Objective: Linux Essentials Exam 010

Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in open source (weight: 7)

1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems

Weight: 2

Description: Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ open source Philosophy
◈ Distributions
◈ Embedded Systems

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Android
◈ Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)
◈ CentOS, openSUSE, Red Hat
◈ Linux Mint, Scientific Linux

1.2 Major open source Applications

Weight: 2

Description: Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Desktop Applications
◈ Server Applications
◈ Development Languages
◈ Package Management Tools and repositories

Terms and Utilities:

◈ OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP
◈ Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MySQL, NFS, Samba
◈ C, Java, Perl, shell, Python, Samba
◈ dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum

1.3 Understanding open source Software and Licensing

Weight: 1

Description: Open communities and licensing open source Software for business.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Licensing
◈ Free Software Foundation (FSF), open source Initiative (OSI)

Terms and Utilities:

◈ GPL, BSD, Creative Commons
◈ Free Software, open source Software, FOSS, FLOSS
◈ open source business models

1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux

Weight: 2

Description: Basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and working in Linux.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Desktop Skills
◈ Getting to the Command Line
◈ Industry uses of Linux, Cloud Computing and Virtualization

Terms and Utilities:

◈ Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content
◈ Terminal and Console
◈ Password issues
◈ Privacy issues and tools
◈ Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects

Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System (weight: 9)

2.1 Command Line Basics

Weight: 3

Description: Basics of using the Linux command line.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Basic shell
◈ Command line syntax
◈ Variables
◈ Globbing
◈ Quoting

Terms and Utilities:

◈ Bash
◈ echo
◈ history
◈ PATH env variable
◈ export
◈ type

2.2 Using the Command Line to Get Help

Weight: 2

Description: Running help commands and navigation of the various help systems.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Man
◈ Info

Terms and Utilities:

◈ man
◈ info
◈ Man pages
◈ /usr/share/doc/
◈ locate

2.3 Using Directories and Listing Files

Weight: 2

Description: Navigation of home and system directories and listing files in various locations.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Files, directories
◈ Hidden files and directories
◈ Home
◈ Absolute and relative paths

Terms and Utilities:

◈ Common options for ls
◈ Recursive listings
◈ cd
◈ . and ..
◈ home and ~

2.4 Creating, Moving and Deleting Files

Weight: 2

Description: Create, move and delete files and directories under the home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Files and directories
◈ Case sensitivity
◈ Simple globbing and quoting

Terms and Utilities:

◈ mv, cp, rm, touch
◈ mkdir, rmdir

Topic 3: The Power of the Command Line (weight: 9)

3.1 Archiving Files on the Command Line

Weight:  2

Description: Archiving files in the user home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Files, directories
◈ Archives, compression

Terms and Utilities:

◈ tar
◈ Common tar options
◈ gzip, bzip2
◈ zip, unzip

3.2 Searching and Extracting Data from Files

Weight: 3

Description: Search and extract data from files in the home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Command line pipes
◈ I/O re-direction
◈ Basic Regular Expressions ., [  ], *, ?

Terms and Utilities:

◈ grep
◈ less
◈ cat, head, tail
◈ sort
◈ cut
◈ wc

3.3 Turning Commands into a Script

Weight: 4

Description: Turning repetitive commands into simple scripts.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Basic shell scripting
◈ Awareness of common text editors

Terms and Utilities:

◈ #! (shebang)
◈ /bin/bash
◈ Variables
◈ Arguments
◈ for loops
◈ echo
◈ Exit status

Topic 4: The Linux Operating System (weight: 8)

4.1 Choosing an Operating System

Weight: 1

Description: Knowledge of major operating systems and Linux distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Windows, Mac, Linux differences
◈ Distribution life cycle management

Terms and Utilities:

◈ GUI versus command line, desktop configuration
◈ Maintenance cycles, Beta and Stable

4.2 Understanding Computer Hardware

Weight: 2

Description: Familiarity with the components that go into building desktop and server computers.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Hardware

Terms and Utilities:

◈ Motherboards, processors, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
◈ Hard drives and partitions, /dev/sd*
◈ Drivers

4.3 Where Data is Stored

Weight: 3

Description: Where various types of information are stored on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Programs and configuration, packages and package databases
◈ Processes, memory addresses, system messaging and logging

Terms and Utilities:

◈ ps, top, free
◈ syslog, dmesg
◈ /etc/, /var/log/
◈ /boot/, /proc/, /dev/, /sys/

4.4 Your Computer on the Network

Weight: 2

Description: Querying vital networking configuration and determining the basic requirements for a computer on a Local Area Network (LAN).

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Internet, network, routers
◈ Querying DNS client configuration
◈ Querying Network configuration

Terms and Utilities:

◈ route, ip route show
◈ ifconfig, ip addr show
◈ netstat, ip route show
◈ /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts
◈ IPv4, IPv6
◈ ping
◈ host

Topic 5: Security and File Permissions (weight: 7)

5.1 Basic Security and Identifying User Types

Weight: 2

Description: Various types of users on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Root and Standard Users
◈ System users

Terms and Utilities:

◈ /etc/passwd, /etc/group
◈ id, who, w
◈ sudo, su

5.2 Creating Users and Groups

Weight: 2

Description: Creating users and groups on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ User and group commands
◈ User IDs

Terms and Utilities:

◈ /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, /etc/skel/
◈ id, last
◈ useradd, groupadd
◈ passwd

5.3 Managing File Permissions and Ownership

Weight: 2

Description: Understanding and manipulating file permissions and ownership settings.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ File/directory permissions and owners
◈ Terms and Utilities:
◈ ls -l, ls -a
◈ chmod, chown

5.4 Special Directories and Files

Weight: 1

Description: Special directories and files on a Linux system including special permissions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Using temporary files and directories
◈ Symbolic links

Terms and Utilities:

◈ /tmp/, /var/tmp/ and Sticky Bit
◈ ls -d
◈ ln -s