LPIC-1 · domain
Devices, Filesystems and FHS
This LPIC-1 domain covers Linux block devices, filesystem creation and repair, mounting and /etc/fstab, the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, disk space usage, and ACLs. Questions are scenario-based: you inspect an exhibit (command output or fstab) and choose the correct commands, order of steps, or filesystem for a stated requirement.
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What to know about Devices, Filesystems and FHS
You must be able to inspect disks, create and repair filesystems, mount them persistently through /etc/fstab, and manage ACLs. The most important thing is reading the exhibit carefully: identify the device, filesystem type, and current state before choosing any command or step order.
Partitioning and managing disks with fdisk, gdisk, parted, and lsblk
Creating, checking, and tuning filesystems with mkfs, fsck, tune2fs, and blkid
Mounting filesystems via mount, umount, /etc/fstab, and systemd mount units
FHS directory purposes plus du, df, and ACLs via getfacl and setfacl
Watch out for
Common Devices, Filesystems and FHS exam traps
- ▸Confusing fsck pass numbers in /etc/fstab: pass 0 means no check, and the root filesystem is normally checked first.
- ▸Forgetting that extending a filesystem requires resizing the partition or logical volume first, then the filesystem itself.
- ▸Assuming ACLs apply without a filesystem mounted with the acl option, or omitting the default ACL needed for inherited permissions.
Question index
All Devices, Filesystems and FHS questions (69)
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Refer to the exhibit. A user tries to execute a script on a mounted filesystem but gets a permission denied error. The script has execute permissions. What is the most likely cause?
Hard2Refer to the exhibit. An admin attempts to execute a shell script located in /tmp but gets 'Permission denied'. Which mount option is most likely causing this?
Hard3Which THREE of the following commands can be used to display information about block devices?
Medium4An administrator is preparing a new USB drive for use as a portable ext4 data disk. After writing the partition table, the administrator wants to confirm the partition layout and the filesystem type currently on the device before formatting. Which command displays both the partition table and the detected filesystem types for /dev/sdd?
Medium5Refer to the exhibit. An administrator notices that /proc is mounted with 'noexec'. What is the impact of this mount option?
Easy6Which directory in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) contains essential user command binaries that are needed in single-user mode?
Easy7You are a system administrator at a hosting company. A customer reports that their website hosted on a shared LAMP server is returning error 500. The server runs Ubuntu 22.04 with Apache, MySQL, and PHP. You log in and find that the /var partition (on /dev/sda3, ext4) is almost full. You identify that the MySQL database directory /var/lib/mysql contains several large binary logs that are no longer needed. You delete the binary logs using 'rm -f /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.*'. However, the available space does not increase. You also notice that an inode leak is suspected. You check inode usage with 'df -i' and see that the partition has plenty of free inodes. You then check with 'lsof | grep deleted' and see several entries for mysqld holding deleted files. What is the correct procedure to free the space?
Hard8A user complains that a filesystem is reporting 'Disk quota exceeded' even though the user has not stored any new files recently. What could be the cause?
Medium9A system is running out of disk space on /var. The administrator finds that /var/log/syslog is 4GB. Which of the following is the best course of action to prevent future issues while keeping recent logs?
Hard10A Linux administrator needs to create a new ext4 filesystem on a logical volume /dev/vg0/lv_data and mount it persistently at /data. Which TWO of the following steps are required to accomplish this? (Choose two.)
Hard11A system administrator notices that the /tmp directory is filling up quickly, causing applications to fail. The administrator wants to ensure that files in /tmp are automatically cleaned after a certain period. Which of the following is the best approach without installing additional software?
Medium12A Linux administrator needs to create an ext4 filesystem on the second partition of the third SCSI disk, /dev/sdc2. After running mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc2, the command completes successfully. Which additional step is required before the filesystem can be mounted and used?
Medium13Refer to the exhibit. The system administrator notices the /var/log partition is nearly full. The syslog file is 2GB. Which command will safely reduce the size of this log file without stopping the logging daemon?
Medium14Which directory under the root filesystem is defined by FHS as containing variable data that may change in size, such as logs and spools?
Medium15A technician is preparing a USB stick that must be readable by both Linux and Windows systems without installing extra drivers. Which filesystem should be created on the stick?
Easy16An administrator runs `mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/data` and receives the error "mount: /mnt/data: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'." The partition contains an NTFS volume that must be mounted read-write on a Linux server. Which action resolves the issue?
Medium17A server has an LVM logical volume mounted at /data. The administrator needs to add a new physical disk to the volume group and then extend both the logical volume and the filesystem online, without unmounting. Which sequence of commands achieves this?
Hard18A technician is troubleshooting a server whose /var partition is reported as full by applications, but df -h shows the filesystem at only 40 percent usage. The technician suspects deleted files are still held open by running processes. Which command best identifies the process holding a deleted file open on that filesystem?
Hard19Which TWO of the following are true about the /proc filesystem?
Hard20A system administrator needs to check if a filesystem has any errors without actually performing a repair. Which command should be used?
Easy21A junior administrator needs to create a new ext4 filesystem on the partition /dev/sdb2. The partition already exists but has never been formatted. Which command should the administrator run to create the filesystem?
Easy22A Linux administrator runs df -h and sees that the /var filesystem is 100% full. The administrator deletes several large log files, but df still shows 100% usage. Which command should the administrator use to identify processes that are holding deleted files open?
Medium23Refer to the exhibit. A user tries to write to /mnt/usb/myfile.txt as a non-root user and receives a permission denied error. What is the most likely reason?
Medium24An administrator needs to identify the device file for the first SATA SSD in a server. Which device file should they use?
Easy25A technician needs to inspect the filesystem type, UUID, and filesystem label of the partition /dev/sdb1 without mounting it. Which command provides all of this information in a single invocation?
Medium26A 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?
Medium27A Linux system has a software RAID1 array /dev/md0 consisting of /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1. After replacing a failed disk, the administrator runs 'mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sdc1', but the array remains degraded. Which command should be used to check the status of the array?
Hard28The /proc filesystem is described as a virtual filesystem. Which statement best describes its purpose?
Easy29An administrator must configure persistent mounts for two filesystems on a database server. One is an ext4 volume that should be mounted at boot without failing the whole boot process if it is unavailable. The other is a swap partition that must be activated at boot. Which TWO entries belong in /etc/fstab to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)
Medium30Which TWO options in /etc/fstab affect whether a filesystem is mounted at boot? (Choose two.)
Easy31A system administrator wants to ensure that the filesystem on /dev/sdb1 is checked for errors every 30 mounts. Which command accomplishes this?
Easy32Which TWO of the following commands can be used to create a new filesystem on a partition?
Easy33A junior administrator accidentally deleted a large log file that is still being written to by a running process. The file no longer appears in directory listings, but `df -h` shows the filesystem is still nearly full. Which command will reclaim the space without interrupting the running process?
Medium34Refer to the exhibit. An administrator attempts to remount /mnt as read-only but receives the error shown. What is the most likely cause?
Medium35According to FHS, which directory should NOT be mounted on a networked filesystem (e.g., NFS) because it contains host-specific configuration files?
Hard36An ext4 filesystem is experiencing performance degradation due to very frequent small writes. Which tune2fs option can help by reserving a percentage of blocks for the root user to prevent fragmentation?
Hard37An administrator needs to mount an ISO image located at /tmp/install.iso to the directory /mnt/iso. Which command will accomplish this?
Medium38Refer to the exhibit. The 'mount -a' command fails for the NFS mount. What is the most likely cause?
Hard39A company is setting up a database server that requires high reliability and support for snapshots. The storage will be on a single large disk. Which filesystem is best suited for this requirement?
Hard40Which TWO commands can be used to create an ext4 filesystem on a partition?
Easy41Refer to the exhibit. The root filesystem is nearly full. The administrator needs to increase its size. Which steps should be performed?
Hard42A user reports that a USB flash drive plugged into a Linux workstation is not automatically mounted. The administrator runs 'lsblk' and sees the device as /dev/sdb1 with no mountpoint. Which command should the administrator use to manually mount the filesystem on /dev/sdb1 to the /mnt/usb directory?
Easy43Refer to the exhibit. On boot, which filesystem will be checked first by fsck?
Medium44After modifying /etc/fstab, an administrator wants to test if the new mount points can be mounted without rebooting. Which command should be used?
Easy45Which TWO commands can be used to display the UUID of a filesystem? (Choose two.)
Easy46An admin runs 'lsblk' and sees that /dev/nvme0n1p1 is listed with size 512M and mounted at /boot/efi. What is the most likely filesystem type?
Medium47After running 'df -h', the administrator sees that /dev/sda1 is 100% used. 'du -sh /mountpoint' shows only 50% used. What is the most likely cause?
Medium48Arrange the steps to create a LVM logical volume and mount it.
Medium49Refer to the exhibit. How many physical disks are present in the system?
Easy50Which TWO of the following are valid methods to specify a partition in /etc/fstab?
Medium51Which THREE of the following directories are part of the FHS and must be present on a standard Linux system? (Choose three.)
Hard52A Linux administrator is preparing a new server and needs to create an ext4 filesystem on the /dev/sdb1 partition. Which command should be used?
Easy53A user reports that they cannot create new files in their home directory even though the filesystem shows free space. Running df -h shows the filesystem at 100 percent inode usage. Which action most directly resolves the immediate problem?
Easy54Refer to the exhibit. The system administrator sees that /var/log is 93% full and the syslog file is nearly 2 GB. What is the most appropriate immediate action to free up disk space without losing any critical log data?
Easy55An administrator needs to gather detailed information about the partition table and filesystem geometry of /dev/sda before migrating data. Which TWO commands will display the partition layout of the disk? (Choose two.)
Medium56An administrator needs to mount an ISO image file /tmp/image.iso to the directory /mnt/iso. Which command should be used?
Medium57Which TWO statements about udev rules are correct? (Choose two.)
Medium58Which of the following commands displays the amount of free disk space on all mounted filesystems in a human-readable format?
Easy59An administrator plans to back up the /home filesystem using dump. Which option to dump is required to perform a full backup?
Medium60A technician is repairing a system and needs to mount the root filesystem from a different disk to /mnt/sysroot. The partition is /dev/sda2 with an ext4 filesystem. Which command should be used?
Easy61A server has a dedicated disk /dev/sdc that will store application logs. The administrator wants the filesystem to be checked automatically only after 30 mounts or 60 days, whichever comes first, and wants to reduce the reserved block percentage to 1 percent. Which single command accomplishes both changes on the existing ext4 filesystem?
Medium62A system administrator wants to install custom scripts that should be available to all users. The scripts are not part of any package and should be placed under the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). Which directory is most appropriate?
Medium63Refer to the exhibit. An administrator wants to mount /dev/sda4 persistently by its UUID. Which line should be added to /etc/fstab?
Medium64An administrator needs to create a new ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1 and wants to reserve 2% of the blocks for the root user. Which command should be used?
Medium65Refer to the exhibit. How much unpartitioned space is available on /dev/sda?
Easy66A system administrator needs to locate the largest directories under /var to free up disk space. Which command is most appropriate?
Easy67Order the steps to create and apply a file system permission using ACLs.
Medium68A system administrator is troubleshooting a server where the /var partition is full, causing services to fail. The administrator deletes old log files in /var/log, but the available space does not increase. Which step should be taken next?
Hard69An administrator notices that a large file on an ext4 filesystem is taking up more disk space than expected based on its size. Which command would show the actual disk usage (block allocation) of the file?
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Devices, Filesystems and FHS domain cover on the LPIC-1 exam?
- You must be able to inspect disks, create and repair filesystems, mount them persistently through /etc/fstab, and manage ACLs. The most important thing is reading the exhibit carefully: identify the device, filesystem type, and current state before choosing any command or step order.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 69 Devices, Filesystems and FHS questions in the LPIC-1 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
- Can I practise only Devices, Filesystems and FHS questions?
- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.