LPI Updated 101-500 Exam Questions and Answers by alma

The dmesg command is used to print or control the kernel ring buffer. The kernel ring buffer is a special kind of buffer that stores the messages generated by the kernel, such as the boot messages, the hardware errors, the driver information, etc. The kernel ring buffer is a fixed-size circular buffer, which means that when it is full, the oldest messages are overwritten by the new ones. The dmesg command can show the messages in the kernel ring buffer, as well as filter, save, or clear them. The syntax of the dmesg command is:

dmesg [options]

The options are optional, and they can modify the behavior of the dmesg command, such as changing the output format, the timestamp, the level, the facility, the color, etc. For more information, see the dmesg man page1 or the Linuxize tutorial2.

 A syntactically correct line of /etc/fstab must have six fields, separated by whitespaces or tabs. The fields are as follows:

• The device file, UUID or label or other means of locating the partition or data source.
• The mount point, which is the directory where the device is/will be mounted.
• The file system type, which specifies the type of the file system.
• The mount options, which are a comma-separated list of options that control how the file system is mounted and accessed.
• The dump flag, which is a number that indicates whether the file system should be backed up by the dump utility. This is an outdated method and should not be used.
• The fsck order, which is a number that indicates the order in which the file system should be checked by the fsck utility at boot time. A value of 0 means no check, a value of 1 means the root file system, and a value of 2 or higher means other file systems.

For example, a line of /etc/fstab could look like this:

UUID=80b496fa-ce2d-4dcf-9afc-bcaa731a67f1 /mnt/example ext4 defaults 0 2

This means that the file system with the UUID 80b496fa-ce2d-4dcf-9afc-bcaa731a67f1 is mounted on /mnt/example, has the type ext4, uses the default mount options, is not backed up by dump, and is checked by fsck after the root file system.

References:

• How fstab works - introduction to the /etc/fstab file on Linux
• /etc/fstab - Gentoo wiki
• fstab(5) - Linux manual page
• /etc/fstab file | Linux# - Geek University

Pressing the Ctrl-C combination on the keyboard while a command is executing in the foreground sends the SIGINT(2) signal code. The SIGINT(2) signal means interrupt and is usually sent when the user presses Ctrl-C on the keyboard. The signal causes the process to terminate, unless it is caught or ignored by the process. The SIGHUP(1) signal means hang up and is usually sent when the terminal or network connection is disconnected. The SIGQUIT(3) signal means quit and is usually sent when the user presses Ctrl-\ on the keyboard. The SIGKILL(9) signal means kill and is used to force the process to terminate immediately,without any chance to catch the signal or perform any cleanup. The SIGTERM(15) signal means terminate and is the default signal sent by the kill command. References: LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives, Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Weight: 25, Objective 103.3: Perform basic file management, Signal List

The correct answer is D, .bash_history. This file, located in a user’s home directory, contains the Bash history, which is a list of commands that the user has entered in the Bash shell. The syntax of the file is:

~/.bash_history

The ~ symbol represents the user’s home directory, which is usually /home/username. The / symbol is a directory separator that separates the components of a path. The . symbol at the beginning of the file name indicates that the file is hidden, which means that it is not normally displayed by the ls command or the file manager, unless the -a option or the show hidden files option is used. The bash_history is the name of the file that stores the Bash history.

The Bash history is maintained by the Bash shell while it is running, and it is written to the .bash_history file when the shell exits or when the history -a or -w options are used. The history command can be used to display, manipulate, or search the Bash history. The HISTFILE variable can be used to change the name or location of the .bash_history file. The HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE variables can be used to change the number of commands that are stored in the Bash history and the .bash_history file, respectively.

The other files are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, .bashrc_history: This file does not exist by default, and it is not used to store the Bash history. The .bashrc file is a configuration file that is executed by the Bash shell when it starts in interactive mode. It can contain commands, aliases, functions, variables, or other settings that affect the behavior of the shell. However, it is not used to store the history of the commands that the user has entered.
• B, .bash_histfile: This file does not exist by default, and it is not used to store the Bash history. The .bash_histfile file is not a standard file name, and it is not recognized by the Bash shell. The Bash shell uses the .bash_history file to store the history of the commands that the user has entered, unless the HISTFILE variable is changed to a different file name.
• C, .history: This file does not exist by default, and it is not used to store the Bash history. The .history file is not a standard file name, and it is not recognized by the Bash shell. The Bash shell uses the .bash_history file to store the history of the commands that the user has entered, unless the HISTFILE variable is changed to a different file name.
• E, .history_bash: This file does not exist by default, and it is not used to store the Bash history. The .history_bash file is not a standard file name, and it is not recognized by the Bash shell. The Bash shell uses the .bash_history file to store the history of the commands that the user has entered, unless the HISTFILE variable is changed to a different file name.

References:

• Where is bash’s history stored? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
• How to view the .bash_history file via command line? - Ask Ubuntu
• shell - How can I see all of the bash history? - Stack Overflow