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Study Guide - Conquer the Linux(CP 211) Exam like Jet Li

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Study Guide / Roadmap for Linux/UNIX Systems (CP 211)

This is all you need to Conquer the LINUX Exam like a Kung Fu Master. But also you will understand the Linux System like never before. If you finish this roadmap go to BOT(Bank of Tanzania) and apply for system admin job. (4 Hours only to cover)

Step 1. Introduction to Linux/UNIX

  • Know the History of UNIX and Linux

  • Differences between UNIX, Linux, and Windows

  • Know the names of diff linux distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, etc.)

  • Understant the System architecture:

    • Kernel
    • Shell
    • File System
    • Utilities and Commands

Step 2. Linux/UNIX File System

  • Understant the file system hierarchy (/, /home, /bin, /etc, /var, /tmp, /usr, /dev) : Understand how the linux system is organised and the function of each directory. (Eg: /bin stores executable files and commands)

  • File types: regular files, directories, device files, symbolic links (understand What kinds of files are in the linux system)

  • Absolute vs Relative paths (Focus here, lectures love this place)

    • Lean how to find,copy,move files and directories using both (absolute and relative paths)

  • File management commands: (Most of the Section A questions base here)

    • Understant the commands used to navigate the file system and their example usage.
    • ls, pwd, cd, mkdir, rmdir, touch
    • cp, mv, rm, find, locate

Step 3. User and Group management.

i. Users and Groups management : Learn how the linux admin manages users and groups in linux.

  • Commands must know on this Section
useradd/userdel/usermod    # User management command must know
groupadd/groupdel/groupmod # Group management commands must know
passwd                     # Change passwords
id                         # User identity information
who/w                      # Logged-in users
`su`, `sudo`               # Switching users

Know these System files and what are their contents.

  • /etc/passwd - User accounts
  • /etc/shadow - Encrypted passwords
  • /etc/group - Group definitions

And be able to explain the output of each file eg sudo cat /etc/passwd. Explain the fields.

Step 4. File management and file permissions

i. Understand the file attributes (ls -l) : Be able to explain the output of this command and the properties that the files has such as ownership, permissions etc.

Eg: Be able to explain the below output :

drwxr-xr-x 16 amos-dev amos-dev 4096 Sep 25 03:35 Desktop

ii. Understand file permissions and how to change them.

  • Read, Write, Execute permissions (rwx for user, group, others)
  • Changing permissions: chmod (numeric ie: Read(r=4),Write(w=2),Execute(x=1) and symbolic modes)
  • Changing ownership: chown, chgrp
  • umask and default permissions

Commands Summary:

chmod       # Change permissions (numeric: chmod 755, symbolic: chmod u+x)
chown       # Change ownership
chgrp       # Change group
umask       # Default permissions mask

Step 5. Basic Shell Commands

  • Learn commands to view content of a file: cat, less, more, head, tail

  • Learn tools used in file editing: nano, vim, gedit (Vim commands are mostly asked, Lean only basics)

  • Learn commands used in Counting and searching: - wc, grep, cut, sort, uniq, diff

  • Learn commands used forCompression & archiving: (Do not go deep, tar command is mostly asked) - tar, gzip, bzip2, zip, unzip

  • Know some commands for viewing system processes: ps, top, htop, kill, jobs, bg, fg (The kill command and the kill signals are asked in many UEs)

Step 6. Shell and Shell Scripting

i. Intro to scripting

  • Know the types of shells (Bash, Zsh, etc.) in linux.

  • Shell variables (local, environment, $PATH) : (Be shallow, not deep).

  • Input and output redirection: (The meaning of these redirections and others are always asked) - >, >>, <, 2>, &>

ii. Writing scripts: (You cant cover this, Just know the syntax and practice : Eg writing script to rename files and folder, writing a script to delete a file etc.)

  • Shebang (#!/bin/bash)
  • Variables, input (read), output (echo)
  • Conditional statements (if, case)
  • Loops (for, while, until)
  • Functions
  • Command-line arguments ($1, $@, $#)

Step 7. Process Management

  • Know the Foreground vs Background processes
  • Job control (jobs, bg, fg, kill) : Commands to control jobs and why.
  • Signals (kill -9, kill -15) : How to terminate processess using kill and all kill signals by numbers and their names eg: SIGKILL,SIGSTOP.
  • Process priority: nice, renice : How to give priority to running processes

Step 8. Package Management

  • Debian-based (Ubuntu, Debian): apt, dpkg (The package managers in debian distro)
  • Red Hat-based (CentOS, Fedora): yum, dnf, rpm (The Package managers in fedora distros)
  • Installing, updating, removing packages
  • Checking package dependencies

(You can be asked to list the commands used to install packages in linux UE 2022)

Step 9. Disk and Storage Management

These commands are used to manage the storage devices connected to the linux system and the internal storage of the system

  • Listing disks and partitions: lsblk, fdisk, parted

  • Mounting and unmounting: mount, umount

  • File system check: df, du, fsck

    (You can be given the output of the above disk commands to explain)

4 Hour Study Plan

(You can cover this in 4 Hours, here is how)

  1. Hour 1: Basics (File system, commands, permissions)
  2. Hour 2: Shell scripting (loops, conditions, scripts)
  3. Hour 3: Processes, jobs, users & groups
  4. Hour 4: Networking, package management

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