Revison 2021 -Exam November 2023

1. What is the primary objective of the System Administration lab course?

Answer: To provide practical knowledge in applying Linux commands and expertise in shell
scripting for system administration.

2. What is the prerequisite for this course?

Answer: Knowledge in computer and system software from the course “Introduction to IT
Systems.”

3. What is user management in Linux?

Answer: It involves managing user accounts, passwords, and permissions using commands like
useradd, passwd, usermod, etc.

4. How do you create a new user in Linux?

Answer: Use the useradd command.

5. Which command is used to change a user’s password in Linux?

Answer: The passwd command.

6. What does the whoami command do?

Answer: It displays the current logged-in user.

7. How do you display the current working directory in Linux?

Answer: Use the pwd command.

8. What is the purpose of the chmod command?

Answer: To change file or directory permissions.

9. How do you add a new group in Linux?

Answer: Use the groupadd command.

10. What is the function of the ls command?

Answer: It lists the files and directories in the current directory.

11. How do you create a directory in Linux?

Answer: Use the mkdir command.

12. Which command is used to delete a directory in Linux?

Answer: Use the rmdir command for empty directories or rm -r for non-empty ones.

13. What is shell scripting?

Answer: It is a script written for the shell to automate tasks in the Linux environment.

14. Name any two types of shells in Linux.

Answer: Bash shell and Z shell.

15. What is the purpose of pipes (|) in Linux?

Answer: To pass the output of one command as input to another.

16. How does the grep command work?

Answer: It searches for a specific pattern in files or input.

17. What is the role of the sort command in Linux?

Answer: To sort lines of text files in ascending or descending order.

18. How do you display the first few lines of a file in Linux?

Answer: Use the head command.

19. What does the ps command show?

Answer: It displays information about currently running processes.

20. How can you terminate a process in Linux?

Answer: Use the kill command with the process ID.

21. What is the difference between cp and mv commands?

Answer: cp copies files/directories, while mv moves or renames them.

22. What is the purpose of the tar command?

Answer: To archive files.

23. Which command is used for backup and restore in Linux?

Answer: Commands like tar, cpio, or dump.

24. What is the fg command used for?

Answer: To bring a background process to the foreground.

25. What is the bg command used for?

Answer: To resume a suspended process in the background.

26. How do you view the disk space usage in Linux?

Answer: Use the df command.

27. What is the free command used for?

Answer: To display the amount of free and used memory in the system.

28. How do you compare two files in Linux?

Answer: Use the diff or cmp command.

29. What does the uniq command do?

Answer: It filters out duplicate lines from a sorted file.

30. How do you redirect the output of a command to a file?

Answer: Use the > operator.

31. What is the purpose of the touch command?

Answer: To create an empty file or update a file’s timestamp.

32. How do you check if a file exists in shell scripting?

Answer: Use the -e option in an if condition.

33. What does the uptime command show?

Answer: It displays how long the system has been running.

34. How can you switch to a different user in Linux?

Answer: Use the su or sudo command.

35. What does the top command do?

Answer: It displays real-time information about processes and system performance.

36. How do you schedule tasks in Linux?

Answer: Use the cron or at command.

37. What is the use of the echo command?

Answer: It prints text or variables to the terminal.

38. How do you change ownership of a file in Linux?

Answer: Use the chown command.

39. What does the wc command do?

Answer: It counts words, lines, characters, and bytes in a file.

40. What is the purpose of the find command?

Answer: To search for files and directories.

41. How do you display the contents of a file page by page?

Answer: Use the more or less command.

42. What is the function of the alias command?

Answer: To create shortcuts for commands.

43. How do you uncompress .gz files in Linux?

Answer: Use the gunzip command.

44. What is the env command used for?

Answer: To display or modify the environment variables.

45. How do you add a user to a group in Linux?

Answer: Use the usermod -aG groupname username command.

46. What does the hostname command do?

Answer: It displays or sets the system’s hostname.

47. What is the cmp command used for?

Answer: To compare two files byte by byte.

48. How do you count the number of lines in a file?

Answer: Use the wc -l command.

49. What is the purpose of the sleep command?

Answer: To pause execution for a specified amount of time.

50. How do you exit a shell script?

Answer: Use the exit command with an optional exit status.