LPI Wiki - User contributions [en]

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-04-23T07:43:37Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 2.0.

This is also a [[Linux_Essentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases, alpha and beta versions

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, VSCodium / Visual Studio Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-04-23T07:42:47Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 2.0.

This is also a [[Linux_Essentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases, alpha and beta versions

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / Visual Studio Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-03-05T09:30:20Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 2.0.

This is also a [[Linux_Essentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases, alpha and beta versions

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-03-05T07:44:37Z

FabianThorns:

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 2.0.

This is also a [[Linux_Essentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

LinuxEssentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-05T07:44:18Z

FabianThorns: FabianThorns moved page LinuxEssentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0 to Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

#REDIRECT [[Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0]]

Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-05T07:44:17Z

FabianThorns: FabianThorns moved page LinuxEssentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0 to Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

__FORCETOC__

=Purpose=

This document is meant to provide a detailed overview into what has changed with the objectives update for the Linux Essentials exam (010). A detailed diff is available in the [https://wiki.lpi.org/w/index.php?title=Linux_Essentials_Objectives_V2.0&diff=&oldid=5877 document history of the objectives page].

=Changes in Exam 010=

The following changes constitute the update of exam 010 from version 1.6 to version 2.0:

* '''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''' (renamed from ''The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source'')
** '''1.1 Linux Distributions''' (renamed from ''Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems'')
*** Changed to better reflect Linux distribution families, include support schemas and Linux components (kernelspace and userspace)
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Kernel and userspace'
*** Added 'Distribution life cycle management' (moved from 4.1)
*** Added 'Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux'
*** Replaced individual distribution names with distribution family groupings:
**** Added 'Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)' — replaces 'Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)' and 'Raspberry Pi, Raspbian'
**** Added 'Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)' — replaces 'CentOS, Red Hat'
**** Added 'SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)' — replaces 'openSUSE, SUSE'
**** Added 'Alpine Linux (main and edge)'
**** Added 'Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases'
**** Removed 'Linux Mint, Scientific Linux'
** '''1.2 Major Open Source Applications'''
*** Updated description to clarify that awareness of purpose and features is required, not specific usage or installation details
*** Changed 'Development languages' to 'Programming languages'
*** Added 'Web applications'
*** Added 'Software packages and repositories'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea'
*** Added (awareness level) 'PostgreSQL'
*** Added (awareness level) 'C++, Rust, Go'
*** Added 'apt, dnf, zypper, apk'
*** Removed 'OpenOffice.org'
*** Removed 'Perl, shell'
** '''1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing'''
*** Updated description to add digital autonomy and digital sovereignty
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'Open source licensing' to 'Open source and open content licensing'
*** Added 'Proprietary software'
*** Added: 'Free software'
*** Added: 'Digital autonomy', 'Digital sovereignty'
*** Removed: 'FOSS, FLOSS', 'Open source business models'
** '''1.4 Linux Usage''' (renamed from ''ICT Skills and Working in Linux'')
*** Changed to focus on various kinds of system that run Linux as well as securely accessing remote system, such as cloud providers
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Understanding types of computers that can run Linux'
*** Added 'Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing'
*** Added 'Awareness of common text editors'
*** Added 'Awareness of configuration management tools'
*** Added 'Secure handling of credentials'
*** Added 'Secure transfer and storage of data'
*** Added 'Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices'
*** Added 'Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances'
*** Added 'Embedded systems and HPC clusters'
*** Added 'Client and server roles'
*** Added 'vi, nano'
*** Added 'Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys'
*** Added 'Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media'
*** Added 'Secure handling of USB devices'
*** Removed 'Desktop skills'
*** Removed 'Getting to the command line'
*** Removed 'Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization'
*** Removed 'Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content'
*** Removed 'Terminal and console'
*** Removed 'Password issues'
*** Removed 'Privacy issues and tools'
*** Removed 'Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects'
* '''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''' (renamed from ''Finding Your Way on a Linux System'')
** '''2.1 Command Line Usage''' (renamed from ''Command Line Basics'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added to utilities: '/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin'
** '''2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information''' (renamed from ''Using the Command Line to Get Help'')
*** Updated to include parameters for querying usage information and removed info pages and locate
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'Common help parameters of command line tools'
*** Added '-h, --help'
*** Removed 'Info pages'
*** Removed 'info', 'locate'
** '''2.3 Files, Directories and Paths''' (renamed from ''Using Directories and Listing Files'')
*** Changed to include find
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Searching for files based on file names'
*** Added to utilities: 'find'
*** Added '''/'''' (root path)
*** Changed 'home' to '/home'
** '''2.4 File and Directory Management''' (renamed from ''Creating, Moving and Deleting Files'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
* '''Topic 3: Data Processing''' (renamed from ''The Power of the Command Line'')
** '''3.1 File Archives and Compression''' (renamed from ''Archiving Files on the Command Line'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''3.2 Redirections and String Processing''' (renamed from ''Searching and Extracting Data from Files'')
*** Changed to use Extended Regular Expressions instead of Basic Regular Expressions
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'grep -E'
*** Added 'uniq'
** '''3.3 Shell Scripting Basics''' (renamed from ''Turning Commands into a Script'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'for loops' to 'for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)'
*** Added 'if conditions (file existence and variable equality)'
*** Removed 'Awareness of common text editors (vi and nano)' (now in to 1.4)
* '''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''' (renamed from ''The Linux Operating System'')
** '''4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning''' (renamed from ''Choosing an Operating System'')
*** Updated cover the installation of Linux on physical machines, VMs and cloud instances
*** Added 'Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine'
*** Added 'Using Linux in cloud instances'
*** Changed 'OS X' to 'macOS'
*** Added 'Installation media, ISO files'
*** Added 'Operating system images'
*** Added 'Dual boot'
*** Added 'Windows Subsystem for Linux'
*** Removed 'Distribution life cycle management' (now in 1.1)
*** Removed 'GUI versus command line, desktop configuration'
*** Removed 'Maintenance cycles, beta and stable'
** '''4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access''' (renamed from ''Understanding Computer Hardware'')
*** Changed to include kernel ascpects hardware management and device files
*** Updated description
*** Added Key Knowledge Area: 'Device files for physical and virtual devices'
*** Added 'processors (x86, ARM)' and 'memory'
*** Added 'Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)'
*** Added '/dev/nvme*'
*** Added 'Raspberry Pi'
*** Changed 'Drivers' to 'Drivers and Kernel Modules'
*** Added '/dev/, /boot/, /sys/'
*** Added '/dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom'
** '''4.3 Processes and Log Messages''' (renamed from ''Where Data is Stored'')
*** Changed to include systemd service management and journal querying and remove syslog
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Services'
*** Added 'systemctl (start, stop, status)'
*** Added 'systemd Journal'
*** Added 'journalctl'
*** Removed 'System messaging'
*** Removed 'Memory addresses'
*** Removed 'syslog'
*** Removed '/boot/, /dev/, /sys/'
** '''4.4 Network Configuration''' (renamed from ''Your Computer on the Network'')
*** Changed to include IPv6 and remove net-utils
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Automatic network configuration'
*** Added 'ip -6 route show'
*** Added 'resolvectl'
*** Added 'DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6'
*** Removed 'route'
*** Removed 'ifconfig'
*** Removed 'netstat'
* '''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''' (renamed from ''Security and File Permissions'')
** '''5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions''' (renamed from ''Basic Security and Identifying User Types'')
*** Changed to focusing on SSH, remote access and privilege escalation, user management aspects were moved to 5.2.
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Executing commands with elevated permissions'
*** Added 'Remote logins using SSH'
*** Added 'SSH key generation and authentication'
*** Added 'ssh, scp'
*** Added 'ssh-keygen'
*** Added '~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
*** Removed '/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group' (now in 5.2)
*** Removed 'id, last, who, w' (not in 5.2)
** '''5.2 User and Group Management''' (renamed from ''Creating Users and Groups'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added 'w, last, wtmpdb last'
** '''5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership''' (renamed from ''Managing File Permissions and Ownership'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''5.4 Special Directories and Files'''
*** Editorial changes to the description

Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-05T07:42:35Z

FabianThorns:

Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-05T07:41:36Z

FabianThorns:

__FORCETOC__

=Purpose=

This document is meant to provide a detailed overview into what has changed with the objectives update for the Linux Essentials exam (010). A detailed diff is available in the [https://wiki.lpi.org/w/index.php?title=Linux_Essentials_Objectives_V2.0&diff=&oldid=5877 document history of the objectives page].

=Changes in Exam 010=

The following changes constitute the update of exam 010 from version 1.6 to version 2.0:

* '''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''' (renamed from ''The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source'')
** '''1.1 Linux Distributions''' (renamed from ''Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems'')
*** Changed to better reflect Linux distribution families, include support schemas and Linux components (kernelspace and userspace)
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Kernel and userspace'
*** Added 'Distribution life cycle management' (moved from 4.1)
*** Added 'Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux'
*** Replaced individual distribution names with distribution family groupings:
**** Added 'Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)' — replaces 'Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)' and 'Raspberry Pi, Raspbian'
**** Added 'Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)' — replaces 'CentOS, Red Hat'
**** Added 'SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)' — replaces 'openSUSE, SUSE'
**** Added 'Alpine Linux (main and edge)'
**** Added 'Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases'
**** Removed 'Linux Mint, Scientific Linux'
**** Removed 'Android' (covered by new KKA instead)
** '''1.2 Major Open Source Applications'''
*** Updated description to clarify that awareness of purpose and features is required, not specific usage or installation details
*** Changed 'Development languages' to 'Programming languages'
*** Added 'Web applications'
*** Added 'Software packages and repositories'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea'
*** Added (awareness level) 'PostgreSQL'
*** Added (awareness level) 'C++, Rust, Go'
*** Added 'apt, dnf, zypper, apk'
*** Removed 'OpenOffice.org'
*** Removed 'Perl, shell'
** '''1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing'''
*** Updated description to add digital autonomy and digital sovereignty
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'Open source licensing' to 'Open source and open content licensing'
*** Added 'Proprietary software'
*** Added: 'Free software'
*** Added: 'Digital autonomy', 'Digital sovereignty'
*** Removed: 'FOSS, FLOSS', 'Open source business models'
** '''1.4 Linux Usage''' (renamed from ''ICT Skills and Working in Linux'')
*** Changed to focus on various kinds of system that run Linux as well as securely accessing remote system, such as cloud providers
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Understanding types of computers that can run Linux'
*** Added 'Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing'
*** Added 'Awareness of common text editors'
*** Added 'Awareness of configuration management tools'
*** Added 'Secure handling of credentials'
*** Added 'Secure transfer and storage of data'
*** Added 'Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices'
*** Added 'Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances'
*** Added 'Embedded systems and HPC clusters'
*** Added 'Client and server roles'
*** Added 'vi, nano'
*** Added 'Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys'
*** Added 'Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media'
*** Added 'Secure handling of USB devices'
*** Removed 'Desktop skills'
*** Removed 'Getting to the command line'
*** Removed 'Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization'
*** Removed 'Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content'
*** Removed 'Terminal and console'
*** Removed 'Password issues'
*** Removed 'Privacy issues and tools'
*** Removed 'Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects'
* '''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''' (renamed from ''Finding Your Way on a Linux System'')
** '''2.1 Command Line Usage''' (renamed from ''Command Line Basics'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added to utilities: '/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin'
** '''2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information''' (renamed from ''Using the Command Line to Get Help'')
*** Updated to include parameters for querying usage information and removed info pages and locate
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'Common help parameters of command line tools'
*** Added '-h, --help'
*** Removed 'Info pages'
*** Removed 'info', 'locate'
** '''2.3 Files, Directories and Paths''' (renamed from ''Using Directories and Listing Files'')
*** Changed to include find
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Searching for files based on file names'
*** Added to utilities: 'find'
*** Added '''/'''' (root path)
*** Changed 'home' to '/home'
** '''2.4 File and Directory Management''' (renamed from ''Creating, Moving and Deleting Files'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
* '''Topic 3: Data Processing''' (renamed from ''The Power of the Command Line'')
** '''3.1 File Archives and Compression''' (renamed from ''Archiving Files on the Command Line'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''3.2 Redirections and String Processing''' (renamed from ''Searching and Extracting Data from Files'')
*** Changed to use Extended Regular Expressions instead of Basic Regular Expressions
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'grep -E'
*** Added 'uniq'
** '''3.3 Shell Scripting Basics''' (renamed from ''Turning Commands into a Script'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'for loops' to 'for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)'
*** Added 'if conditions (file existence and variable equality)'
*** Removed 'Awareness of common text editors (vi and nano)' (now in to 1.4)
* '''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''' (renamed from ''The Linux Operating System'')
** '''4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning''' (renamed from ''Choosing an Operating System'')
*** Updated cover the installation of Linux on physical machines, VMs and cloud instances
*** Added 'Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine'
*** Added 'Using Linux in cloud instances'
*** Changed 'OS X' to 'macOS'
*** Added 'Installation media, ISO files'
*** Added 'Operating system images'
*** Added 'Dual boot'
*** Added 'Windows Subsystem for Linux'
*** Removed 'Distribution life cycle management' (now in 1.1)
*** Removed 'GUI versus command line, desktop configuration'
*** Removed 'Maintenance cycles, beta and stable'
** '''4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access''' (renamed from ''Understanding Computer Hardware'')
*** Changed to include kernel ascpects hardware management and device files
*** Updated description
*** Added Key Knowledge Area: 'Device files for physical and virtual devices'
*** Added 'processors (x86, ARM)' and 'memory'
*** Added 'Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)'
*** Added '/dev/nvme*'
*** Added 'Raspberry Pi'
*** Changed 'Drivers' to 'Drivers and Kernel Modules'
*** Added '/dev/, /boot/, /sys/'
*** Added '/dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom'
** '''4.3 Processes and Log Messages''' (renamed from ''Where Data is Stored'')
*** Changed to include systemd service management and journal querying and remove syslog
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Services'
*** Added 'systemctl (start, stop, status)'
*** Added 'systemd Journal'
*** Added 'journalctl'
*** Removed 'System messaging'
*** Removed 'Memory addresses'
*** Removed 'syslog'
*** Removed '/boot/, /dev/, /sys/'
** '''4.4 Network Configuration''' (renamed from ''Your Computer on the Network'')
*** Changed to include IPv6 and remove net-utils
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Automatic network configuration'
*** Added 'ip -6 route show'
*** Added 'resolvectl'
*** Added 'DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6'
*** Removed 'route'
*** Removed 'ifconfig'
*** Removed 'netstat'
* '''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''' (renamed from ''Security and File Permissions'')
** '''5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions''' (renamed from ''Basic Security and Identifying User Types'')
*** Changed to focusing on SSH, remote access and privilege escalation, user management aspects were moved to 5.2.
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Executing commands with elevated permissions'
*** Added 'Remote logins using SSH'
*** Added 'SSH key generation and authentication'
*** Added 'ssh, scp'
*** Added 'ssh-keygen'
*** Added '~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
*** Removed '/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group' (now in 5.2)
*** Removed 'id, last, who, w' (not in 5.2)
** '''5.2 User and Group Management''' (renamed from ''Creating Users and Groups'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added 'w, last, wtmpdb last'
** '''5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership''' (renamed from ''Managing File Permissions and Ownership'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''5.4 Special Directories and Files'''
*** Editorial changes to the description

Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-05T07:40:53Z

FabianThorns:

__FORCETOC__

=Purpose=

This document is meant to provide a detailed overview into what has changed with the objectives update for the Linux Essentials exam (010). A detailed diff is available in the [https://wiki.lpi.org/w/index.php?title=Linux_Essentials_Objectives_V2.0&diff=&oldid=5877 document history of the objectives page].

=Changes in Exam 010=

The following changes constitute the update of exam 010 from version 1.6 to version 2.0:

* '''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''' (renamed from ''The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source'')
** '''1.1 Linux Distributions''' (renamed from ''Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems'')
*** Changed to better reflect Linux distribution families, include support schemas and Linux components (kernelspace and userspace)
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Kernel and userspace'
*** Added 'Distribution life cycle management' (moved from 4.1)
*** Added 'Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux'
*** Replaced individual distribution names with distribution family groupings:
**** Added 'Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)' — replaces 'Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)' and 'Raspberry Pi, Raspbian'
**** Added 'Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)' — replaces 'CentOS, Red Hat'
**** Added 'SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)' — replaces 'openSUSE, SUSE'
**** Added 'Alpine Linux (main and edge)'
**** Added 'Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases'
**** Removed 'Linux Mint, Scientific Linux'
**** Removed 'Android' (covered by new KKA instead)
** '''1.2 Major Open Source Applications'''
*** Updated description to clarify that awareness of purpose and features is required, not specific usage or installation details
*** Changed 'Development languages' to 'Programming languages'
*** Added 'Web applications'
*** Added 'Software packages and repositories'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea'
*** Added (awareness level) 'PostgreSQL'
*** Added (awareness level) 'C++, Rust, Go'
*** Added 'apt, dnf, zypper, apk'
*** Removed 'OpenOffice.org'
*** Removed 'Perl, shell'
** '''1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing'''
*** Updated description to add digital autonomy and digital sovereignty
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'Open source licensing' to 'Open source and open content licensing'
*** Added 'Proprietary software'
*** Added: 'Free software'
*** Added: 'Digital autonomy', 'Digital sovereignty'
*** Removed: 'FOSS, FLOSS', 'Open source business models'
** '''1.4 Linux Usage''' (renamed from ''ICT Skills and Working in Linux'')
*** Changed to focus on various kinds of system that run Linux as well as securely accessing remote system, such as cloud providers
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Understanding types of computers that can run Linux'
*** Added 'Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing'
*** Added 'Awareness of common text editors'
*** Added 'Awareness of configuration management tools'
*** Added 'Secure handling of credentials'
*** Added 'Secure transfer and storage of data'
*** Added 'Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices'
*** Added 'Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances'
*** Added 'Embedded systems and HPC clusters'
*** Added 'Client and server roles'
*** Added 'vi, nano'
*** Added 'Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys'
*** Added 'Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media'
*** Added 'Secure handling of USB devices'
*** Removed 'Desktop skills'
*** Removed 'Getting to the command line'
*** Removed 'Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization'
*** Removed 'Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content'
*** Removed 'Terminal and console'
*** Removed 'Password issues'
*** Removed 'Privacy issues and tools'
*** Removed 'Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects'
* '''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''' (renamed from ''Finding Your Way on a Linux System'')
** '''2.1 Command Line Usage''' (renamed from ''Command Line Basics'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added to utilities: '/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin'
** '''2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information''' (renamed from ''Using the Command Line to Get Help'')
*** Updated to include parameters for querying usage information and removed info pages and locate
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'Common help parameters of command line tools'
*** Added '-h, --help'
*** Removed 'Info pages'
*** Removed 'info', 'locate'
** '''2.3 Files, Directories and Paths''' (renamed from ''Using Directories and Listing Files'')
*** Changed to include find
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Searching for files based on file names'
*** Added to utilities: 'find'
*** Added '''/'''' (root path)
*** Changed 'home' to '/home'
** '''2.4 File and Directory Management''' (renamed from ''Creating, Moving and Deleting Files'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
* '''Topic 3: Data Processing''' (renamed from ''The Power of the Command Line'')
** '''3.1 File Archives and Compression''' (renamed from ''Archiving Files on the Command Line'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''3.2 Redirections and String Processing''' (renamed from ''Searching and Extracting Data from Files'')
*** Changed to use Extended Regular Expressions instead of Basic Regular Expressions
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'grep -E'
*** Added 'uniq'
** '''3.3 Shell Scripting Basics''' (renamed from ''Turning Commands into a Script'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'for loops' to 'for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)'
*** Added 'if conditions (file existence and variable equality)'
*** Removed 'Awareness of common text editors (vi and nano)' (now in to 1.4)
* '''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''' (renamed from ''The Linux Operating System'')
** '''4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning''' (renamed from ''Choosing an Operating System'')
*** Updated cover the installation of Linux on physical machines, VMs and cloud instances
*** Added 'Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine'
*** Added 'Using Linux in cloud instances'
*** Changed 'OS X' to 'macOS'
*** Added 'Installation media, ISO files'
*** Added 'Operating system images'
*** Added 'Dual boot'
*** Added 'Windows Subsystem for Linux'
*** Removed 'Distribution life cycle management' (now in 1.1)
*** Removed 'GUI versus command line, desktop configuration'
*** Removed 'Maintenance cycles, beta and stable'
** '''4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access''' (renamed from ''Understanding Computer Hardware'')
*** Changed to include kernel ascpects hardware management and device files
*** Updated description
*** Added Key Knowledge Area: 'Device files for physical and virtual devices'
*** Added 'processors (x86, ARM)' and 'memory'
*** Added 'Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)'
*** Added '/dev/nvme*'
*** Added 'Raspberry Pi'
*** Changed 'Drivers' to 'Drivers and Kernel Modules'
*** Added '/dev/, /boot/, /sys/'
*** Added '/dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom'
** '''4.3 Processes and Log Messages''' (renamed from ''Where Data is Stored'')
*** Changed to include systemd service management and journal querying and remove syslog
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Services'
*** Added 'systemctl (start, stop, status)'
*** Added 'systemd Journal'
*** Added 'journalctl'
*** Removed 'System messaging'
*** Removed 'Memory addresses'
*** Removed 'syslog'
*** Removed '/boot/, /dev/, /sys/'
** '''4.4 Network Configuration''' (renamed from ''Your Computer on the Network'')
*** Changed to include IPv6 and remove net-utils
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Automatic network configuration'
*** Added 'ip -6 route show'
*** Added 'resolvectl'
*** Added 'DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6'
*** Removed 'route'
*** Removed 'ifconfig'
*** Removed 'netstat'
* '''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''' (renamed from ''Security and File Permissions'')
** '''5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions''' (renamed from ''Basic Security and Identifying User Types'')
*** Changed to focusing on SSH, remote access and privilege escalation, user management aspects were moved to 5.2.
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Executing commands with elevated permissions'
*** Added 'Remote logins using SSH'
*** Added 'SSH key generation and authentication'
*** Added 'ssh, scp'
*** Added 'ssh-keygen'
*** Added '~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
*** Removed '/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group' (now in 5.2)
*** Removed 'id, last, who, w' (not in 5.2)
** '''5.2 User and Group Management''' (renamed from ''Creating Users and Groups'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added 'w, last, wtmpdb last'
** '''5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership''' (renamed from ''Managing File Permissions and Ownership'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** (no content changes)
** '''5.4 Special Directories and Files'''
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** (no content changes)

Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-05T07:35:53Z

FabianThorns:

* '''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''' (renamed from ''The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source'')
** '''1.1 Linux Distributions''' (renamed from ''Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems'')
*** Changed to better reflect Linux distribution families, include support schemas and Linux components (kernelspace and userspace)
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Kernel and userspace'
*** Added 'Distribution life cycle management' (moved from 4.1)
*** Added 'Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux'
*** Replaced individual distribution names with distribution family groupings:
**** Added 'Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)' — replaces 'Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)' and 'Raspberry Pi, Raspbian'
**** Added 'Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)' — replaces 'CentOS, Red Hat'
**** Added 'SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)' — replaces 'openSUSE, SUSE'
**** Added 'Alpine Linux (main and edge)'
**** Added 'Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases'
**** Removed 'Linux Mint, Scientific Linux'
**** Removed 'Android' (covered by new KKA instead)
** '''1.2 Major Open Source Applications'''
*** Updated description to clarify that awareness of purpose and features is required, not specific usage or installation details
*** Changed 'Development languages' to 'Programming languages'
*** Added 'Web applications'
*** Added 'Software packages and repositories'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea'
*** Added (awareness level) 'PostgreSQL'
*** Added (awareness level) 'C++, Rust, Go'
*** Added 'apt, dnf, zypper, apk'
*** Removed 'OpenOffice.org'
*** Removed 'Perl, shell'
** '''1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing'''
*** Updated description to add digital autonomy and digital sovereignty
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'Open source licensing' to 'Open source and open content licensing'
*** Added 'Proprietary software'
*** Added: 'Free software'
*** Added: 'Digital autonomy', 'Digital sovereignty'
*** Removed: 'FOSS, FLOSS', 'Open source business models'
** '''1.4 Linux Usage''' (renamed from ''ICT Skills and Working in Linux'')
*** Changed to focus on various kinds of system that run Linux as well as securely accessing remote system, such as cloud providers
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Understanding types of computers that can run Linux'
*** Added 'Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing'
*** Added 'Awareness of common text editors'
*** Added 'Awareness of configuration management tools'
*** Added 'Secure handling of credentials'
*** Added 'Secure transfer and storage of data'
*** Added 'Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices'
*** Added 'Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances'
*** Added 'Embedded systems and HPC clusters'
*** Added 'Client and server roles'
*** Added 'vi, nano'
*** Added 'Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys'
*** Added 'Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media'
*** Added 'Secure handling of USB devices'
*** Removed 'Desktop skills'
*** Removed 'Getting to the command line'
*** Removed 'Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization'
*** Removed 'Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content'
*** Removed 'Terminal and console'
*** Removed 'Password issues'
*** Removed 'Privacy issues and tools'
*** Removed 'Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects'
* '''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''' (renamed from ''Finding Your Way on a Linux System'')
** '''2.1 Command Line Usage''' (renamed from ''Command Line Basics'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added to utilities: '/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin'
** '''2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information''' (renamed from ''Using the Command Line to Get Help'')
*** Updated to include parameters for querying usage information and removed info pages and locate
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'Common help parameters of command line tools'
*** Added '-h, --help'
*** Removed 'Info pages'
*** Removed 'info', 'locate'
** '''2.3 Files, Directories and Paths''' (renamed from ''Using Directories and Listing Files'')
*** Changed to include find
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Searching for files based on file names'
*** Added to utilities: 'find'
*** Added '''/'''' (root path)
*** Changed 'home' to '/home'
** '''2.4 File and Directory Management''' (renamed from ''Creating, Moving and Deleting Files'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
* '''Topic 3: Data Processing''' (renamed from ''The Power of the Command Line'')
** '''3.1 File Archives and Compression''' (renamed from ''Archiving Files on the Command Line'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''3.2 Redirections and String Processing''' (renamed from ''Searching and Extracting Data from Files'')
*** Changed to use Extended Regular Expressions instead of Basic Regular Expressions
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'grep -E'
*** Added 'uniq'
** '''3.3 Shell Scripting Basics''' (renamed from ''Turning Commands into a Script'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'for loops' to 'for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)'
*** Added 'if conditions (file existence and variable equality)'
*** Removed 'Awareness of common text editors (vi and nano)' (now in to 1.4)
* '''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''' (renamed from ''The Linux Operating System'')
** '''4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning''' (renamed from ''Choosing an Operating System'')
*** Updated cover the installation of Linux on physical machines, VMs and cloud instances
*** Added 'Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine'
*** Added 'Using Linux in cloud instances'
*** Changed 'OS X' to 'macOS'
*** Added 'Installation media, ISO files'
*** Added 'Operating system images'
*** Added 'Dual boot'
*** Added 'Windows Subsystem for Linux'
*** Removed 'Distribution life cycle management' (now in 1.1)
*** Removed 'GUI versus command line, desktop configuration'
*** Removed 'Maintenance cycles, beta and stable'
** '''4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access''' (renamed from ''Understanding Computer Hardware'')
*** Changed to include kernel ascpects hardware management and device files
*** Updated description
*** Added Key Knowledge Area: 'Device files for physical and virtual devices'
*** Added 'processors (x86, ARM)' and 'memory'
*** Added 'Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)'
*** Added '/dev/nvme*'
*** Added 'Raspberry Pi'
*** Changed 'Drivers' to 'Drivers and Kernel Modules'
*** Added '/dev/, /boot/, /sys/'
*** Added '/dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom'
** '''4.3 Processes and Log Messages''' (renamed from ''Where Data is Stored'')
*** Changed to include systemd service management and journal querying and remove syslog
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Services'
*** Added 'systemctl (start, stop, status)'
*** Added 'systemd Journal'
*** Added 'journalctl'
*** Removed 'System messaging'
*** Removed 'Memory addresses'
*** Removed 'syslog'
*** Removed '/boot/, /dev/, /sys/'
** '''4.4 Network Configuration''' (renamed from ''Your Computer on the Network'')
*** Changed to include IPv6 and remove net-utils
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Automatic network configuration'
*** Added 'ip -6 route show'
*** Added 'resolvectl'
*** Added 'DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6'
*** Removed 'route'
*** Removed 'ifconfig'
*** Removed 'netstat'
* '''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''' (renamed from ''Security and File Permissions'')
** '''5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions''' (renamed from ''Basic Security and Identifying User Types'')
*** Changed to focusing on SSH, remote access and privilege escalation, user management aspects were moved to 5.2.
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Executing commands with elevated permissions'
*** Added 'Remote logins using SSH'
*** Added 'SSH key generation and authentication'
*** Added 'ssh, scp'
*** Added 'ssh-keygen'
*** Added '~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
*** Removed '/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group' (now in 5.2)
*** Removed 'id, last, who, w' (not in 5.2)
** '''5.2 User and Group Management''' (renamed from ''Creating Users and Groups'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added 'w, last, wtmpdb last'
** '''5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership''' (renamed from ''Managing File Permissions and Ownership'')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** (no content changes)
** '''5.4 Special Directories and Files'''
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** (no content changes)

Linux Essentials Summary Version 1.6 To 2.0

2026-03-04T08:37:19Z

FabianThorns: Created page with " * '''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''' (renamed from Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source) ** '''1.1 Linux Distributions''' (renamed from 1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems) *** Changed to better reflect Linux distribution families, include support schemas and Linux components (kernelspace and userspace) *** Updated description *** Added 'Kernel and userspace' *** Added 'Distribution life cycle management'..."

* '''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''' (renamed from Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source)
** '''1.1 Linux Distributions''' (renamed from 1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems)
*** Changed to better reflect Linux distribution families, include support schemas and Linux components (kernelspace and userspace)
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Kernel and userspace'
*** Added 'Distribution life cycle management' (moved from 4.1)
*** Added 'Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux'
*** Replaced individual distribution names with distribution family groupings:
**** Added 'Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)' — replaces 'Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)' and 'Raspberry Pi, Raspbian'
**** Added 'Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)' — replaces 'CentOS, Red Hat'
**** Added 'SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)' — replaces 'openSUSE, SUSE'
**** Added 'Alpine Linux (main and edge)'
**** Added 'Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases'
**** Removed 'Linux Mint, Scientific Linux'
**** Removed 'Android' (covered by new KKA instead)
** '''1.2 Major Open Source Applications'''
*** Updated description to clarify that awareness of purpose and features is required, not specific usage or installation details
*** Changed 'Development languages' to 'Programming languages'
*** Added 'Web applications'
*** Added 'Software packages and repositories'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R'
*** Added (awareness level) 'Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea'
*** Added (awareness level) 'PostgreSQL'
*** Added (awareness level) 'C++, Rust, Go'
*** Added 'apt, dnf, zypper, apk'
*** Removed 'OpenOffice.org'
*** Removed 'Perl, shell'
** '''1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing'''
*** Updated description to add digital autonomy and digital sovereignty
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'Open source licensing' to 'Open source and open content licensing'
*** Added 'Proprietary software'
*** Added: 'Free software'
*** Added: 'Digital autonomy', 'Digital sovereignty'
*** Removed: 'FOSS, FLOSS', 'Open source business models'
** '''1.4 Linux Usage''' (renamed from 1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux)
*** Changed to focus on various kinds of system that run Linux as well as securely accessing remote system, such as cloud providers
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Understanding types of computers that can run Linux'
*** Added 'Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing'
*** Added 'Awareness of common text editors'
*** Added 'Awareness of configuration management tools'
*** Added 'Secure handling of credentials'
*** Added 'Secure transfer and storage of data'
*** Added 'Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices'
*** Added 'Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances'
*** Added 'Embedded systems and HPC clusters'
*** Added 'Client and server roles'
*** Added 'vi, nano'
*** Added 'Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys'
*** Added 'Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media'
*** Added 'Secure handling of USB devices'
*** Removed 'Desktop skills'
*** Removed 'Getting to the command line'
*** Removed 'Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization'
*** Removed 'Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content'
*** Removed 'Terminal and console'
*** Removed 'Password issues'
*** Removed 'Privacy issues and tools'
*** Removed 'Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects'
* '''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''' (renamed from Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System)
** '''2.1 Command Line Usage''' (renamed from 2.1 Command Line Basics)
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added to utilities: '/bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin'
** '''2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information''' (renamed from 2.2 Using the Command Line to Get Help)
* Updated to include parameters for querying usage information and removed info pages and locate
*** Updated Description
*** Added 'Common help parameters of command line tools'
*** Added '-h, --help'
*** Removed 'Info pages'
*** Removed 'info', 'locate'
** '''2.3 Files, Directories and Paths''' (renamed from 2.3 Using Directories and Listing Files''')
*** Changed to include find
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Searching for files based on file names'
*** Added to utilities: 'find'
*** Added '''/'''' (root path)
*** Changed 'home' to '/home'
** '''2.4 File and Directory Management''' (renamed from 2.4 Creating, Moving and Deleting Files)
*** Editorial changes to the description
* '''Topic 3: Data Processing''' (renamed from Topic 3: The Power of the Command Line)
** '''3.1 File Archives and Compression''' (renamed from 3.1 Archiving Files on the Command Line)
*** Editorial changes to the description
** '''3.2 Redirections and String Processing''' (renamed from 3.2 Searching and Extracting Data from Files)
*** Changed to use Extended Regular Expressions instead of Basic Regular Expressions
*** Updated Desscription
*** Added 'grep -E'
*** Added 'uniq'
** '''3.3 Shell Scripting Basics''' (renamed from 3.3 Turning Commands into a Script''')
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Changed 'for loops' to 'for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)'
*** Added 'if conditions (file existence and variable equality)'
*** Removed 'Awareness of common text editors (vi and nano)' (now in to 1.4)
* ''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''' (renamed from Topic 4: The Linux Operating System)
** '''4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning''' (renamed from 4.1 Choosing an Operating System''')
*** Updated cover the installation of Linux on physical machines, VMs and cloud instances
*** Added 'Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine'
*** Added 'Using Linux in cloud instances'
*** Changed 'OS X' to 'macOS'
*** Added 'Installation media, ISO files'
*** Added 'Operating system images'
*** Added 'Dual boot'
*** Added 'Windows Subsystem for Linux'
*** Removed 'Distribution life cycle management' (now in 1.1)
*** Removed 'GUI versus command line, desktop configuration'
*** Removed 'Maintenance cycles, beta and stable'
** ''4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access''' (renamed from 4.2 Understanding Computer Hardware''')
*** Changed to include kernel ascpects hardware management and device files
*** Updated description
*** Added Key Knowledge Area: 'Device files for physical and virtual devices'
*** Added 'processors (x86, ARM)' and 'memory'
*** Added 'Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)'
*** Added '/dev/nvme*'
*** Added 'Raspberry Pi'
*** Changed 'Drivers' to 'Drivers and Kernel Modules'
*** Added '/dev/, /boot/, /sys/'
*** Added '/dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom'
** '''4.3 Processes and Log Messages''' (renamed from 4.3 Where Data is Stored)
*** Changed to include systemd service management and journal querying and remove syslog
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Services'
*** Added 'systemctl (start, stop, status)'
*** Added 'systemd Journal'
*** Added 'journalctl'
*** Removed 'System messaging'
*** Removed 'Memory addresses'
*** Removed 'syslog'
*** Removed '/boot/, /dev/, /sys/'
** '''4.4 Network Configuration''' (renamed from 4.4 Your Computer on the Network''')
*** Changed to include IPv6 and remove net-utils
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Automatic network configuration'
*** Added 'ip -6 route show'
*** Added 'resolvectl'
*** Added 'DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6'
*** Removed 'route'
*** Removed 'ifconfig'
*** Removed 'netstat'
* '''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''' (renamed from Topic 5: Security and File Permissions)
** '''5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions''' (renamed from 5.1 Basic Security and Identifying User Types)
*** Changed to focusing on SSH, remote access and privilege escalation, user management aspects were moved to 5.2.
*** Updated description
*** Added 'Executing commands with elevated permissions'
*** Added 'Remote logins using SSH'
*** Added 'SSH key generation and authentication'
*** Added 'ssh, scp'
*** Added 'ssh-keygen'
*** Added '~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
*** Removed '/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group' (now in 5.2)
*** Removed 'id, last, who, w' (not in 5.2)
** '''5.2 Creating Users and Groups''' → renamed to '''5.2 User and Group Management'''
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** Added 'w, last, wtmpdb last'
** '''5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership''' (renamed from 5.3 Managing File Permissions and Ownership)
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** (no content changes)
** '''5.4 Special Directories and Files'''
*** Editorial changes to the description
*** (no content changes)

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2026-02-27T08:46:44Z

FabianThorns:

* Exam Objectives
** LinuxEssentials_Objectives_V1.6|Linux Essentials v1.6
** Linux_Essentials_Objectives_V2.0|Linux Essentials v2.0
** Security_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Security Essentials v1.0
** Web_Development_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Web Development Essentials v1.0
** Open_Source_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Open Source Essentials v1.0
** LPIC-1_Objectives_V5.0|LPIC-1 v5.0
** LPIC-2|LPIC-2 v4.5
** LPIC-300_Objectives_V3.0|300 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-303_Objectives_V3.0|303 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-305_Objectives_V3.0|305 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-306_Objectives_V3.0|306 Objectives v3.0
** DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V1|DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives v1.0
** DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives v2.0

** BSD_Specialist_Objectives_V1.0|BSD Specialist Objectives v1.0

* SEARCH

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* TOOLBOX

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2026-02-27T08:46:10Z

FabianThorns:

* Exam Objectives
** LinuxEssentials_Objectives_V1.6|Linux Essentials v1.6
** LinuxEssentials_Objectives_V2.0|Linux Essentials v2.0
** Security_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Security Essentials v1.0
** Web_Development_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Web Development Essentials v1.0
** Open_Source_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Open Source Essentials v1.0
** LPIC-1_Objectives_V5.0|LPIC-1 v5.0
** LPIC-2|LPIC-2 v4.5
** LPIC-300_Objectives_V3.0|300 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-303_Objectives_V3.0|303 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-305_Objectives_V3.0|305 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-306_Objectives_V3.0|306 Objectives v3.0
** DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V1|DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives v1.0
** DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives v2.0

** BSD_Specialist_Objectives_V1.0|BSD Specialist Objectives v1.0

* SEARCH

* navigation
** mainpage|mainpage-description
** recentchanges-url|recentchanges
** http://www.lpi.org|LPI Website

* TOOLBOX

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-27T08:45:31Z

FabianThorns:

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

LPIC-3 300 Objectives V3.0(JA)

2026-02-19T17:36:30Z

FabianThorns: /* 303.1 ファイル共有の設定 (総重量: 4) */

__FORCETOC__

==はじめに==

[[LPIC-3|これ]]は、[[LPIC-3|LPIC-3 認定試験]]に必要な項目です。

 

==バージョン情報==

この試験範囲は、バージョン3.0です。

以前の[[LPIC-3 300 Objectives V1|1.0 試験範囲]]は[[LPIC-3 300 Objectives V1|こちら]]。

 

==試験範囲の翻訳==

このwikiに、以下の試験範囲の翻訳があります:

* [[LPIC-3_300_Objectives_V3.0|英語]]
* [[LPIC-3_300_Objectives_V3.0(JA)| 日本語]]

 

==試験範囲==

===''課題 301: Sambaの基礎''===

====301.1 Sambaの概念と構造 (総重量: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

様々なSambaサーバのプロセスと、Sambaが様々な役割で利用されるときに使われるネットワーキングプロトコルを含む、基本的なSambaの概念を理解している。Sambaのバージョンは4.8以上に対応しています。
|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* 様々なSambaのデーモンとコポーネントの役割の理解。
* ヘテロジーニアスネットワークに関する重要な課題の理解。
* SMB/CIFSやActive Directoryを利用したネットワークサービスとポートに関する理解。
* SMBのプロトコルバージョン1.0, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0の主要機能の違いの理解。
* Samba 3とSamba 4の違いの理解。
* Samba VFSモジュール知識。
* Samba ClusteringとCTDBの知識。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smbd, nmbd, samba, winbindd

 

====301.2 Sambaの設定 (総重量: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Sambaデーモンの設定ができる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* Sambaサーバでの、ファイルベースの設定の管理。
* Sambaサーバでの、レジストリベースでの設定の管理。
* Sambaの設定におけるパラメータや変数の管理。
* Sambaサーバの役割とセキュリティモードの理解。
* TLSを利用したSambaの設定。
* Sambaの設定の正当性チェック。
* Sambaにおける設定の問題の、トラブルシュートとデバッグ。
* Sambaサーバの設定に利用されるWindowsツールの理解。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf
** security
** server role
** server string
** server services
** tls enabled
** tls keyfile
** tls certfile
** tls dh params file
** tls cafile
** config backend
** registry shares
** include
** vfs objects
* samba-regedit
* HKLM\Software\Samba\
* REG_SZ, REG_MULTI_SZ
* testparm
* net registry (関連したサブコマンドを含む)
* Microsoft RSAT Tools
* Microsoft MMC
* Microsoft ADSI Edit
* Microsoft LDP
* Microsoft Regedit

 

====301.3 Sambaの通常のメンテナンス (総重量: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Sambaでインストールされた、様々なツールやユーティリティの知識がある。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* ドメインコントローラやファイルサーバとしての、Sambaサービスの起動と停止。
* 動作しているSambaデーモンのモニタと操作
* TDBファイルの、バックアップとレストア。
* Active Directoryドメインコントローラのバックアップとレストア。
* アクティブディレクトリドメインコントローラの、バックアップとリカバリの方針の理解。
* アクティブディレクトリドメインコントローラでの、仮想化の影響の理解。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* systemctl
* smbcontrol (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* smbstatus
* tdbbackup
* tdbrestore
* samba-tool domain backup (サブコマンドを含む)
* Virtual Machine Generation Identifier
* Virtual Machine Snapshots

 

====301.4 Sambaのトラブルシューティング (総重量: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Sambaの問題を分析しトラブルシューティングすることができる。TDBファイルで動作しているだけではなく、アクティブディレクトリで動作しているSambaサーバの、LDAPの内容にアクセスしたり修正したりすることができる。さらに、デバッグのために既存のアクティブディレクトリの別名クローンを作成することができる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* 特定のデバッグクラスやクライアントに特化したログのための、ログレベルを設定するなどの、Sambaのログ機能を設定する
* Sambaパスワードデータベースに問い合わせや修正を行う。
* 重要なTDBファイルの内容を理解する。
* TDBファイルの内容を表示し編集する。
* TDBファイルの破損を認識する。
* Samba LDAPディレクトリのオブジェクトにアクセスしたり修正する。
* LDAP recycle binを有効にし利用する。
* ドメインコントローラーのデータベースの生合成を確認する。
* ドメインコントローラの別名を作成する。
* Sambaイベントログ出力の知識
* rpcclientを利用し、Samba Server上で情報を問い合わせる。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** log level
** debuglevel
* /var/log/samba/
* smbpasswd
* pdbedit
* registry.tdb
* secrets.tdb
* tdbdump
* tdbtool
* ldbsearch
* ldbmodify
* ldbedit
* ldbadd
* ldbdel
* LDIF
* samba-tool dbcheck
* samba-tool domain backup (関連したサブコマンドを含む)
* rpcclient

 

===''課題 302: Sambaとアクティブディレクトリドメイン''===

====302.1 アクティブディレクトリドメインコントローラとしてのSamba (総重量: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to configure Samba as an Active Directory domain controller. This includes managing an Active Directory domain.

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* アクティブディレクトリの概念を理解する。
* （DNS, Kerberos, NTP, LDAP, CIFS, MS-RPC等の）アクティブディレクトリで利用するネットワークサービスの概念を理解する。
* Sambaを利用して、新たにアクティブディレクトリドメインの設定をすることができる
* 既存のアクティブディレクトリドメインに、Sambaドメインコントローラーを追加する。
* ドメインコントローラを降格させたり、オンラインから削除しオフラインにする。
* アクティブディレクトリのレプリケーションを検証する。
* グローバルカタログとPartial Attribute Set(=部分的な属性セット）を理解し、問い合わせる。
* ドメインの機能レベルの理解と設定をする。
* アクティブディレクトリフォレストとドメイントラストの理解と設定をする。
* サブネット割り当てを含む、アクティブディレクトリサイトの理解と設定をする。
* 停止時の影響を含む、FSMOの役割の理解と管理。
* 認証監査ログを設定する。
* rsyncやrobocopyを利用して、システムボリューム(SYSVOL)を設定する。
* ntpdとSambaの導入。
* Windows NT4ドメインの知識

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** server role
** log level
* samba-tool domain (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* samba-tool fsmo (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* samba-tool drs (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* samba-tool sites (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* rsync
* rsync.conf
* /var/lib/samba/sysvol
* robocopy
* ntpd.conf
** ntpsigndsocket
 

====302.2 アクティブディレクトリの名前解決 (総重量: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Sambaの内部DNSサーバについて詳しい必要があります。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* アクティブディレクトリドメインコントローラとしてのSambaのDNSを理解し管理できる。
* Samba DNSのDNSレコードの管理。
* DNSフォワーディング
* アクティブディレクトリでの名前の標準化
* DNSマルチキャスト
* BIND9のDLZ DNSバックエンドの知識
* NetBIOS名前解決とWINSの知識

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** DNS フォワーダー
** DNSアップデートの許可
** マルチキャストDNS登録
* samba-tool dns (サブコマンドを含む)
* samba_dnsupdate
* dig
* host
* /etc/resolv.conf
 

====302.3 アクティブディレクトリのユーザ管理 (総重量: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

スタンドアロンサーバやSambaベースのアクティブディレクトリ上のユーザやグループのアカウントを管理する。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* スタンドアロンサーバやSamba ADで、ユーザカウントやユーザグループを管理する。
* ユーザアカウント管理ツールの知識。
* アクティブディレクトリで、特定のユーザ/ユーザグループに管理上の許可を委譲する。
* パスワードの有効期限の設定と、変更要求の設定。
* パスワードポリシーとPSO(Password Setting Objects)の管理。
* プリンシパルとSID(DN, GUID)の識別。
* ユーザプリンシパルネーム(User Principal Name, UPN)とユーザプリンシパルネームサフィックス(User Principal Name Suffix, UPNS)の理解。
* セキュリティグループとディストリビューショングループの理解と管理。
* LDAPのセキュリティプリンシパル属性の理解と管理。
* Samba ADでのRFC2307属性の管理と理解。
* ユーザアカウントへの、Kerberosサービスプリンシパルネームの割り当て。
* 特定のプリンシパルに対する、Kerberosキーテーブルのエクスポート。
* LDAPアカウントマネージャーの知識。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* samba-tool user (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* samba-tool group (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* samba-tool domain passwordsettings
* samba-tool domain exportkeytab
* samba-tool spn (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* smbpasswd
* pdbedit
* kinit
* klist
 

====302.4 Sambaドメインメンバーシップ (総重量: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Sambaサーバを、すでに存在しているアクティブディレクトリのドメインに参加させ、ユーザにサーバを利用させるように認証する。これには、Winbindサービスのインストールと設定も含まれる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* Sambaを、既存のADドメインに参加させる。
* IDマッピングを含む、Winbindサービスを設定する。
* 様々なマッピングのバックエンドを含む、WinbindのIDマッピングの理解と設定。
* Winbindを利用するための、PAMとNSSの設定。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** security
** server role
** realm
** workgroup
** idmap config
** winbind enumerate users
** winbind enumerate groups
** winbind offline logon
** winbind separator
** template shell
** template homedir
** allow trusted domains
* idmap_ad
* idmap_autorid
* idmap_ldap
* idmap_rfc2307
* idmap_rid
* idmap_tdb
* idmap_tdb2
* net ads (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* /etc/nsswitch.conf
* /etc/pam.conf
* /etc/pam.d/
* libnss_winbind
* libpam_winbind
* getent
* wbinfo
 

====302.5 Sambaのローカルユーザの管理(総重量: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

スタンドアロンのSambaサーバ上で、ローカルのユーザを作成し管理する。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* ローカルパスワードデータベースを設定する。
* パスワード同期を機能させる。
* 異なるpassdbバックエンドの知識。
* Samba passdb間でのデータ変換

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** passdb backend
* /etc/passwd
* /etc/group
* pam_smbpass.so
* smbpasswd
* pdbedit
 

===''Topic 303: Samba共有の設定''===

====303.1 ファイル共有の設定 (総重量: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

SambaでCIFSファイル共有を作成、設定する。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* CIFSファイル共有を作成、設定する。
* Sambaの共有アクセス設定パラメータの管理
* レジストリベースの共有設定の利用
* プロファイルとユーザのホーム共有の管理。
* ファイルサービスのマイグレーションの計画。
* IPC$へのアクセス制限。
* ユーザ共有の知識。
* スナップショット・シャドウコピーと、監査ログをサポートするモジュールを含む、存在するVFSモジュールでの、通常機能の知識。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

*smb.conf:
** path
** browsable
** writable / write ok / read only
** valid users
** invalid users
** read list
** write list
** guest ok
** hosts allow / allow hosts
** hosts deny / deny hosts
** copy
** hide unreadable
** hide unwriteable files
** hide dot files
** hide special files
** veto files
** delete veto files
* [homes]
* [IPC$]
* smbcquotas

 

====303.2 ファイル共有のセキュリティ (総重量: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Linuxのファイルシステム上での、CIFS共有のファイルパーミッションを理解する。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* ファイルとディレクトリの所有権とパーミッションの施行。
* 共有とフォルダの、アクセス制御リスト(ACL)の管理。
* POSIX、拡張POSIX、Windowsアクセス制御リスト(ACL)の理解。
* Sambaが、Windowsのアクセス制御リスト(ACL)をLinuxのアクセス制御リスト(ACL)の中で保存し、属性を拡張させているかの理解。
* プロファイルとホームフォルダ共有のためのアクセス制御リスト(ACL)の設定
* CIFS接続での、暗号化の設定。

'''主な知識分野:'''

* smb.conf
** create mask / create mode
** directory mask / directory mode
** force create mode
** force directory mode
** force user
** force group / group
** profile acls
** inherit acls
** map acl inherit
** store dos attributes
** vfs objects
** smb encrypt
* chown
* chmod
* getfacl
* setfacl
* getfattr
* smbcacls
* sharesec
* SeDiskOperatorPrivilege
* vfs_acl_xattr
* vfs_acl_tdb
* samba-tool ntacl (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
 

====303.3 DFS共有の設定 (総重量: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

SambaでDFS共有を作成し管理できる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* DFSの理解
* DFS共有の設定

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** host msdfs
** msdfs root
** msdfs proxy
* ln
 

====303.4 プリント共有の設定 (総重量: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Sambaでプリント共有を作成・管理することができる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* raw印刷を含むSamba印刷機能の理解
* プリント共有の作成と設定
* SambaとCUPSの間での統合の設定
* Windowsのプリンタドライバーの管理と、プリンタドライバーのダウンロードの設定
*「プリンタドライバの追加ウイザード」を利用した、Windows上でプリンタドライバのアップロード
* ドライバ設定の事前設定
* 用紙サイズと書式の設定
* サポートされているドライババージョン
* 信頼されたプリンタサーバへのGPOオプションの管理
* spoolssdの知識

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

*smb.conf:
** printing
** printable / print ok
** printcap name / printcap
** spoolss: architecture = Windows x64
* [printers]
* [print$]
* CUPS
* cupsd.conf
* /var/spool/samba/
* smbspool
* rpcclient (トピックに関連したコマンドの実行(enumdrivers, enumprinters, setdriver)
* net (トピックに関連したコマンド)
* SePrintOperatorPrivilege
 

===''Topic 304: Sambaクライアントの設定''===

====304.1 Linux認証クライアント (総重量: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

ユーザアカウントの管理と認証に知識がある。これには、パスワードポリシーを強制させるだけではなく、NSS, PAM SSSD, Kerberosやローカルとリモートのディレクトリサービスや認証のメカニズムが含まれている。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* NSSとPAMの理解と設定
* パスワードの複雑性ポリシーと、一定期間でパスワードの変更を強制。
* 新規ユーザのホームディレクトリを作成。
* ログイン試行の失敗の後に、アカウントを自動的にロック
* LDAPから情報を取得する、NSSとPAMを設定する。
* アクティブディレクトリ、IPA、LDAP、Kerberosドメインとローカルのシステム認証データベースに対して、SSSD認証を設定する
* SSSDを利用して、ローカルのアカウントを管理する
* Kerberosチケットの取得と管理

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* /etc/pam.conf
* /etc/pam.d/
* /etc/nsswitch.conf
* /etc/login.defs
* pam_ldap.so
* ldap.conf
* pam_krb5.so
* pam_cracklib.so
* pam_tally2.so
* pam_faillock.so
* pam_mkhomedir.so
* chage
* faillog
* sssd
* sssd.conf
* sss_override
* sss_cache
* sss_debuglevel
* sss_user* and sss_group*
* /var/lib/sss/db/
* krb5.conf
* kinit
* klist
* kdestroy
 

====304.2 Linux CIFSクライアント (総重量: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Linuxクライアントから、リモートのCIFS共有を利用することができる。これには、クライアント側でのCIFS証明書の管理や、リモートACLやクォータの管理が含まれています。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* Linuxクライアントから、リモートのCIFS共有にアクセスする。
* Linuxクライアント上で、リモート上でCIFS共有をマウントする。
* 自動的にホームディレクトリをマウントする。
* CIFS証明書を、安全に保管し管理する。
* リモートのCIFS共有の、パーミッションやファイルの所有権を理解し、管理する。
* CIFS共有のクォータを理解し管理する。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf
* smbclient (関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* mount
* mount.cifs
* /etc/fstab
* pam_mount.so
* pam_mount.conf.xml
* cifscreds
* getcifsacl
* setcifsacl
* smbcquotas
* cifsiostat
* smbget
* smbtar

 

====304.3 Windowsクライアント (総重量: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Windowsホストから、CIFSとプリント共有にアクセスし、それらのホストをアクティブディレクトリに参加させることができる。さらに、GPOを利用しWindowsホストを管理し、リモートのWindowsホストにアクセスすることができる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* Windowsホストをセットアップし利用する方法を理解している
* Windowsホストをアクティブディレクトリのドメインに参加させる
* Windowsクライアントから、リモートのCIFS共有にアクセスする。
* Windowsクライアントからリモートのプリンタに印刷する、設定を行う。
* Windowsホスト上で、ファイルとプリンタの共有を設定する。
* GPOの概念・構造・性能を理解している。
* GPOを作成・修正し、GPOをマシンやユーザに適用する。
* リモートのWindowデスクトップにアクセスする。
* ログオンスクリプトを作成し設定する。
* アクティブディレクトリユーザに対する、ローミングプロファイルを設定する。
* プロファイルフォルダリダイレクトを設定できる。

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* smb.conf:
** logon path
** logon script
* net (Windowコマンド;関連するすべてのサブコマンドを含む)
* samba-tool gpo (関連するすべてのサブコマンドを含む)
* gpoupdate ((Windowコマンド)
* rdesktop
 

===''Topic 305: Linuxのアイデンティティ管理とファイル共有''===

====305.1 FreeIPAのインストールとメンテナンス (総重量: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

通常の設定とデフォルトのサービスを利用して、FreeIPAドメインを設定し管理することができる。これには、レプリケーションを設定し、ドメインにクライアントを参加させることを含みます。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* サーバサイドだけではなく、クライアントサイドを含むFreeIPAの機能・構造を理解している。
* FreeIPAサーバをインストールする。
* 通常の設定とデフォルトのサービスを利用して、FreeIPAドメインを設定・管理する。
* レプリケーショントポロジを理解し、FreeIPAのレプリケーションを設定する。
* クライアントをFreeIPAドメインに参加させる。
* ipa-backupの知識

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* ipa-server-install
* ipa-replica-prepare
* ipa-replica-install
* ipa-client-install
* ipactl
 

====305.2 FreeIPAエンティティ管理 (総重量: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

FreeIPAドメインでユーザ、ホスト、サービスを管理することができる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* ユーザアカウントとグループを管理する
* ホスト、ホストグループ、サービスを管理する。
* IPAアクセスコントロール許可、特権、ロールの方針を理解する。
* IDのビューを理解する。
* FreeIPAにおいて、ホストベースドのアクセスコントロールだけではなく、sudo, autos, SSH, SELinux, NISのインテーグレーション
* FreeIPA CAの知識

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* ipa (user-*, stageuser-* and group-* and idview-* に関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* ipa (host-*, hostgroup-*, service-* and getkeytab に関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* ipa (permission-*, privilege-*, and role-* に関連するサブコマンドを含む)
* ipctl
* ipa-advice
 

====305.3 FreeIPAのアクティブディレクトリインテグレーション (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

FreeIPAとアクティブディレクトリドメインの間で、クロスフォレストトラストの設定ができる。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* Kerberosクロスレルムトラストを利用した、FreeIPAとアクティブディレクトリの設定
* FreeIPAでのIDレンジの設定
* FreeIPAで、外部非POSIXグループの理解と管理。
* Microsoft Privilege Attribute Certificatesと、FreeIPAでの実現方法の知識
* FreeIPAとアクティブディレクトリインテグレーションを元にした、レプリケーションの知識

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* ipa-adtrust-install
* ipa (trust-*, idrange-* and group-* に関連した知識)
 

====305.4 ネットワークファイルシステム(NFS) (総重量: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''総重量'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''説明'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

NFSv4を利用できる。IDマッピング、NFSv4のACL、NFSのKerberos認証の理解。

|}

'''主な知識分野:'''

* 主なNFSv4機能の知識。
* NFSv4サーバとクライアントの、設定と管理。
* NFSv4 pseudoファイルシステムの理解と利用。
* NFSv4 ACLの理解と利用
* NFSv4の認証にKerberosを使用

'''用語とユーティリティ:'''

* exportfs
* /etc/exports
* /etc/idmapd.conf
* nfs4_editfacl
* nfs4_getfacl
* nfs4_setfacl
* mount (NFS mountの共通のオプションを含む)
* /etc/fstab

LPIC-300 Objectives V3.0

2026-02-19T17:36:10Z

FabianThorns: /* 303.1 File Share Configuration (weight: 4) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

A complete description of the [[LPIC-3|LPIC-3 certification program]] can be found [[LPIC-3|here]].

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are for version 3.0.

The preceding version [[LPIC-3 300 Objectives V1|1.0 objectives]] can be found [[LPIC-3 300 Objectives V1|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LPIC-3_300_Objectives_V3.0|English]]
* [[LPIC-3_300_Objectives_V3.0(JA)|Japanese]]

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 301: Samba Basics''===

====301.1 Samba Concepts and Architecture (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the essential concepts of Samba, including the various Samba server processes and networking protocols used by Samba when acting in various roles. Samba version 4.8 or higher is covered.
|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the roles of the various Samba daemons and components
* Understand key issues regarding heterogeneous networks
* Understand the networking services used with SMB/CIFS and Active Directory, including their ports
* Understand the major features of SMB protocol versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0
* Understand of Samba 3 and Samba 4 differences
* Awareness of Samba VFS modules
* Awareness of Samba Clustering and CTDB

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* smbd, nmbd, samba, winbindd

 

====301.2 Samba Configuration (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to configure the Samba daemons.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Manage Samba server file-based configuration
* Manage of Samba server registry-based configuration
* Manage of Samba configuration parameters and variables
* Understand Samba server roles and security modes
* Configure Samba to use TLS
* Check the validity of a Samba configuration
* Troubleshoot and debug configuration problems with Samba
* Understand Windows tools used to configure a Samba Server

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

* smb.conf
** security
** server role
** server string
** server services
** tls enabled
** tls keyfile
** tls certfile
** tls dh params file
** tls cafile
** config backend
** registry shares
** include
** vfs objects
* samba-regedit
* HKLM\Software\Samba\
* REG_SZ, REG_MULTI_SZ
* testparm
* net registry (including relevant subcommands)
* Microsoft RSAT Tools
* Microsoft MMC
* Microsoft ADSI Edit
* Microsoft LDP
* Microsoft Regedit

 

====301.3 Regular Samba Maintenance (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should know the various tools and utilities that are part of a Samba installation.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Start and stop Samba services on domain controllers and file servers
* Monitor and interact with running Samba daemons
* Backup and restore TDB files
* Backup and restore an Active Directory domain controller
* Understand backup and recovery strategies for Active Directory domain controllers
* Understand the impact of virtualization on Active Directory domain controllers

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

* systemctl
* smbcontrol (including relevant message types)
* smbstatus
* tdbbackup
* tdbrestore
* samba-tool domain backup (including subcommands)
* Virtual Machine Generation Identifier
* Virtual Machine Snapshots

 

====301.4 Troubleshooting Samba (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to analyze and troubleshoot Samba issues. This includes accessing and modifying the LDAP content of a Samba server hosting an Active directory as well as working with trivial database files. Furthermore, candidates should be able to create a renamed clone of an existing Active Directory for debugging.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Configure Samba logging, including setting log levels for specific debug classes and client-specific logging
* Query and modify the Samba password database
* Understand the contents of important TDB files
* List and edit TDB file content
* Identify TDB file corruption
* Access and modify objects in a Samba LDAP directory
* Enable and use the LDAP recycle bin
* Confirm the integrity of a domain controller’s database
* Create a renamed clone of a domain controller
* Awareness of Samba eventlog shipping
* Use rpcclient to query information on a Samba server

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

* smb.conf:
** log level
** debuglevel
* /var/log/samba/
* smbpasswd
* pdbedit
* registry.tdb
* secrets.tdb
* tdbdump
* tdbtool
* ldbsearch
* ldbmodify
* ldbedit
* ldbadd
* ldbdel
* LDIF
* samba-tool dbcheck
* samba-tool domain backup (including relevant subcommands)
* rpcclient

 

===''Topic 302: Samba and Active Directory Domains''===

====302.1 Samba as Active Directory Domain Controller (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to configure Samba as an Active Directory domain controller. This includes managing an Active Directory domain.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Active Directory
* Understand the principles of the network services used by Active Directory (i.e. DNS, Kerberos, NTP and LDAP and CIFS and MS-RPC)
* Set up a new Active Directory domain using Samba
* Add a Samba domain controller to an existing Active Directory domain
* Demote and remove online and offline domain controllers
* Verify AD replication
* Understand and query the global catalog and the partial attribute set
* Understand and configure domain functional levels
* Understand and configure Active Directory forest and domain trusts
* Understand and configure Active Directory sites, including subnet assignments
* Understand and manage FSMO roles, including their impact in case of an outage
* Configure authentication audit logging
* Configure SYSVOL replication using rsync or robocopy
* Integrate Samba with ntpd
* Awareness of Windows NT4 domains

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

* smb.conf:
** server role
** log level
* samba-tool domain (including relevant subcommands)
* samba-tool fsmo (including relevant subcommands)
* samba-tool drs (including relevant subcommands)
* samba-tool sites (including relevant subcommands)
* rsync
* rsync.conf
* /var/lib/samba/sysvol
* robocopy
* ntpd.conf
** ntpsigndsocket
 

====302.2 Active Directory Name Resolution (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be familiar with the internal DNS server of Samba.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and manage DNS for Samba as an AD domain controller
* Manage DNS records in Samba DNS
* DNS forwarding
* Standardized names in an Active Directory
* Multicast DNS
* Awareness of BIND9 DLZ DNS back end
* Awareness of NetBIOS name resolution and WINS

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

* smb.conf:
** dns forwarder
** allow dns updates
** multicst dns register
* samba-tool dns (with subcommands)
* samba_dnsupdate
* dig
* host
* /etc/resolv.conf
 

====302.3 Active Directory User Management (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to manage user and group accounts on a standalone server and in a Samba based Active Directory.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Manage user accounts and user group for standalone servers and Samba AD
* Knowledge of user account management tools
* Delegate administrative permissions in AD to specific users / user groups
* Configure password expiration and change requirements
* Manage password policies and password setting objects
* Understand principals and their identification SID (DN, GUID)
* Understand User Principal Name (UPN) and User Principal Name Suffix (UPN Suffix)
* Understand and manage Security and Distribution Groups
* Understand and manage LDAP attributes of security principals
* Understand and manage RFC2307 attributes in a Samba AD
* Map Kerberos service principal names to user accounts
* Export Kerberos keytabs for a specific principal
* Awareness of LDAP Account Manager

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

* samba-tool user (including relevant subcommands)
* samba-tool group (including relevant subcommands)
* samba-tool domain passwordsettings
* samba-tool domain exportkeytab
* samba-tool spn (including relevant subcommands)
* smbpasswd
* pdbedit
* kinit
* klist
 

====302.4 Samba Domain Membership (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to join a Samba server into an existing Active Directory domain and authorize domain users to use the server. This includes installing and configuring the Winbind service.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Join Samba to an existing AD domain
* Configure Winbind service, including ID mapping
* Understand and configure Winbind ID mapping, including various mapping backends
* Configure PAM and NSS to use Winbind

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

* smb.conf:
** security
** server role
** realm
** workgroup
** idmap config
** winbind enumerate users
** winbind enumerate groups
** winbind offline logon
** winbind separator
** template shell
** template homedir
** allow trusted domains
* idmap_ad
* idmap_autorid
* idmap_ldap
* idmap_rfc2307
* idmap_rid
* idmap_tdb
* idmap_tdb2
* net ads (including relevant subcommands)
* /etc/nsswitch.conf
* /etc/pam.conf
* /etc/pam.d/
* libnss_winbind
* libpam_winbind
* getent
* wbinfo
 

====302.5 Samba Local User Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create and manage local user accounts on a stand alone Samba server.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Setup a local password database
* Perform password synchronization
* Knowledge of different passdb backends
* Convert between Samba passdb backends

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

* smb.conf:
** passdb backend
* /etc/passwd
* /etc/group
* pam_smbpass.so
* smbpasswd
* pdbedit
 

===''Topic 303: Samba Share Configuration''===

====303.1 File Share Configuration (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create and configure CIFS file shares in Samba.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create and configure CIFS file shares
* Manage Samba share access configuration parameters
* Use registry based share configuration
* Manage profile and user home shares
* Plan file service migration
* Limit access to IPC$
* Awareness of user shares
* Awareness of existing VFS modules and their general functionality, including modules to support audit logs and snapshots / shadow copies

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

*smb.conf:
** path
** browsable
** writable / write ok / read only
** valid users
** invalid users
** read list
** write list
** guest ok
** hosts allow / allow hosts
** hosts deny / deny hosts
** copy
** hide unreadable
** hide unwriteable files
** hide dot files
** hide special files
** veto files
** delete veto files
* [homes]
* [IPC$]
* smbcquotas

 

====303.2 File Share Security (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand file permissions on CIFS shares and on a Linux file system.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Enforce ownership and permissions of files and directories
* Manage ACLs for shares and folders
* Understand POSIX, Extended POSIX and Windows ACLs
* Understand how Samba stores Windows ACLs in Linux ACLs and extended attributes
* Configure ACLs for profile and home folder shares
* Configure encryption of CIFS connections

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

* smb.conf
** create mask / create mode
** directory mask / directory mode
** force create mode
** force directory mode
** force user
** force group / group
** profile acls
** inherit acls
** map acl inherit
** store dos attributes
** vfs objects
** smb encrypt
* chown
* chmod
* getfacl
* setfacl
* getfattr
* smbcacls
* sharesec
* SeDiskOperatorPrivilege
* vfs_acl_xattr
* vfs_acl_tdb
* samba-tool ntacl (including subcommands)
 

====303.3 DFS Share Configuration (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create and manage DFS shares in Samba.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand DFS
* Configure DFS shares

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

* smb.conf:
** host msdfs
** msdfs root
** msdfs proxy
* ln
 

====303.4 Print Share Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create and manage print shares in Samba.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Samba printing, including raw printing
* Create and configure print shares
* Configure integration between Samba and CUPS
* Manage Windows print drivers and configure downloading of print drivers
* Upload printer drivers using 'Add Print Driver Wizard' in Windows
* Preconfigure driver settings
* Configure paper sizes and forms
* Supported driver versions
* Manage GPO options for trusted print servers
* Awareness of spoolssd

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

*smb.conf:
** printing
** printable / print ok
** printcap name / printcap
** spoolss: architecture = Windows x64
* [printers]
* [print$]
* CUPS
* cupsd.conf
* /var/spool/samba/
* smbspool
* rpcclient (to execute topic-related commands (enumdrivers, enumprinters, setdriver)
* net (included topic-related subcommands)
* SePrintOperatorPrivilege
 

===''Topic 304: Samba Client Configuration''===

====304.1 Linux Authentication Clients (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be familiar with management and authentication of user accounts. This includes configuration and use of NSS, PAM, SSSD and Kerberos for both local and remote directories and authentication mechanisms as well as enforcing a password policy.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and configure NSS and PAM
* Enforce password complexity policies and periodic password changes
* Create home directories for new users
* Lock accounts automatically after failed login attempts
* Configure NSS and PAM to retrieve information from LDAP
* Configure SSSD authentication against Active Directory, IPA, LDAP and Kerberos domains and the local system’s authentication database
* Manage local accounts through SSSD
* Obtain and manage Kerberos tickets

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

* /etc/pam.conf
* /etc/pam.d/
* /etc/nsswitch.conf
* /etc/login.defs
* pam_ldap.so
* ldap.conf
* pam_krb5.so
* pam_cracklib.so
* pam_tally2.so
* pam_faillock.so
* pam_mkhomedir.so
* chage
* faillog
* sssd
* sssd.conf
* sss_override
* sss_cache
* sss_debuglevel
* sss_user* and sss_group*
* /var/lib/sss/db/
* krb5.conf
* kinit
* klist
* kdestroy
 

====304.2 Linux CIFS Clients (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use remote CIFS shares from a Linux client. This includes client-side management of CIFS credentials and managing remote ACLs and quotas.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Access remote CIFS shares from a Linux client
* Mount remote CIFS shares on a Linux client
* Automatically mount home directories
* Store and manage CIFS credentials securely
* Understand and manage permissions and file ownership of remote CIFS shares
* Understand and manage quotas on CIFS shares

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

* smb.conf
* smbclient (including relevant subcommands)
* mount
* mount.cifs
* /etc/fstab
* pam_mount.so
* pam_mount.conf.xml
* cifscreds
* getcifsacl
* setcifsacl
* smbcquotas
* cifsiostat
* smbget
* smbtar

 

====304.3 Windows Clients (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to access CIFS and print shares from Windows hosts and join such hosts into an Active Directory domain. Furthermore, candidates should be able to manage Windows hosts using GPOs and access remote Windows hosts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how to set up and use Windows hosts
* Join a Windows host to an Active Directory domain
* Access remote CIFS shares from a Windows client
* Configure printing to remote printers from a Windows client
* Configure file and print shares on a Windows host
* Understand the concept, structure and capabilities of GPOs
* Create and modify GPOs and apply GPOs to machines or users
* Access a remote Windows desktop
* Create and configure logon scripts
* Configure roaming profiles for Active Directory users
* Configure profile folder redirects

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

* smb.conf:
** logon path
** logon script
* net (Windows command; including all relevant subcommands)
* samba-tool gpo (including all relevant subcommands)
* gpupdate (Windows command)
* rdesktop
 

===''Topic 305: Linux Identity Management and File Sharing''===

====305.1 FreeIPA Installation and Maintenance (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up and manage a FreeIPA domain using standard settings and default services. This includes setting up replication and joining clients to the domain.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the features, architecture as well as server-side and client-side components of FreeIPA
* Install a FreeIPA server
* Set up and manage a FreeIPA domain using standard settings and default services
* Understand replication topology and configure FreeIPA replication
* Join clients to an existing FreeIPA domain
* Awareness of ipa-backup

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

* ipa-server-install
* ipa-replica-prepare
* ipa-replica-install
* ipa-client-install
* ipactl
 

====305.2 FreeIPA Entity Management (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able manage users, hosts and services in a FreeIPA domain.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Manage user accounts and groups
* Manage hosts, hostgroups and services
* Understand the principle of IPA access control permissions, privileges and roles
* Understand ID views
* Awareness of sudo, autofs, SSH, SELinux and NIS integration as well as host based access control in FreeIPA
* Awareness of the FreeIPA CA

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

* ipa (including relevant user-*, stageuser-* and group-* and idview-* subcommands)
* ipa (including relevant host-*, hostgroup-*, service-* and getkeytab subcommands)
* ipa (including relevant permission-*, privilege-*, and role-* subcommands)
* ipctl
* ipa-advice
 

====305.3 FreeIPA Active Directory Integration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a cross-forest trust between a FreeIPA and an Active Directory domain.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and set up FreeIPA and Active Directory integration using Kerberos cross-realm trusts
* Configure ID ranges in FreeIPA
* Understand and manage external non-POSIX groups in FreeIPA
* Awareness of Microsoft Privilege Attribute Certificates and how they are handled by FreeIPA
* Awareness of replication based FreeIPA and Active Directory integration

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

* ipa-adtrust-install
* ipa (including relevant trust-*, idrange-* and group-* subcommands)
 

====305.4 Network File System (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use NFSv4. This includes understanding ID mapping, NFSv4 ACLs and Kerberos authentication for NFS.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand major NFSv4 features
* Configure and manage an NFSv4 server and clients
* Understand and use the NFSv4 pseudo file system
* Understand and use NFSv4 ACLs
* Use Kerberos for for NFSv4 authentication

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

* exportfs
* /etc/exports
* /etc/idmapd.conf
* nfs4_editfacl
* nfs4_getfacl
* nfs4_setfacl
* mount (including common NFS mount options)
* /etc/fstab

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-04T13:41:55Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication, passkeys
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V1.6

2026-02-04T13:33:57Z

FabianThorns: Revert accidental changes

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 1.6.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.5_To_1.6|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.5 to 1.6 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.5|version 1.5 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.5|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source''===

====1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Distributions
* Embedded Systems
* Linux in the Cloud

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

* Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)
* CentOS, openSUSE, Red Hat, SUSE
* Linux Mint, Scientific Linux
* Raspberry Pi, Raspbian
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Server applications
* Development languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP
* Nextcloud, ownCloud
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, shell, Python, PHP
* dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Open communities and licensing Open Source Software for business.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source licensing
* Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI)

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD, Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software, FOSS, FLOSS
* Open source business models

 

====1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and working in Linux.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop skills
* Getting to the command line
* Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization

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

* Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content
* Terminal and console
* Password issues
* Privacy issues and tools
* Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects

 

===''Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System''===

====2.1 Command Line Basics (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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

Linux Essentials Objectives V1.6

2026-02-04T13:31:08Z

FabianThorns: Reverted edits by FabianThorns (talk) to last revision by GMatthewRice

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 1.6.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.5_To_1.6|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.5 to 1.6 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.5|version 1.5 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.5|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(AR)|Arabic]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(EL)|Greek]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ES)|Spanish]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(TR)|Turkish]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(NL)|Dutch]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source''===

====1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Distributions
* Embedded Systems
* Linux in the Cloud

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

* Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)
* CentOS, openSUSE, Red Hat, SUSE
* Linux Mint, Scientific Linux
* Raspberry Pi, Raspbian
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Server applications
* Development languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP
* Nextcloud, ownCloud
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, shell, Python, PHP
* dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Open communities and licensing Open Source Software for business.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source licensing
* Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI)

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD, Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software, FOSS, FLOSS
* Open source business models

 

====1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and working in Linux.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop skills
* Getting to the command line
* Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization

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

* Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content
* Terminal and console
* Password issues
* Privacy issues and tools
* Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects

 

===''Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System''===

====2.1 Command Line Basics (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-04T13:30:42Z

FabianThorns: /* 3.2 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T14:26:07Z

FabianThorns: /* 2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on file names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T14:22:03Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on their names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V1.6

2026-02-03T12:18:30Z

FabianThorns: /* 3.2 Searching and Extracting Data from Files (weight: 3) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are version 1.6.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.5_To_1.6|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.5 to 1.6 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.5|version 1.5 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.5|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source''===

====1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Distributions
* Embedded Systems
* Linux in the Cloud

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

* Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)
* CentOS, openSUSE, Red Hat, SUSE
* Linux Mint, Scientific Linux
* Raspberry Pi, Raspbian
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Server applications
* Development languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP
* Nextcloud, ownCloud
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, shell, Python, PHP
* dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Open communities and licensing Open Source Software for business.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source licensing
* Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI)

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD, Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software, FOSS, FLOSS
* Open source business models

 

====1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and working in Linux.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop skills
* Getting to the command line
* Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization

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

* Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content
* Terminal and console
* Password issues
* Privacy issues and tools
* Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects

 

===''Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System''===

====2.1 Command Line Basics (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Search and extract data from files in the home directory.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Command line pipes
* I/O redirection
* Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ? in Extended Regular Expression syntax

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

* grep, grep -E
* less
* cat, head, tail
* sort
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Turning Commands into a Script (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T12:09:14Z

FabianThorns: /* 2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Files, directories
* Hidden files and directories
* Home directories
* Absolute and relative paths
* Searching for files based on their names

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

* Common options for ls
* Recursive listings
* cd
* '''.''' and '''..'''
* '''/'''
* /home and ~
* find

 

====2.4 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T11:59:32Z

FabianThorns: /* 5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, w, last, wtmpdb last
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T10:37:02Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, GPG, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T10:35:42Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T10:21:33Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Software packages and repositories
* Package management tools

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T10:20:45Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper, apk

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T10:17:10Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Alpine Linux (main and edge)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T10:06:01Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium / Chrome, Codium / VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Forgejo / Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-02-03T09:34:32Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management
* Awareness of Android and its relation to Linux

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium, VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-01-18T10:37:09Z

FabianThorns: /* 5.1 Remote Logins and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium, VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins, File Transfers and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Executing commands with elevated permissions
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-01-18T10:25:09Z

FabianThorns: /* 1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium, VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons. Furthermore, candidates should understand the aspects of proprietary and free software on digital autonomy and digital sovereignty.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing
* Proprietary software
* Free software

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Digital autonomy
* Digital sovereignty
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-01-06T08:58:56Z

FabianThorns: /* 5.1 Remote Logins and Administrative Permissions (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium, VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins and Elevated Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-01-05T19:56:27Z

FabianThorns: /* Objectives */

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Operating System and Open Source Software''===

====1.1 Linux Distributions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand commonly used Linux distributions, including their relationship and their major components. This includes various types of releases and support schema.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Kernel and userspace
* Linux Distributions
* Distribution life cycle management

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

* Debian-based Distributions (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS)
* Enterprise Linux-based Distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream)
* SUSE-based Distributions (SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
* Long-Term Support (LTS), stable, testing and unstable releases, and rolling releases
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be aware of major open source applications. This includes awareness of the main purpose and key features of the various applications, but no specific details, usage or installation of the applications.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Web applications
* Server applications
* Programming languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chromium, VS Code, GIMP, Inkscape, VLC, R
* Nextcloud, ownCloud, Kodi, Jitsi, Big Blue Button, Moodle, Git, GitLab, Gitea
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Rust, Go
* dpkg, apt-get, apt, rpm, dnf, zypper

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principle of free and open source software and open content. This includes awareness of the main open source software license types as well as Creative Commons.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source and open content licensing

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD Licenses
* Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software
* Free Software Foundation (FSF)
* Open Source Initiative (OSI)

 

====1.4 Linux Usage (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand major types of computers that are commonly used to run Linux. Candidates should be aware of system administration utilities, including text editors and configuration management tools. The actual usage of editors and configuration management tools is not covered in this objective. Furthermore, candidates should understand fundamental security measures when using computers and network services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding types of computers that can run Linux
* Awareness of virtualization, containers and cloud computing
* Awareness of common text editors
* Awareness of configuration management tools
* Secure handling of credentials
* Secure transfer and storage of data

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

* Desktop computers, laptops and other mobile devices
* Server computers, virtual machines and cloud instances
* Embedded systems and HPC clusters
* Client and server roles
* vi, nano
* Ansible
* Strong password, password managers, multi-factor authentication
* Encryption in network protocols (HTTPS), storage media
* Secure handling of USB devices

 

===''Topic 2: Command Line Basics''===

====2.1 Command Line Usage (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use the Linux command line. This includes using commands, variables and quoting. Candidates should understand the principles of build-in commands and executable files, including common locations for executable files in the Linux file system.

|}

'''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
* /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /sbin

 

====2.2 Documentation, Man Pages and Usage Information (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to leverage documentation provided on a Linux system. This includes using man pages as well as running commands with common parameters to display usage information. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of important file system locations containing documentation and example files.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Man pages
* Common help parameters of command line tools

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

* man
* -h, --help
* /usr/share/doc/

 

====2.3 Files, Directories and Paths (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the Linux filesystem, including commands to navigate to specific directories and list the content of directories. Candidates should understand the concepts of absolute and relative paths, hidden files and directories as well as home directories.

|}

'''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 File and Directory Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, copy, move and rename files and directories. This includes simple use of wildcards and shell globbing.

|}

'''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: Data Processing''===

====3.1 File Archives and Compression (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to create, list and extract file archives in the TAR and ZIP formats. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to compress files, including using compressed file archives.

|}

'''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 Redirections and String Processing (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use I/O redirection on the command line. This includes writing data to files, reading data from files as well as passing data between commands. Furthermore Candidates should be able to use common text processing tools, including using simple regular expressions to filter and process text files.

|}

'''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
* uniq
* cut
* wc

 

====3.3 Shell Scripting Basics (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to write simple shell scripts. This includes using setting and displaying variables, conditions to check file existence and variable quality as well as using for loops.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Basic shell scripting

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

* #! (shebang)
* /bin/bash
* Variables
* Arguments
* if conditions (file existence and variable equality)
* for loops (iterate over space separated lists and file glob expressions)
* echo
* Exit status

 

===''Topic 4: Linux System Administration Basics''===

====4.1 Linux Installation and Provisioning (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the installation of Linux on a physical computer, a virtual machine and the provisioing of Linux in cloud instances. This includes awareness of dual boot setups as well as key differentiators to other operating systems and Linux compatibility of other operating systems.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Differences between Windows, macOS and Linux
* Installing Linux on a computer or in a virtual machine
* Using Linux in cloud instances

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

* Installation media, ISO files
* Operating system images
* Dual boot
* Windows Subsystem for Linux

 

====4.2 Computer Hardware and Device Access (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of a computer. Furthermore, candidates should understand how the Linux kernel manages hardware support and how device files are used to access hardware. This includes relevant file system paths as well as important pseudo-devices.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Hardware
* Device files for physical and virtual devices

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

* Motherboards, processors (x86, ARM), memory, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
* Network interface cards (Ethernet, WiFi)
* Block storage (Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/nvme*)
* Raspberry Pi
* Drivers and Kernel Modules
* /dev/, /boot/, /sys/
* /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom

 

====4.3 Processes and Log Messages (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of processes on Linux. That includes listing running processes and determining resource consumption of processes. Candidates should also be able to start, stop and query systemd service units. Furthermore, Candidates should be able to retrieve log messages from the systemd journal, log files and the kernel ring buffer.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Programs and configuration
* Processes
* Services
* Logging and systemd Journal

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

* ps, top, free
* systemctl (start, stop, status)
* journalctl, dmesg
* /etc/
* /var/log/
* /proc/

 

====4.4 Network Configuration (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of IP networks, including the Internet, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, routing and name resolution. Candidates should be able to query the network configuration of a Linux system and have a fundamental understanding of automatic network configuration, as well as basic network troubleshooting competencies.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Internet, network, routers
* Querying DNS client configuration
* Querying network configuration
* Automatic network configuration

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

* ip route show, ip -6 route show
* ip addr show
* ss
* /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts, resolvectl
* IPv4, IPv6
* DHCP, SLAAC, DHCPv6
* ping
* host

 

===''Topic 5: Security and File System Permissions''===

====5.1 Remote Logins and Administrative Permissions (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to securely log into remote systems for accessing a Linux shell and transferring files using SSH, including using public key authentication. Furthermore, candidates should be able to elevate their privileges in order to perform administrative tasks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Root and standard users
* System users
* Remote logins using SSH
* SSH key generation and authentication

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

* sudo, su
* ssh, scp
* ssh-keygen
* ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

 

====5.2 User and Group Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts of users and groups in Linux. This includes creating users, changing passwords and querying information about users accounts and user sessions. Furthermore, candidates should understand the files that contain the Linux user database.

|}

'''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/
* id, last, who, w
* useradd, groupadd
* passwd

 

====5.3 File System Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand ownership and permissions in the Linux file system. This includes querying, interpreting and changing ownership and permissions for files and directories.

|}

'''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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the special properties of temporary directories and symbolic links. This includes the creation, listing and deletion of symbolic links.

|}

'''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

Linux Essentials Objectives V2.0

2026-01-05T19:55:02Z

FabianThorns: Created page with "__FORCETOC__ ==Introduction== The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry. ==Candidate Description== This is a description of a candida..."

__FORCETOC__

==Introduction==

The purpose of the Linux Essentials Certificate is to define the basic knowledge required to competently use a desktop or mobile device using a Linux Operating System. The associated Linux Essentials Program will guide and encourage youth (and those new to Linux and Open Source) to understand the place of Linux and Open Source in the context of the broader IT industry.

 

==Candidate Description==

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the Linux Essentials exam. This hypothetical person is called the Minimally Qualified Candidate (MQC). Standards on
the Linux Essentials exam should be set so that this person (and anyone more able) would pass but anyone less able would not pass.

The MQC has an understanding of the Linux and Open Source industry and knowledge of the most popular Open Source applications. The candidate should understand the major components of the Linux operating system, and have the technical proficiency to work on the Linux command line. The MQC has a basic understanding of security and administration related topics such
as user/group management, working on the command line and permissions. The Linux Essentials certificate holder is most likely the end user of a mostly managed system.

The '''Linux Essentials MQC''' should have rudimentary skills or knowledge in the following topics:

* Free and Open Source Software, the various communities and licenses
* Processes, programs and the components of an operating system
* Computer hardware
* System security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories
* Make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN)
* Open Source Applications in the workplace as they relate to closed source equivalents
* File system browsers on a Linux Desktop
* Where to go for help
* Work on the command line and with files
* Make and restore simple backups and archives
* Use a basic command line editor
* File compression
* Create and run simple shell scripts

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''DRAFT''' version 2.0.

This is also a [[LinuxEssentials_Summary_Version_1.6_To_2.0|summary and detailed information]] on the changes from version 1.6 to 2.0 of the objectives.

The [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|version 1.6 objectives]] can be found [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V1.6|here]].

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0|English]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(PT-BR)|Brazilian Portuguese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH)|Chinese (Simplified)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ZH-TW)|Chinese (Traditional)]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(NL)|Dutch]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(FR)|French]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(DE)|German]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(IT)|Italian]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(JA)|Japanese]]
* [[LinuxEssentials Objectives V2.0(ES)|Spanish]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Essentials certificate is awarded after passing this exam:

* 010 (40 questions in 60 minutes)

There is no requirement to posses another certificate.

 

==Objectives==

===''Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source''===

====1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Distributions
* Embedded Systems
* Linux in the Cloud

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

* Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)
* CentOS, openSUSE, Red Hat, SUSE
* Linux Mint, Scientific Linux
* Raspberry Pi, Raspbian
* Android

 

====1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop applications
* Server applications
* Development languages
* Package management tools and repositories

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

* OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP
* Nextcloud, ownCloud
* Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
* C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, shell, Python, PHP
* dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum

 

====1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Open communities and licensing Open Source Software for business.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Open source philosophy
* Open source licensing
* Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI)

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

* Copyleft, Permissive
* GPL, BSD, Creative Commons
* Free Software, Open Source Software, FOSS, FLOSS
* Open source business models

 

====1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and working in Linux.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Desktop skills
* Getting to the command line
* Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization

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

* Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content
* Terminal and console
* Password issues
* Privacy issues and tools
* Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects

 

===''Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System''===

====2.1 Command Line Basics (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 1
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

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

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2026-01-04T23:02:31Z

FabianThorns: /* 704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates and database migrations

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Understand semantic versioning

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering, load balancers and application gateways

* Cross site scripting, verbose error reports

* API authentication

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* TLS, transport encryption

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Graylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives

2026-01-04T23:01:55Z

FabianThorns: Changed redirect target from DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V1 to DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

#REDIRECT [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0]]

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2026-01-04T23:01:31Z

FabianThorns:

* Exam Objectives
** LinuxEssentials_Objectives_V1.6|Linux Essentials v1.6
** Security_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Security Essentials v1.0
** Web_Development_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Web Development Essentials v1.0
** Open_Source_Essentials_Objectives_V1.0|Open Source Essentials v1.0
** LPIC-1_Objectives_V5.0|LPIC-1 v5.0
** LPIC-2|LPIC-2 v4.5
** LPIC-300_Objectives_V3.0|300 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-303_Objectives_V3.0|303 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-305_Objectives_V3.0|305 Objectives v3.0
** LPIC-306_Objectives_V3.0|306 Objectives v3.0
** DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V1|DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives v1.0
** DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives v2.0

** BSD_Specialist_Objectives_V1.0|BSD Specialist Objectives v1.0

* SEARCH

* navigation
** mainpage|mainpage-description
** recentchanges-url|recentchanges
** http://www.lpi.org|LPI Website

* TOOLBOX

DevOps Tools Engineer Summary Version 1.0 To 2.0

2025-11-25T22:37:47Z

FabianThorns: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- ! Version 1.0 ! Version 2.0 ! Comment |- | 701 Software Engineering | 701 Software Engineering | |- | 701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6) | 701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6) | • No significant changes • Moved security related topics to 704.1 • Weight: No change |- | 701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 2) | 701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3) | • Added add..."

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Version 1.0
! Version 2.0
! Comment

|-
| 701 Software Engineering
| 701 Software Engineering
|

|-
| 701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)
| 701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)
| • No significant changes
• Moved security related topics to 704.1
• Weight: No change

|-
| 701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 2)
| 701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)
| • Added addtional components
• Changed examples to standard open source tools instead of OpenStack services
• Weight: Increased by 1

|-
| 701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 5)
| 701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)
| • No significant changes, higher weight to reflect importance and allow more detailed questions
• Weight: Increased by 1

|-
| 701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 5)
| 701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)
| • Changed to a generic topic, no more coverage of Jenkins configuration, instead the focus is the overall methodology and awareness of commonly used tools
• Weight: Decresed by 2

|-
| ---
| 701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)
| • New topic
• Weight: Set to 2

|-
|

|-
| 702 Container Management
| 702 Application Container
| •

|-
| 702.1 Container Usage (weight: 7)
| 702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)
| •

|-
| 702.2 Container Deployment and Orchestration (weight: 5)
| 702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)
| •

|-
| 702.3 Container Infrastructure (weight: 4)
| ---
| •

|-
| ---
| 702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)
| •

|-
|

|-
| ---
| 703 Kubernetes
| •

|-
| ---
| 703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)
| •

|-
| ---
| 703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)
| •

|-
| ---
| 703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)
| •

|-
|

|-
| 703 Machine Deployment
| ---
| • This topic is no longer present in version 2.0, it was moved to exam 305-300
|-
| 703.1 Virtual Machine Deployment (weight: 4)
| ---
| • Was moved to exam 305-300, objective 353.4
|-
| 703.2 Cloud Deployment (weight: 2)
| ---
| • Was moved to exam 305-300, objective 353.3
|-
| 703.3 System Image Creation (weight: 2)
| ---
| • Was moved to exam 305-300, objective 353.2
|-

|-
|

|-
| 704 Configuration Management
| ---
| • This topic is no longer present in version 2.0, it will be moved to exam 201-500
|-
| 704.1 Ansible (weight: 8)
| ---
| • Was moved to exam 201-500, objectives 205.1, 205.2 and 205.3
|-
| 704.2 Other Configuration Management Tools (weight: 2)
| ---
| • Was removed

|-
|

|-
| 705 Service Operations
| 704 Security and Observability
|

|-
| ---
| 704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)
| •

|-
| 705.1 IT Operations and Monitoring (weight: 4)
| 704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)
| •

|-
| 705.2 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 4)
| 704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)
| •

|-
| ---
| 704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)
| •

|}

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:23:14Z

FabianThorns: /* 704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates and database migrations

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Understand semantic versioning

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering, load balancers and application gateways

* Cross site scripting, verbose error reports

* API authentication

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* TLS, transport encryption

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:14:01Z

FabianThorns: /* 701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates and database migrations

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Understand semantic versioning

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Cross site scripting, verbose error reports

* API authentication

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* TLS, transport encryption

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:12:11Z

FabianThorns: /* 704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates and database migrations

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Cross site scripting, verbose error reports

* API authentication

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* TLS, transport encryption

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:10:07Z

FabianThorns: /* 704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates and database migrations

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Cross site scripting, verbose error reports

* API authentication

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority, transport encryption

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:08:37Z

FabianThorns: /* 701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates and database migrations

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:08:16Z

FabianThorns: /* 701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Understand the properties of cloud native applications

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Awareness of database schema updates

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Test-driven development

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:05:40Z

FabianThorns: /* 701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Cross site scripting, SQL injections, verbose error reports, API authentication, consistent enforcement of transport encryption

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of computing services / IaaS

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:04:53Z

FabianThorns: /* 704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Cross site scripting, SQL injections, verbose error reports, API authentication, consistent enforcement of transport encryption

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

* Awareness of Thanos

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger

DevOps Tools Engineer Objectives V2.0

2025-01-20T21:04:26Z

FabianThorns: /* 704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2) */

__FORCETOC__
==Introduction==

This is a required exam for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification. It covers basic skills in using tools commonly used to implement DevOps.

This page covers the currently released objective for the Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification.

 

==Candidate Description==

The certification holder is either a professional software developer or a professional system administrator who is involved in the production of IT solutions which require a robust and efficient process to get from original source materials to a final deployed or distributable product or service with a particular focus on using Open Source technology. The certification holder has the ability to create, deliver and operate software using collaborative methods which address aspects of software development as well as system administration. In particular, the certification holder is adept at bridging the gap between the development and operations of a solution or product. The certification holder understands how these tools facilitate development and operational tasks in the delivery of stable, scalable and up to date services to users and customers.

 

==Version Information==

These objectives are '''A DRAFT FOR''' version 2.0.0.

 

==Translations of Objectives==

The following translations of the objectives are available on this wiki:

* [[DevOps_Tools_Engineer_Objectives_V2.0|English]]

 

==Exams and Requirements==

The Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineer certification is awarded after passing this exam. There is no requirement to possess any other certifications. However, LPI recommends that all Linux Professional Institute DevOps Tools Engineers maintain at least one active certification in either system administration or software development. This certification should be at a level equivalent to LPIC-1.

 

==Objectives==

===''701 Software Engineering''===

====701.1 Modern Software Development (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to design software solutions suitable for modern runtime environments. Candidates should understand how services handle data persistence, sessions, status information, transactions, concurrency, security, performance, availability, scaling, load balancing, messaging, monitoring and APIs. Furthermore, candidates should understand the implications of agile and DevOps on software development.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand and design service based applications

* Understand common API concepts and standards

* Understand aspects of data storage, service status and session handling

* Design software to be run in containers

* Design software to be deployed to cloud services

* Awareness of risks in the migration and integration of monolithic legacy software

* Understand the concept of agile software development

* Understand the concept of DevOps and its implications to software developers and operators

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

* REST, JSON

* Service Oriented Architectures (SOA)

* Microservices

* Immutable servers

* Loose coupling

* Cross site scripting, SQL injections, verbose error reports, API authentication, consistent enforcement of transport encryption

* CORS headers and CSRF tokens

 

====701.2 Standard Components and Platforms for Software (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand services offered by common cloud platforms. They should be able to include these services in their application architectures and deployment toolchains and understand the required service configurations. Furthermore, the candidate should be aware of the commonly used open source implementations of the various services.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Features and concepts of object storage

* Features and concepts of relational and NoSQL databases

* Features and concepts of message brokers and message queues

* Features and concepts of big data services

* Features and concepts of application runtimes / PaaS

* Features and concepts of hosted applications / SaaS

* Features and concepts of function applications / FaaS

* Features and concepts of content delivery networks

* Awareness of identity and access management in cloud services

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

* Objects, Buckets, ACLs, S3

* MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL,

* Redis, MongoDB, InfluxDB

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Kafka, MQTT

* IAM

 

====701.3 Source Code Management (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Git to manage and share source code. This includes creating and contributing to a repository as well as the usage of tags, branches and remote repositories. Furthermore, the candidate should be able to merge files and resolve merging conflicts.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand Git concepts and repository structure

* Manage files within a Git repository

* Manage branches and tags

* Work with remote repositories and branches as well as submodules

* Merge files and branches

* Awareness of SVN and CVS, including concepts of centralized and distributed SCM solutions

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

* git

* .gitignore

 

====701.4 Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles and components of a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Candidates should understand how CI/CD pipelines support the development and release of software and how they integrate with source code repositories and the target runtime environment. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of commonly used CI/CD platforms.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the concepts of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

* Understand the components of a CI/CD pipeline, including builds, unit, integration and acceptance tests, artifact management, delivery and deployment

* Understand the concepts of GitOps

* Understand the role of build artifacts and caches

* Understand deployment best practices

* Awareness of Jenkins and Gitlab CI

* Awareness of Artifactory and Nexus

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

* Declarative Pipeline

* Production, Staging and Development Environments

* Feature toggles

* Preview releases

* Reconciliation loops

* A/B testing

* Blue-green and canary deployment

 

====701.5 Software Composition, Licensing and Open Source (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the principles of software licenses. This includes how software from multiple authors and sources are combined to implement a specific service and how licensing affects such compositions. Furthermore, the candidate should understand the concepts of open source software, including the most important aspects of common open source licenses.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how an application is build out of multiple software components

* Awareness of dependency managers like NPM, gradle or composer

* Understand the concepts proprietary and open source software

* Understand the concepts of open source software licenses

* Awareness of commonly used open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, BSD, MIT and Apache License)

* Awareness of license compatibility and multi licensing

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

* Software libraries

* Software Bill Of Materials

* Proprietary software

* Open Source Software and Free Software

* Copyleft open source software licenses

* Permissive open source software licenses

===''702 Application Container''===

====702.1 Application Container Management (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to operate Docker and Podman containers. This includes creating and interacting with containers as well as connecting containers to networks and storage volumes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the Docker and Podman architecture

* Use existing images from an OCI registry

* Operate and access containers

* Understand Docker networking concepts, including overlay networks

* Understand the concepts of DNS service discovery

* Connect container to container networks and use DNS for service discovery

* Understand Docker storage concepts

* Use Docker volumes for shared and persistent container storage

* Awareness of rootless containers

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

* docker container *

* docker network *

* docker image *

* docker volume *

* podman container *

* podman network *

* podman image *

* podman volume *

 

====702.2 Container Orchestration (weight: 3)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 3
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to run and manage multiple containers that work together to provide a service. This includes the orchestration of Docker containers using Docker Compose.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the application model of Docker Compose and Podman Compose

* Create and run Docker Compose Files (version 3 or later)

* Define services, networks and volumes, along with their commonly used properties, in Docker Compose files

* Use Docker Compose to update running containers to newer images

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

* docker compose

* podman-compose

* docker-compose.yml

 

====702.3 Container Image Building (weight: 5)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 5
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up a runtime environment for containers. This includes running containers on a local workstation as well as setting up a dedicated container host. Furthermore, candidates should be aware of other container infrastructures, storage, networking and container specific security aspects. This objective covers the feature set of Docker version 17.06 or later and Docker Machine 0.12 or later.

Candidates should be able to build OCI container images. This includes creating Dockerfiles or Containerfiles, building containers and publishing container images on an existing OCI registry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Create Dockerfiles and build images from Dockerfiles

* Understand OCI image names

* Upload images to a Docker registry

* Understand the principles of image scanners

* Understand security risks of container virtualization and container images and how to mitigate them

* Awareness Docker buildx, Docker Buildkit, Podman build and Buildah

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

* docker image *

* docker login

* Dockerfile

* Containerfile

* .dockerignore

* FROM

* COPY

* ADD

* RUN

* VOLUME

* EXPOSE

* USER

* WORKDIR

* ENV

* ARG

* CMD

* ENTRYPOINT

 

===''703 Kubernetes''===

====703.1 Kubernetes Architecture and Usage (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major components of Kubernetes. Furthermore, candidates should be able to interact with an existing Kubernetes platform to retrieve information about the current Kubernetes state, and create, modify and delete resources.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand the major components and services in a Kubernetes cluster

* Configure kubectl to use an existing Kubernetes cluster

* Use kubectl to get information about Kubernetes resources

* Use kubectl to create, modify and delete resources

* Awareness of Kubernetes Operators

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* API-Server, etcd, Controller Manager, Scheduler

* ~/.kube/config

* kubectl get

* kubectl describe

* kubectl apply

* kubectl create

* kubectl run

* kubectl expose

* kubectl scale

* kubectl set

* kubectl edit

* kubectl explain

* kubectl config

* kubectl logs

* kubectl exec

 

====703.2 Basic Kubernetes Operations (weight: 7)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 7
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to set up applications running on Kubernetes. This includes understanding the most important kinds of Kubernetes resources, including their most important properties.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the use of YAML files to declare Kubernetes resources

* Understanding the principle of a Pod

* Understanding how to use Deployments, including scaling and rolling updates

* Understanding how to make services accessible using Services and Ingress

* Understanding how to use storage using PersistentVolumeClaims

* Awareness of other Kubernetes orchestration resources, i.e. DaemonSets, StatefulSets, Jobs and CronJobs

'''Partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:'''

* Pods

* ReplicaSets

* Deployments

* Services

* Ingress

* PersistentVolumeClaims

* ConfigMaps

* Secrets

 

====703.3 Kubernetes Package Management (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should be able to use Helm to install software on Kubernetes.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of Charts, Releases and Values

* Installation, upgrading and uninstalling software using Helm

* Specify custom values to configure software installed using Helm

* Awareness of Kustomize

* Awareness of Flux CD and Argo CD

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

* helm install

* helm upgrade

* helm list

* helm uninstall

* values.yaml

 

===''704 Security and Observability''===

====704.1 Cloud Native Security (weight: 4)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 4
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the major kinds of IT threats against cloud native infrastructure, as well as common approaches to prevent such attacks and mitigate their risk. This includes handling security aspects of foreign software as well as common standards for authentication and authorization.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand core IT infrastructure components and their role in deployment

* Understand common IT infrastructure security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand supply chain security and dependencies on foreign code

* Understand common application security risks and ways to mitigate them

* Understand the concepts of asymmetric cryptography and digital certificates

* Understand the principles of common standard for authentication and authorization

* Understand how to manage user credentials and how to use advanced authentication technologies

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

* Service exploits, brute force attacks, and denial of service attacks

* Security updates, packet filtering and application gateways

* Buffer overflows, SQL injections

* API access, permissions, verbosity and rate limits

* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

* CVE IDs and CVE scores

* Public key, private key, X.509 certificate, certificate authority

* Single sign-on (SSO)

* OAuth2, OpenID Connect and SAML

* Two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA)

* One-time passwords (OTP), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP)

* Authenticator applications

* Password hashing and salting

 

====704.2 Prometheus Monitoring (weight: 6)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 6
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of monitoring for application and IT infrastructures. They should be familiar with the architecture and components of Prometheus. The candidate should be able to set up Prometheus and use PromQL to query monitoring data.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand goals of IT operations and service provisioning, including nonfunctional properties such as availability, latency, responsiveness

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the technical functionality of a service

* Understand and identify metrics and indicators to monitor and measure the logical functionality of a service

* Understand the concepts of Prometheus, including Exporters, Pushgateway, Alertmanager and Grafana

* Understand the architecture of Prometheus

* Set up Prometheus and configure file based service discovery

* Monitor containers and microservices using Prometheus

* Use PromQL to retrieve log data

* Aggregate metrics for specific labels

* Aggregate metrics over time

* Awareness of common exporters

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* Prometheus, Exporters, AlertManager, Grafana

* Label selectors

* Instant vectors and aggregate functions

* Range vectors and aggregate functions

* Node Exporter and Blackbox Exporter

 

====704.3 Log Management and Analysis (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the role of log files in operations and troubleshooting. They should be understand the major properties and features of commonly used Open Source logging stacks.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understand how application and system logging works

* Understand the architecture and features of commonly used open source logging stacks

* Awareness of syslogd and systemd-journald

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

* Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

* Logstash and filebeat

* Fluentd and FluentBit

* Kibana

* Loki and promtail

* Grafana

* Greylog2

 

====704.4 Tracing (weight: 2)====

{|
| style="background:#dadada" |

'''Weight'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" | 2
|-
| style="background:#dadada; padding-right:1em" |

'''Description'''

| style="background:#eaeaea" |

Candidates should understand the concepts and importance of tracing and be familiar with the architecture of OpenTelemetry.

|}

'''Key Knowledge Areas:'''

* Understanding the concepts of tracing

* Understanding the concepts of OpenTelemetry

* Awareness of commonly used open source telemetry analysis tools

* Awareness of application instrumentation

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

* OpenTelemetry

* Spans and Distributed Traces

* Contexts, Span and Trace IDs

* Span attributes, events, links, status and kind

* Grafana Tempo

* Jaeger