LinuC Level 1

LinuC-1

Exam 101 Objectives (Version 4.0)

LinuC Level 1 certification is awarded after passing both Exam 101 and Exam 102. This exam covers the skills necessary for Linux professionals common to all Linux distributions.

Each item on the exam is weighted relevant to its importance. The weight is approximately in the range 1 to 10, and indicates the relative importance of the topic covered. Questions on topics with higher weight appear more often in the exams.

Topic 101: System Architecture

101.1 Determine and configure hardware settings
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to determine and configure fundamental system hardware settings.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Enable and disable integrated peripherals Configure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboards Differentiate between various types of mass storage devices Know the differences between cold plug and hot plug devices Determine hardware resources for devices Tools and utilities to list various hardware information (e.g. lsusb, lspci, etc.) Tools and utilities to manipulate USB devices Conceptual understanding of sysfs, udev, and dbus
Important files, terms, and utilities:	/sys/ /proc/ /dev/ modprobe lsmod lspci lsusb

101.2 Boot the system
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to explain the system boot procedure.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Provide common commands to the boot loader, and options to the kernel at bootup Demonstrate knowledge of the boot procedure from BIOS to boot completion Understand SysVinit and systemd Know about Upstart Check bootup events in the log files
Important files, terms, and utilities:	dmesg BIOS bootloader kernel initramfs init SysVinit systemd

101.3 Change runlevels and boot target, and shutdown or reboot system
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to manage the runlevels of SysVinit or boot target of systemd in the system. This also includes changing to single user mode, and shutting down or rebooting the system. Candidates should be able to alert users before switching runlevels and boot target, and properly terminate processes. This also includes setting default SysVinit runlevels or the boot target of systemd. It also includes knowledge of Upstart as an alternative function to SysVinit or systemd.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Set the default runlevels or boot target Change runlevels and boot target (Including single user mode) Shutdown and reboot from the command line Alert users before switching runlevels and boot target or other major system events Properly terminate processes
Important files, terms, and utilities:	/etc/inittab shutdown init /etc/init.d/ telinit systemd systemctl /etc/systemd/ /usr/lib/systemd/ wall

Topic 102: Linux Installation and Package Management

102.1 Design hard disk layout
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to design a disk partition for a Linux system.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Allocate filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disks Adjust the design as needed for the intended use of the system Ensure that the /boot partition conforms to the hardware architecture requirements for booting Knowledge of basic features of LVM
Important files, terms, and utilities:	/ (root) file system /var file system /home file system /boot file system swap space mount point partition

102.2 Install a boot manager
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to select, install, and configure a boot manager.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Provide alternative boot locations and backup boot options Install and configure boot loaders such as GRUB Legacy Perform basic configuration changes for GRUB 2 Operate the boot loader
Important files, terms, and utilities:	menu.lst, grub.cfg, and grub.conf grub-install grub-mkconfig MBR

102.3 Manage shared libraries
Weight	1
Description	Candidates should be able to determine the shared libraries that executable programs depend on and install them when necessary.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Identify shared libraries Identify locations of common system libraries Load shared libraries
Important files, terms, and utilities:	ldd ldconfig /etc/ld.so.conf LD_LIBRARY_PATH

102.4 Use Debian package management
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to perform package management using the Debian package tools.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary packages Find packages containing specific files or libraries which may or may not be installed Obtain package information such as version, content, dependencies, package integrity, and installation status (whether or not the package is installed).
Important files, terms, and utilities:	/etc/apt/sources.list dpkg dpkg-reconfigure apt-get apt-cache aptitude

102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to perform package management using RPM and YUM tools.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Install, re-install, upgrade and remove packages using RPM and YUM Obtain information on RPM packages such as version, status, dependencies, integrity and signatures Determine the files provided by the packages, and find which package a specific file comes from
Important files, terms, and utilities:	rpm rpm2cpio /etc/yum.conf /etc/yum.repos.d/ yum yumdownloader

Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands

103.1 Working with command lines
Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to interact with shells and commands using the command line. This objective assumes the bash shell is used.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Use single shell commands and one-line command sequences to perform basic tasks from the command line Use and modify the shell variables including defining, referencing and exporting environment variables. Use and edit command history Invoke commands inside and outside the defined path
Important files, terms, and utilities:	bash echo env export pwd set unset man uname history .bash_history

103.2 Process text streams using filters
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to apply filters to text streams.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Use standard UNIX commands found in the GNU textutils package to create text utility filters and modify the output of text files and output streams.
Important files, terms, and utilities:	cat cut expand fmt head join less nl od paste pr sed sort split tail tr unexpand uniq wc

103.3 Perform basic file management
Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to use the basic Linux commands to manage files and directories.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Copy, move and remove files and directories individually Copy multiple files and directories recursively Remove files and directories recursively Use simple and advanced wildcard specifications in commands to manipulate files and directories Use 'find' to locate and act on files based on type, size, or time Usage of tar, cpio and dd
Important files, terms, and utilities:	cp find mkdir mv ls rm rmdir touch tar cpio dd file gzip gunzip bzip2 xz Pattern matching of file names

103.4 Use streams, pipes, and redirects
Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to redirect streams and connect them to efficiently process text data. Tasks include redirecting to standard input, standard output and standard error output; piping the output of one command to the input of another command; using the output of one command as arguments to another command; and sending output to both standard output and a file.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Redirecting standard input, standard output, and standard error output Pipe the output of one command to the input of another command Use the output of one command as arguments to another command Send the output to both standard output and a file
Important files, terms, and utilities:	tee xargs

103.5 Create, monitor, and kill processes
Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to perform basic process management.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Run jobs in the foreground and background Signal a program to continue running after logout Monitor active processes Select and sort processes for display Send signals to processes
Important files, terms, and utilities:	& bg fg jobs kill nohup ps top free uptime pgrep pkill killall screen

103.6 Modify process execution priorities
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to manage process execution priorities.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Know the default priority of a job that is created Run a program with higher or lower priority than the default Change the priority of a running process
Important files, terms, and utilities:	nice ps renice top

103.7 Search text files using regular expressions
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to manipulate files and text data or perform content searches using regular expressions, including ones with several notational elements.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elements Use regular expression tools to perform content searches through a filesystem or files
Important files, terms, and utilities:	grep egrep fgrep sed regex(7)

103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to edit text files using vi. This objective includes vi operations, basic vi modes, and common vi commands.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Display documents using vi Use basic vi modes Insert, edit, delete, copy, and find text.
Important files, terms, and utilities:	vi /, ? h,j,k,l i, o, a c, d, p, y, dd, yy ZZ, :w!, :q!, :e!

Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystem, and Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

104.1 Create partitions and filesystems
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to configure disk partitions and create filesystems on media such as hard disks. This includes the handling of swap partitions.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Manage MBR partition table Use mkfs commands to create various filesystems such as ext2/ext3/ext4 XFS VFAT Know about ReiserFS and Btrfs Basic knowledge of gdisk and parted in GPT
Important files, terms, and utilities:	fdisk gdisk parted mkfs mkswap

104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to maintain a standard filesystem, and also the extra data associated with a journaling filesystem.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Verify the integrity of filesystems Monitor free space and inodes Repair simple filesystem problems
Important files, terms, and utilities:	du df fsck e2fsck mke2fs debugfs dumpe2fs tune2fs XFS tools (such as xfs_metadump and xfs_info)

104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to configure the mounting of filesystems.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Manually mount and unmount filesystems Configure filesystem mounting on bootup Configure user mountable removeable filesystems
Important files, terms, and utilities:	/etc/fstab /media/ mount umount

104.4 Manage disk quotas
Weight	1
Description	Candidates should be able to manage disk quotas for users.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Set up a disk quota for a filesystem Edit, check, and generate user quota reports
Important files, terms, and utilities:	quota edquota repquota quotaon

104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership
Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to control file access through the proper use of permissions and ownership.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Manage access permissions for regular and special files as well as directories Use access modes such as SUID, SGID, and sticky bit to maintain security Understand how to change the file creation mask Use the group field to grant file access to group members
Important files, terms, and utilities:	chmod umask chown chgrp

104.6 Manage hard and symbolic links
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to create or change hard links and symbolic links to files.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Create links Identify hard and soft links Difference between copying and linking files Use links to support system administration tasks
Important files, terms, and utilities:	ln ls

104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location
Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be thoroughly familiar with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), including typical file locations and directory classifications.
Scope of Key Knowledge	Understand the correct locations of files under FHS Find files and commands on a Linux system Know the location and purpose of important files and directories as defined in the FHS
Important files, terms, and utilities:	find locate updatedb whereis which type /etc/updatedb.conf