Test 1 Flashcards by Kenneth Alvarez

Describe three reasons you should learn about Linux.

Linux is in widespread use. It manages point-of-sale systems and the world’s stock markets. Linux provides the foundation powering the loud revolution and the tools used to build the next generation of container-based microservices applications, software-based storage technologies, and big data solutions.

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List three ways Linux is used today in modern datacenters.

A Windows user needs to interoperate with Linux. In application development, Linux hosts the application or runtime. In cloud computing, the cloud instances in the private or public cloud environment use Linux as the operating system.

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Explain in detail what open source software is.

Open source software is software with source code that anyone can use, study, modify, and share.

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In Chapter 1 you learned about the Linux CLI. Why is the CLI important in Linux?

From the CLI you can perform all administrative tasks.

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According to Chapter 1, who develops open source software?

Many developers are paid by their organizations to work with open-source projects. Volunteers and the academic community also make vital contributions.

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In detail describe what Red Hat is.

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open-source software solutions, using a
community-powered approach to reliable and high-performance cloud, Linux, middleware, storage, and virtualization technologies.

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What is a Linux distribution?

A Linux distribution is an installable operating system constructed from a Linux kernel and supporting user programs and libraries.

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Explain the multistage process that Red Hat uses to integrate open source software into RHEL?

Red hat supports individual open-source projects (code, dev time, resources). Red hat sponsors and integrates projects into a community-driven Linux Distribution Fedora. Then then stabilize the software to ensure it is ready for long term support and standardization.

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What is Fedora?

It is a community of open-source contributors for Linux. In 2020 it was announced CentOS was discontinued and replaced with CentOS Stream.

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What is Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Red Hat’s enterprise-ready, commercially-supported Linux distribution. It is the leading source for open-source computing.

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List three ways to “try out” Red Hat Enterprise Linux as detailed in Chapter 1.

You can download an evaluation copy from https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/evaluation. A free subscription is available for certain products. It is also possible to deploy an instance of RHEL through a cloud provider

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What is bash? What is sh? What is the difference between bash and sh?

The default shell for RHEL is bash itcan be used to execute commands and comes with a scripting language. sh is one of the most successful shells on UNIX-like systems. bash is just an improved version of sh.

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Explain what is meant by command line.

A text-based interface which can be used to input instructions to a computer system.

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What is shell?

A program that is used to access the Linux command line.

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List and define the three parts of a Linux command.

Command is the name of the program to run. Options are used to adjust the behavior of the command. Arguments are the targets of the command.

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What does the option –help do? Explain.

Causes the command to print a description of what it does.

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Explain what a desktop environment is; give examples.

The desktop environment is the graphical user interface on a Linux system. The default desktop environment for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is provided by GNOME 3.

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List the procedure to shut down a RHEL8 server from the GNOME3 desktop.

User>Power Off or Ctrl+Alt+Del

What is meant by a file system hierarchy?

All Linux files are stored on file systems that are organized into a single inverted tree. The root of the tree is at the top of the hierarchy (inverted). Directories and subdirectories stretch below the root (branch off).

What is the purpose of the following Linux directories?
a. /boot
b. /etc
c. /root
d. /usr
e. /var

a. /boot Where the kernel is and what is needed to support it. A small part of the system.
b. /etc Configuration files specific to this system
c. /root Roots home directory
d. /usr Users can read files here.
e. /var Any files that change a lot, email/ web documents.

Explain what an absolute path is. Define a relative path and compare it to an absolute path.

Absolute path is a fully qualified name. beginning at /(root) and specifying each subcategory traversed to reach a single file.
Relative path identifies a unique file specifying from the current directory to that unique file.

(4) What do the following Linux commands do?
a. Cd
b. Ls
c. Pwd
d. Touch

a. Cd Used to change directory. Cd spaced enter takes the user back to your home.
b. Ls Lists directory contents for the specified directory or if there is none, the current directory
c. Pwd Displays where you are working in the files system
d. Touch Updates a file’s timestamp to the current date and time. Can also create an empty file.

Assuming you have the necessary permissions, what behavior would you expect from the following command, option, and argument combinations?
a. cd –
b. cd .
c. cd ../..
d. cd /bin
e. cd /home/ringo
f. cd ~
g. cd bin
h. cp joe mary
i. ls -l
j. ls -l Music Pictures Videos
k. ls -la /docs/IST190
l. ls -R
m. mkdir -p docs/IST190/practice
n. mv mary /tmp/joe
o. mv mystuff ~/oldstuff
p. mv song1.mp3 song2.mp3 song3.mp3 mymusic
q. rm –rf /tmp
r.touch awesome Creates the awesome file

a. cd – Previous directory
b. cd . Current directory
c. cd ../.. Parent directory twice
d. cd /bin Go to /bin directory
e. cd /home/ringo Go to ringo directory
f. cd ~ home directory
g. cd bin Go to bin directory
h. cp joe mary Copies contents of joe into mary directory
i. ls -l Diplays directory contents
j. ls -l Music Pictures Videos Shows contents of music, pictures, and Videos directories
k. ls -la /docs/IST190 Shows contents of IST190
l. ls -R Displays contents of all subdirectories
m. mkdir -p docs/IST190/practice practice would be created in the IST190 directory
n. mv mary /tmp/joe Moves mary into the joe directory
o. mv mystuff ~/oldstuff moves mystuff into oldstuff directory
p. mv song1.mp3 song2.mp3 song3.mp3 mymusic moves song1.mp3 song2.mp3 song3.mp3 into mymusic
q. rm –rf /tmp Deletes the tmp directory and subdirectories without prompting the user
touch awesome Creates the awesome file

Define these Linux meta-characters as they apply to file globbing:

a. *
b. ?
c. [[:alpha:]]
d. [[:digit:]]
e. [[:space:]]
f. [^aeiou]
g. [aeiou]

a. * Any string of zero or more characters
b. ? Any single character
c. [[:alpha:]] Any alphabetic character
d. [[:digit:]] Any single digit from 0 to 9
e. [[:space:]] Any single white space character. (tabs, spaces).
f. [^aeiou] Gets any character not a, e, i ,o , or u
g. [aeiou] Gets the character a, e , i, o, and/or u

Assuming you have the necessary permissions, what behavior would you expect from the following command, option, and argument combinations? a. echo “Today is $(date +%A).” b. ls *.?? c. ls –l [xyz]* d. ls –la *z* e. touch volume{1..2}_chapter{1..6}.txt

a. echo “Today is $(date +%A).” “Today is (current day of the week)” b. ls *.?? Lists any files with four characters c. ls –l [xyz]* lists any files in the current directory that contain the character x, y, or z. d. ls –la *z* Lists any file that contains a z e. touch volume{1..2}_chapter{1..6}.txt Creates volume 1 and 2 then adds _chapter 1-6.txt Example: volume2_chapter4.txt volume1_chapter2.txt

Hard link advantages and disadvantages

A hard link is a second name for a file, the new hard link acts exactly like the original file name. ls -l commands show how many hard links a file has. ln creates a new hard link to an existing file. Ls -il shows the file’s inode number. This means the two files are hard-linked. Hard link must be used with regular files, you cannot use In to create a hard link to a directory or special file, hard links can only be used if both files are on the same file system.

Soft link advantages and disadvantages

Soft link(or symbolic link) is a special type of file that points to an existing file or directory. They can link two files on different file systems. They can point to a directory or special file, not just a regular file. Ln -s is used to create a soft link. If the original file gets deleted the soft link will point to nothing(dangling soft link).

In your own words define what metacharacters are

Certain characters that have special properties in Linux systems.

a. Tilde (~) expansion

Matches users home directory, when followed by a string of characters, it will be interpreted as a username if one matches, if no username matches it will be returned as a tilde

b. Brace ({ }) expansion

Used to generate string of characters, comma separated list of strings (sequence expression), includes text preceding or following the brace definition, may be nester inside another

c. Command substitution ( $(command) )

Allows the output of a command to replace itself, $(command) ‘command’

What are man pages?

Used to be called Linux Programmers Manual. Contained info for specific types of files, which become the sections listed next. Articles are referred to as topics.

List the nine different sections that can be found in man pages.

User commands, system calls, library functions, special files, file formats, games, conventions, standards and miscellaneous, system admin and privileged commands, Linux Kernel API.

What is the difference between passwd(1) and passwd(5) in the passwd man pages?

Passwd(1) describes the command to change passwords, passwd(5) explains the /etc/passwd file format for storing local user accounts

When navigating man pages, what key do you press to do the following: a. Scroll backward (up) one screen b. Go to start of the man page. c. Scroll forward (down) one screen d. Exit man and return to the command shell prompt

a. PageUp b. G c. spacebar d. Q

Write the command to do a keyword search of the man pages for the string samba.

/samba

What are GNU Info pages?

Info documents are an important resource n Red Hat Enterprise Linux system,

What is the difference between man pages and GNU Info pages?

Man have formal format useful as a command reference. GNU is user friendly, more examples

What is the RHEL8 tool used to view GNU info pages?

the pinfo command

between man pages and GNU Info pages, which one are you more apt to use and why?

The GNU pages because they have practical examples of how to use software.

Who is Bruce Perens?

He created The Open Source Definition and published the first formal announcement and manifesto of open source. He co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric S. Raymond. Today, he is a partner at OSS Capital.

Who is Richard Stallman?

American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute, and modify that software.

Who is Linus Torvalds?

A Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the main developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also created the distributed version control system Git.