to the same file.

Question 5

Arrange the steps to configure a static IP address on a Linux system using the command line.

Accepted Answer

Step 1: Open the network configuration file (e.g., /etc/network/interfaces).
Step 2: Configure the interface with static IP, netmask, gateway, and DNS.
Step 3: Save and exit the file.
Step 4: Restart the networking service.. Static IP configuration requires editing the appropriate config file, then restarting networking to apply changes.

Answer

Step 1: Restart the networking service.
Step 2: Open the network configuration file.
Step 3: Configure the interface with static IP, netmask, gateway, and DNS.
Step 4: Save and exit the file.

Answer

Step 1: Open the network configuration file.
Step 2: Save and exit the file.
Step 3: Configure the interface with static IP, netmask, gateway, and DNS.
Step 4: Restart the networking service.

Answer

Step 1: Configure the interface with static IP, netmask, gateway, and DNS.
Step 2: Restart the networking service.
Step 3: Open the network configuration file.
Step 4: Save and exit the file.

Question 6

Order the steps to recover a forgotten root password on a Linux system.

Accepted Answer

1. Reboot the system. 2. Interrupt the GRUB bootloader. 3. Add 'init=/bin/bash' to the kernel command line. 4. Boot the system. 5. Remount the root filesystem as read-write. 6. Change the root password using passwd. 7. Reboot the system.. Recovery involves booting into a shell with root access, remounting read-write, and changing the password.

Answer

1. Reboot the system. 2. Interrupt the GRUB bootloader. 3. Add 'init=/bin/bash' to the kernel command line. 4. Boot the system. 5. Change the root password using passwd. 6. Remount the root filesystem as read-write. 7. Reboot the system.

Answer

1. Reboot the system. 2. Boot into single-user mode from GRUB. 3. Remount the root filesystem as read-write. 4. Change the root password using passwd. 5. Reboot the system.

Answer

1. Reboot the system. 2. Edit GRUB to add 'single' to the kernel line. 3. Boot the system. 4. Remount the root filesystem as read-write. 5. Change the root password using passwd. 6. Reboot the system.

Question 7

Match each Linux runlevel to its typical description.

Accepted Answer

runlevel 0: Halt. Standard SysV init runlevels: 0 (halt), 1 (single-user), 3 (multi-user with network), 5 (graphical multi-user), 6 (reboot). Common confusions involve swapping definitions between runlevels 3 and 5.

Answer

runlevel 3: Graphical multi-user mode

Answer

runlevel 5: Multi-user mode with network

Question 8

Match each device file naming pattern to its device type.

Accepted Answer

/dev/sda: SATA/SCSI hard disk. Common Linux device naming conventions: /dev/sdX for SATA/SCSI, /dev/hdX for IDE, /dev/ttySX for serial ports, /dev/srX for optical drives, /dev/nvmeXnY for NVMe. Be cautious not to confuse with floppy (/dev/fdX) or other types.

Answer

/dev/sr0: Floppy disk

Question 9

A systems administrator needs to find all files in /var/log that were modified in the last 24 hours and contain the word 'error'. Which command accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

find /var/log -mtime 0 -exec grep -l 'error' {} \;. It uses `find` with `-mtime 0` to locate files modified within the last 24 hours, then pipes each found file to `grep -l` to print only filenames containing 'error'. The `-exec` option runs `grep` on each file individually, and `-l` ensures only matching filenames are output, not the matching lines.

Answer

grep -r 'error' /var/log -mtime 0

Answer

find /var/log -mmin 1440 -exec grep 'error' {}

Answer

ls -l /var/log | grep error

Question 10

An administrator wants to change the ownership of a file to user 'jane' and group 'staff'. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

chown jane:staff file. The `chown` command with the syntax `chown user:group file` changes both the user and group ownership of a file in a single command. This is the standard POSIX syntax, where a colon separates the user and group names, allowing the administrator to set ownership to user 'jane' and group 'staff' atomically.

Answer

chown jane.staff file

Answer

chgrp jane staff file

Answer

chown jane staff file