Linux Community and Open Source
Not publishedof exam
Linux EvolutionOpen ApplicationsFOSS LicensingICT SkillsOfficial Weight 7
Finding Your Way on Linux
Not publishedof exam
Shell BasicsGetting HelpDirectory NavigationFile OperationsOfficial Weight 9
Power of the Command Line
Not publishedof exam
Linux Operating System
Not publishedof exam
Security and File Permissions
Not publishedof exam
User TypesUsers and GroupsPermissions OwnershipSpecial FilesOfficial Weight 7
Quick Facts
- Exam
- 010-160
- Version
- 1.6
- Provider
- Linux Professional Institute
- Questions
- 40
- Time
- 60 minutes
- Prerequisites
- None
- Validity
- Lifetime
- Topic weights
- 7 9 9 8 7
- Test centers
- Pearson VUE
- Online delivery
- Pearson OnVUE
- Pricing
- Varies by country
Official Objective Weight Map
- 1.1 Linux Evolution
- Weight 2Topic 1
- 1.2 Open Applications
- Weight 2Topic 1
- 1.3 FOSS Licensing
- Weight 1Topic 1
- 1.4 ICT Skills
- Weight 2Topic 1
- 2.1 Shell Basics
- Weight 3Topic 2
- 2.2 Getting Help
- Weight 2Topic 2
- 2.3 Directories Files
- Weight 2Topic 2
- 2.4 File Operations
- Weight 2Topic 2
- 3.1 Archiving
- Weight 2Topic 3
- 3.2 Search Extract
- Weight 3Topic 3
- 3.3 Shell Scripts
- Weight 4Topic 3
- 4.1 Choosing OS
- Weight 1Topic 4
- 4.2 Computer Hardware
- Weight 2Topic 4
- 4.3 Data Storage
- Weight 3Topic 4
- 4.4 Basic Networking
- Weight 2Topic 4
- 5.1 User Security
- Weight 2Topic 5
- 5.2 Users Groups
- Weight 2Topic 5
- 5.3 Permissions Ownership
- Weight 2Topic 5
- 5.4 Special Files
- Weight 1Topic 5
Linux and FOSS Landscape
- Linux
- Operating system kernel
- Distribution
- Kernel plus packaged software
- Debian family
- Debian Ubuntu Linux Mint
- Red Hat family
- Red Hat CentOS
- SUSE family
- SUSE openSUSE
- Raspberry Pi
- Small single-board computer
- Android
- Linux-kernel mobile platform
- Cloud Linux
- Common virtual server platform
- FOSS
- Free and open source software
- Free software
- Freedom not necessarily price
- GPL
- Copyleft license
- BSD license
- Permissive license
- Creative Commons
- Content licensing family
- FSF
- Promotes free software
- OSI
- Promotes open source
- Copyleft
- Derivatives preserve freedoms
- Permissive
- Few redistribution restrictions
Applications and Packages
- LibreOffice
- Office productivity suite
- Thunderbird
- Email client
- Firefox
- Web browser
- GIMP
- Raster image editor
- Nextcloud ownCloud
- File sync platforms
- Apache NGINX
- Web servers
- MariaDB MySQL
- Relational databases
- NFS
- Unix network file sharing
- Samba
- SMB file sharing
- dpkg
- Debian package tool
- apt-get
- Debian repository package tool
- rpm
- RPM package tool
- yum
- RPM repository package tool
- Repository
- Managed package source
Absolute vs Relative Paths
Absolute
- Begins with slash
- Independent of current directory
Relative
- No leading slash
- Depends on current directory
Leading slash starts at root
Command Picker
- Need current location→pwd(Print working directory)
- Need hidden files→ls -a(Includes dot entries)
- Need command manual→man(Search with slash)
- Need filename database search→locate(Database may be stale)
- Need matching lines→grep(Pattern search)
- Need ending lines→tail(Defaults to ten)
- Need live processes→top(Interactive display)
- Need memory summary→free(Shows RAM and swap)
- Need network addresses→ip addr show(Inspect interfaces)
- Need user identity→id(Shows UID and groups)
Shell Syntax and Help
- Bash
- Common Linux shell
- Command syntax
- Command options arguments
- echo
- Prints arguments
- history
- Lists prior commands
- PATH
- Command search directories
- export
- Marks variable for children
- type
- Identifies command resolution
- Single quotes
- Preserve literal text
- Double quotes
- Allow variable expansion
- Backslash
- Escapes next character
- $NAME
- Expands variable value
- man
- Displays manual pages
- info
- Displays Info documentation
- /usr/share/doc
- Installed package documentation
- locate
- Searches filename database
Single vs Double Quotes
Single quotes
- Preserve literal characters
- Suppress variable expansion
Double quotes
- Preserve spaces
- Allow variable expansion
Quote choice controls expansion
Stream Numbers
Input zero; output one; errors two
stdin 0stdout 1stderr 2
Globs vs Regular Expressions
Glob
- Shell expands filenames
- Star matches character sequence
Regex
- Tools match text patterns
- Star repeats previous expression
Same symbols differ by context
Stream and Redirect Picker
- Replace output file→>(Existing data is lost)
- Append output file→>>(Existing data remains)
- Read stdin from file→<(Input redirection)
- Capture errors only→2>(Redirect stderr)
- Chain command output→Pipe(stdout feeds stdin)
- Count matching lines→grep then wc(Connect with pipe)
- Page long output→Pipe to less(Interactive reading)
- Sort file lines→sort(Writes sorted stdout)
Archives and Compression
- Archive
- Bundles multiple files
- Compression
- Reduces stored size
- tar -cf
- Create tar archive
- tar -xf
- Extract tar archive
- tar -tf
- List tar contents
- tar -z
- Use gzip compression
- tar -j
- Use bzip2 compression
- tar -J
- Use xz compression
- gzip gunzip
- Compress decompress gzip
- bzip2 bunzip2
- Compress decompress bzip2
- xz unxz
- Compress decompress xz
- zip unzip
- Create extract zip
tar Actions
Create c; extract x; list t
c createx extractt listf archive file
stdout vs stderr
stdout
- Normal output stream
- File descriptor one
stderr
- Error output stream
- File descriptor two
Redirect streams independently
Streams and Text Tools
- stdin
- Standard input stream 0
- stdout
- Standard output stream 1
- stderr
- Standard error stream 2
- >
- Overwrite stdout destination
- >>
- Append stdout destination
- <
- Redirect file into stdin
- 2>
- Redirect stderr
- Pipe
- Connect stdout to stdin
- cat
- Concatenate and print files
- less
- Page through text
- head
- Show beginning lines
- tail
- Show ending lines
- grep
- Print matching lines
- sort
- Order input lines
- cut
- Extract fields or characters
- wc
- Count lines words bytes
- Regex dot
- Matches any single character
- Regex star
- Matches zero-plus previous atom
- Regex brackets
- Match one listed character
Overwrite vs Append
>
- Truncates destination first
- Writes new output
>>
- Preserves existing content
- Adds output afterward
Count angle brackets carefully
Shell Scripting
- Shebang
- Selects script interpreter
- #!/bin/bash
- Select Bash interpreter
- Assignment
- NAME=value uses no spaces
- $1
- First positional argument
- $#
- Argument count
- $@
- All positional arguments
- $?
- Previous exit status
- Exit zero
- Command succeeded
- Nonzero exit
- Command reported failure
- for loop
- Repeats over item list
- do done
- Enclose loop body
- chmod +x
- Add executable permission
- ./script
- Run script from here
- vi nano
- Command-line text editors
Archive vs Compression
Archive
- Bundles files together
- tar creates archives
Compression
- Reduces data size
- gzip bzip2 xz compress
tar can combine both
Core Data Paths
Etc config; var logs; proc processes
/etc configuration/var/log logs/proc processes/dev devices/sys kernel devices
Program vs Process
Program
- Stored executable instructions
- Passive file
Process
- Running program instance
- Has process identifier
Execution creates a process
Path Picker
- Need system configuration→/etc(Mostly text files)
- Need system logs→/var/log(Variable log data)
- Need process details→/proc(Virtual filesystem)
- Need device files→/dev(Hardware interfaces)
- Need kernel device model→/sys(Virtual filesystem)
- Need boot files→/boot(Kernel bootloader content)
- Need user documents→/home(Regular user homes)
- Need temporary workspace→/tmp(Sticky bit commonly set)
System Hardware and Data
- GUI
- Graphical user interface
- CLI
- Command-line interface
- Stable release
- Production-focused software
- Beta release
- Pre-release testing software
- LTS
- Long-term support release
- Virtualization
- Multiple virtual systems
- CPU
- Executes instructions
- RAM
- Volatile working memory
- HDD
- Magnetic persistent storage
- SSD
- Solid-state persistent storage
- Partition
- Logical disk region
- /dev/sd*
- Common disk device names
- Driver
- Controls hardware device
- Program
- Stored executable code
- Process
- Running program instance
- ps
- Process snapshot
- top
- Live process display
- free
- Memory usage summary
- dmesg
- Kernel message buffer
- syslog
- System logging facility
Filesystem Hierarchy
- /
- Filesystem root
- /etc
- System configuration
- /var/log
- System log files
- /boot
- Bootloader and kernel files
- /proc
- Process kernel information
- /dev
- Device files
- /sys
- Kernel device information
- /home
- Regular user homes
- /root
- Root user home
- /tmp
- Temporary files
- /var/tmp
- Longer-lived temporary files
- /usr/share/doc
- Package documentation
Basic Networking
- IPv4
- 32-bit network addressing
- IPv6
- 128-bit network addressing
- Router
- Forwards between networks
- DNS
- Maps names and addresses
- ip addr show
- Display interface addresses
- ifconfig
- Legacy interface display
- ip route show
- Display routing table
- route
- Legacy routing display
- ss
- Display network sockets
- netstat
- Legacy network statistics
- ping
- Test IP reachability
- host
- Query DNS records
- /etc/resolv.conf
- DNS resolver configuration
- /etc/hosts
- Static hostname mappings
Permission Values
Read four; write two; execute one
Read 4Write 2Execute 1Add each class
sudo vs su
sudo
- Runs privileged command
- Policy controls authorization
su
- Switches user identity
- Can start new shell
Command elevation differs from switching
Permission Picker
- Owner needs full access→7(Read write execute)
- Need read execute→5(Four plus one)
- Need read write→6(Four plus two)
- Need read only→4(No write execute)
- Change mode bits→chmod(Symbolic or octal)
- Change file owner→chown(Privilege usually required)
- Directory needs traversal→Execute permission(Not file execution)
- Directory needs listing→Read permission(Names become visible)
- Shared directory protects files→Sticky bit(File/dir owner or root deletes)
- Need path-based reference→ln -s(Create symbolic link)
Users Groups and Security
- root
- Administrative superuser
- UID zero
- Root identity
- Standard user
- Limited regular account
- System user
- Service-owned account
- /etc/passwd
- Public account metadata
- /etc/shadow
- Protected password hashes
- /etc/group
- Group membership data
- id
- Show user group identities
- who
- Show logged-in users
- w
- Show users and activity
- last
- Show login history
- sudo
- Run command with privilege
- su
- Switch user identity
- useradd
- Create user account
- groupadd
- Create group
- passwd
- Set account password
- /etc/skel
- New-user template files
Permission Class Order
User Group Others
First userSecond groupThird others
File vs Directory Execute
File execute
- Allows program execution
- Requires valid executable
Directory execute
- Allows directory traversal
- Access known entry names
Execute meaning depends object
Permissions and Special Files
- Permission order
- User group others
- Read
- Numeric value 4
- Write
- Numeric value 2
- Execute
- Numeric value 1
- chmod
- Change permission mode
- chown
- Change owner and group
- File read
- Read file contents
- File write
- Modify file contents
- File execute
- Run file as program
- Directory read
- List entry names
- Directory write
- Change entries with execute
- Directory execute
- Traverse directory
- Sticky bit
- Limits deletion to authorized owners
- Symbolic link
- Path-based reference
- ln -s
- Create symbolic link
- ls -d
- List directory entry itself
- chmod 754
- rwx r-x r--
- chown alice:dev
- Set owner and group
Common Traps
Objective Weights Are Relative
LPI publishes integer weights ≠ Topic percentages are not published
Pricing Varies by Country
Use LPI country pricing ≠ Avoid universal fee assumptions
Certificate Validity Is Lifetime
Linux Essentials does not expire ≠ Do not apply LPIC cycles
Root Path Is Not Root Home
Slash is filesystem root ≠ /root is superuser home
rm Has No Default Trash
Removal is normally immediate ≠ Review targets before running
Single Quotes Block Expansion
Single quotes stay literal ≠ Double quotes expand variables
Single Redirect Overwrites
One angle bracket truncates ≠ Two angle brackets append
Globs Are Not Regex
Shell expands globs ≠ Text tools interpret regex
Directory Permissions Differ
Read lists names ≠ Execute permits traversal
/etc/passwd Stores No Hashes
/etc/passwd holds metadata ≠ /etc/shadow protects hashes
Last Minute
- 1.Exam code is 010-160
- 2.Objectives version is 1.6
- 3.Forty questions; sixty minutes
- 4.No prerequisites; lifetime validity
- 5.Weights 7-9-9-8-7 by topic
- 6.Absolute paths begin with slash
- 7.Single quotes block expansion
- 8.stdout is one; stderr two
- 9.One redirect overwrites
- 10.Pipe connects stdout to stdin
- 11.tar c creates; x extracts
- 12.Processes are running programs
- 13./etc stores configuration
- 14./var/log stores logs
- 15.DNS maps names and addresses
- 16.Permissions use 4 2 1
- 17.Directory execute means traverse
- 18.sudo runs privileged commands
- 19.Sticky bit limits deletion to owners
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