LPIC-1 GNU and Unix Commands Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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. Option C, `tar -tzf archive.tar.gz`, is correct because the `-t` flag lists the archive contents, `-z` tells tar to filter through gzip, and `-f` specifies the archive file, so it lists the members of the gzipped tarball without writing them to disk. Option E, `zcat archive.tar.gz | tar -t`, is correct because `zcat` decompresses the gzip stream to standard output and pipes it into `tar -t`, which lists the archive contents from stdin without extracting files to disk. Option A, `gzip -d archive.tar.gz`, is wrong because `-d` decompresses the file, replacing it with `archive.tar` on disk rather than merely viewing contents. Option B, `bunzip2 -c archive.tar.gz | tar -t`, is wrong because `bunzip2` handles bzip2 compression, not gzip, so it cannot decompress a `.tar.gz` file. Option D, `gunzip -l archive.tar.gz`, is wrong because `gunzip -l` lists compression statistics for the gzip file itself, not the contents of the tar archive inside it.

Answer

gzip -d archive.tar.gz

Answer

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

Answer

gunzip -l archive.tar.gz

Question 2

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 3

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 4

An administrator needs to copy a directory hierarchy from one server to another over SSH, preserving permissions, ownership, and timestamps. Which command is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

tar cf - /source | ssh user@dest "tar xf - -C /target". It uses `tar` to create an archive of the source directory, pipes it over SSH, and extracts it on the remote server with `tar xf - -C /target`. This method preserves all file metadata (permissions, ownership, timestamps) because `tar` captures and restores these attributes by default, and the pipe over SSH transfers the raw archive without any transformation. Unlike `scp` or `rsync` (without root privileges), this approach can preserve ownership even when the user is not root, as long as the remote `tar` runs with appropriate privileges.

Answer

cp -a /source /mnt/remote

Answer

scp -rp /source user@dest:/target

Answer

rsync -avz /source user@dest:/target

Question 5

Refer to the exhibit. The process with PID 1234 is in state 'Z'. What is the most likely cause and appropriate action?

Accepted Answer

The process is a zombie; the parent process must be killed or wait for it to be reaped.. In Linux process states, 'Z' indicates a zombie process, which is a child process that has terminated but whose exit status has not yet been read by its parent process via the wait() system call. The correct action is to either kill the parent process (so that the zombie is reaped by init) or ensure the parent calls wait() to reap the child. Option D correctly identifies this.

Answer

The process is stopped; use kill -CONT to continue.

Answer

The process is a daemon; it should be restarted.

Answer

The process is sleeping; wait for it to become ready.

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 THREE of the following are correct features of the 'grep' command? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

-i makes the search case-insensitive. Option A is correct because grep -i performs a case-insensitive search, so patterns like 'error' will also match 'Error' or 'ERROR'. Option B is correct because grep -v inverts the match, printing only the lines that do NOT contain the specified pattern. Option C is correct because grep -c suppresses normal output and instead prints a count of the matching lines. Option D is not correct because -l lists only the names of files containing matches, while line numbers are shown with -n. Option E is not correct because -r enables recursive searching through directories; regular expression matching is grep's default behavior, not enabled by -r.

Answer

-l prints line numbers of matches

Answer

-r enables regular expression matching

Question 8

After receiving a compressed tarball archive.tar.gz from a colleague, you want to list its contents without extracting. Which command should you use?

Accepted Answer

tar -tvf archive.tar.gz. The `tar -tvf archive.tar.gz` command lists the contents of a compressed tarball without extracting it. The `-t` option tells tar to list the archive's table of contents, `-v` provides verbose output (showing file permissions, ownership, etc.), and `-f` specifies the archive file. Tar automatically detects and decompresses the gzip compression when reading the file, so no separate decompression step is needed.

Answer

tar -xzf archive.tar.gz

Answer

tar -cvf archive.tar.gz

Answer

gzip -d archive.tar.gz | tar -t

Question 9

Which command is used to compress a file with the highest compression ratio?

Accepted Answer

xz -9. `xz -9` uses the LZMA2 compression algorithm, which typically achieves a higher compression ratio than gzip (DEFLATE) or bzip2 (Burrows-Wheeler transform) at the cost of slower speed and higher memory usage. The `-9` flag sets the highest compression level, maximizing the ratio.

Answer

gzip -9

Answer

bzip2 -9

Answer

compress

Question 10

Which THREE of the following are valid symbolic mode expressions for the chmod command?

Accepted Answer

u+x. Option A (u+x) is a valid symbolic mode because it specifies the user class 'u' and adds (+) the execute permission, which is standard chmod symbolic syntax. Option C (a+rwx) is valid because 'a' represents all three permission classes (user, group, and other) and +rwx grants read, write, and execute to each. Option E (g-w) is valid because it targets the group class 'g' and removes (-) the write permission. Option B (755) is not a symbolic mode but an octal (numeric) mode, which uses digits rather than letters and operators. Option D (c+r) is invalid because 'c' is not a recognized permission class in chmod; the valid classes are u, g, o, and a.

Answer

755

Answer

c+r

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. When will the backup script run?

Accepted Answer

Monthly at 4:30 AM on the 1st. The cron entry `30 4 1 * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh` specifies that the script runs when the minute is 30, hour is 4, and day-of-month is 1, with the month and day-of-week fields set to `*` (meaning every month and every day of the week). This results in execution at 4:30 AM on the 1st day of every month, making option B correct.

Answer

Daily at 4:30 AM

Answer

Yearly at 4:30 AM

Answer

Weekly at 4:30 AM

Question 12

A company runs a legacy application on a Linux server. The application fails to start after a reboot, claiming a 'cannot open shared object file' error. The system administrator checks the library path and finds that the required library is present in /usr/local/lib but the application cannot find it. The administrator has verified that the library file exists and is readable. Which of the following is the most likely cause and solution?

Accepted Answer

The library path is not in /etc/ld.so.conf; run ldconfig after adding it.. The dynamic linker/loader (ld.so) uses the cache file /etc/ld.so.cache to resolve shared library dependencies at runtime. Although the library exists in /usr/local/lib, that path is not listed in /etc/ld.so.conf (or a file included by it), so the linker never scans it. Running ldconfig rebuilds the cache and makes the library discoverable, which resolves the 'cannot open shared object file' error.

Answer

The library has insufficient execute permissions; add execute bit.

Answer

The application is setuid root and the library path is ignored; use $LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Answer

The library is compiled for a different architecture; recompile the library.

Question 13

A system administrator notices that the system's syslog messages are not being written to /var/log/messages. The rsyslog service is running. The administrator wants to check the configuration syntax of rsyslog. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

rsyslogd -N. The correct command is `rsyslogd -N` because the `-N` option performs a configuration syntax check without starting or restarting the rsyslog daemon. This allows the administrator to validate the rsyslog configuration file for errors before applying changes, ensuring that syslog messages will be written correctly to /var/log/messages.

Answer

rsyslogd -d

Answer

rsyslogd -f

Answer

rsyslogd -v

Question 14

A user reports that when they run 'ls -l' in their home directory, they see files but all files have permissions like '-rwxrwxrwx', which is unexpected. The system administrator checks and finds that the user's umask is set to 000. The user wants all new files to be created with default permissions of -rw-r--r-- (644) and directories that are drwxr-xr-x (755). What should the user set their umask to?

Accepted Answer

022. The umask is a three-digit octal value that is subtracted from the default base permissions (666 for files, 777 for directories) to determine the default permissions for newly created files and directories. To achieve file permissions of 644 (rw-r--r--) and directory permissions of 755 (rwxr-xr-x), the umask must be 022. This is because 666 - 022 = 644 for files, and 777 - 022 = 755 for directories.

Answer

007

Answer

002

Answer

027

Question 15

Which TWO of the following commands output the total number of lines in a file?

Accepted Answer

sed -n '$='. Option D, `sed -n '$=',` is correct because sed's `=` command prints the current line number, and with the `$` address it prints only the line number of the last line, which equals the total number of lines in the file. Option E, `wc -l`, is correct because `wc` with the `-l` flag counts and outputs the number of newline characters, which is the standard way to report a file's total line count. Option A, `grep -c '.',` is wrong because it counts only lines containing at least one character (the `.` regex matches any single character), so it omits empty lines and does not give the true total. Option B, `nl`, is wrong because it numbers and prints every line of the file rather than outputting a single total count. Option C, `head -n 1`, is wrong because it outputs only the first line of the file, not the total number of lines.

Answer

grep -c '.'

Answer

nl

Answer

head -n 1