Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System

2.1 Command Line Basics

Weight: 3

Description: Basics of using the Linux command line.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Basic shell
• Command line syntax
• Variables
• Quoting

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

• Bash
• echo
• history
• PATH environment 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 pages
• Info pages

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

• man
• info
• /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 directories
• Absolute and relative paths

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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

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

• mv, cp, rm, touch
• mkdir, rmdir

Topic 3: The Power of the Command Line

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

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

• tar
• Common tar options
• gzip, bzip2, xz
• 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 redirection
• Basic Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ?

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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 (vi and nano)

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

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

Topic 4: The Linux Operating System

4.1 Choosing an Operating System

Weight: 1

Description: Knowledge of major operating systems and Linux distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Differences between Windows, OS X and Linux
• Distribution life cycle management

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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

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

• Motherboards, processors, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
• Hard drives, solid state disks 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
• Processes
• Memory addresses
• System messaging
• Logging

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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

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

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

Topic 5: Security and File Permissions

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

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

• /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group
• id, last, 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

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

• /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, /etc/skel/
• 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 and directory permissions and ownership

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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

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

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