LIOS Logs

mkfs ("make filesystem") writes a fresh, empty filesystem onto a block device; XFS is RHEL's grow-only default, ext4 is the flexible all-rounder that can also shrink. A raw LV or partition is just a span of blocks — it has no concept of files until you lay a filesystem on it. mkf...

Quiz: LIOS / Disk and Block Device Management | updated: Jul 30, 2026

Redirection rewires a stream away from its default — sending output to a file (or /dev/null) instead of the screen, or taking input from a file instead of the keyboard. Because stdin/stdout/stderr are just streams the shell sets up before launching a command, the shell can point...

Quiz: LIOS / Reading and Editing Files from the Command Line | updated: Jul 30, 2026

Each | hands its output to the next stage, so a long chain transforms data step by step — filter, extract, sort, count, rank. * The canonical count-and-rank pipeline, stage by stage. * A pipeline reads left to right as a recipe. This one answers "which services log the most erro...

Quiz: LIOS / Reading and Editing Files from the Command Line | updated: Jul 30, 2026

Move with h j k l (left/down/up/right), jump by word with w/b, and leap to file start/end with gg/G. Vim keeps your hands on the home row — no reaching for arrow keys. The real power, though, is bigger motions: word, line, and file jumps mean you rarely tap a key repeatedly. Basi...

Quiz: LIOS / Reading and Editing Files from the Command Line | updated: Jul 30, 2026

A macro records a sequence of keystrokes (q + a letter to start, q to stop) so you can replay it with @letter on many lines. Macros are vim's answer to "do this same edit 50 times." You record once into a named register, then @a replays it; 10@a runs it ten times. The trick to a...

Quiz: LIOS / Reading and Editing Files from the Command Line | updated: Jul 30, 2026

An absolute path starts at the root / and works from anywhere; a relative path starts from wherever you currently are. * Standing in labstudent, the same file is reached by an absolute path from / or a relative path through ... * The single giveaway is the leading slash. If a pa...

Quiz: LIOS / Files and Directories | updated: Jul 30, 2026

/run holds volatile runtime state that only matters while the system is up — PID files, sockets, lock files — and is wiped clean on every reboot. The defining trait is that it's memory-backed (tmpfs), not on disk, so it's fast and intentionally forgetful. None of this data should...

Quiz: LIOS / Files and Directories | updated: Jul 30, 2026

The core file-management verbs are mkdir (make a directory), cp (copy), mv (move/rename), and rm/rmdir (delete) — short names for the four things you do to files all day. Two of these have important subtleties worth internalising rather than memorising: mv does double duty. Ther...

Quiz: LIOS / Files and Directories | updated: Jul 30, 2026

All three read the same manual database, but at different zoom levels: man shows the full page, whatis shows the one-line summary, and apropos searches by keyword when you don't even know the command's name. They form a natural workflow for "I need help" depending on how much you...

Quiz: LIOS / Files and Directories | updated: Jul 30, 2026

file tells you a file's true type by peeking at its actual contents — its "magic number" — not by trusting the extension. This matters because Linux doesn't care about extensions. Unlike Windows, where .exe decides whether something runs, Linux determines a file's nature from wha...

Quiz: LIOS / Files and Directories | updated: Jul 30, 2026