101-400 Sample Questions & Answers

In vi/vim, commands can be repeated by prefixing them with a number. For example, 4l moves cursor 4 positions right, 2yj copies 2 lines including current line, and 3dd deletes 3 lines. This numeric prefix applies to movement, editing, and copy commands. Vi does not have repetition settings or require line selection for command repetition.

Both mke2fs -j /dev/sdb1 and mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 create ext3 filesystems. The mke2fs command with -j flag creates an ext3 filesystem by adding journaling to the base ext2 format. The mkfs command with -t ext3 directly specifies the ext3 filesystem type. Other options like mke3fs or mkfs.ext3 commands exist but were not listed as choices in this question.

Both mke2fs -j /dev/sdb1 and mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 create ext3 filesystems. The mke2fs command with -j flag creates an ext3 filesystem by adding journaling to the base ext2 format. The mkfs command with -t ext3 directly specifies the ext3 filesystem type. Other options like mke3fs or mkfs.ext3 commands exist but were not listed as choices in this question.

When a hard link target is deleted, the file data remains accessible through other hard links because each link is an independent directory entry pointing to the same inode. The file is only truly deleted when the link count reaches zero. Therefore, deleting foo leaves bar fully functional with access to the original file data.

The ampersand (&) character at the end of a command line runs the process in the background, allowing the shell to remain interactive while the command executes. The process continues running independently, and the shell immediately returns a prompt. Use jobs command to monitor background processes and fg to bring them to foreground.

Creating a hard link increases the link count of the target file, which tracks how many directory entries point to the same inode. This count is stored in the inode metadata and displayed by ls -l. File size, permissions, and timestamps remain unchanged. When the link count reaches zero, the file is deleted from the filesystem.

The redirection 2>&1 sends standard error (file descriptor 2) to the same destination as standard output (file descriptor 1). This merges error and output streams, commonly used for logging or piping both streams together. Standard output, input, and process streams are separate file descriptors that remain unchanged.

The apt-get dist-upgrade command upgrades packages and intelligently handles changing dependencies by installing new packages or removing obsolete ones as needed. Unlike upgrade, dist-upgrade can add or remove packages to resolve dependency conflicts. The install, update, and autoremove commands serve different package management purposes.

Regular users can only assign nice values from 0 to 19, with 19 being the maximum (lowest priority). Negative nice values (-20 to -1) require root privileges as they increase process priority above default. The nice command helps manage system resource allocation by adjusting process scheduling priority.

The rmdir command removes the directory \dir by escaping the backslash with tilde notation. In Unix-like systems, backslashes must be escaped or quoted when used in filenames. The tilde (~) represents the home directory, making ~/\dir the full path. Other options use incorrect syntax or would not handle the backslash properly.

The split command defaults to breaking files into 1,000-line segments when no options are specified. Each output file is named with letters (xaa, xab, xac, etc.). Use -l to specify different line counts, -b for byte-based splitting, or -d for numeric suffixes. Character, word, and byte splitting require explicit options.