LinuxEssentials Objectives V1

Introduction and Exam Development Workshops

The description of the entire Linux Essentials Program is listed here.

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.

FAQ

Questions and answers on the Linux Essentials Program and Exam are listed here.

Minimally Qualified Candidate Description

This is a description of a candidate that is just barely qualified to pass the LPI 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 successful candidate should have 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 LPI Linux Essentials Certificate Holder MQC typically:

• Has a basic understanding of FOSS, the various communities and licenses.
• Understands the basic concepts of processes, programs and the components of an Operating System.
• Has a basic knowledge of computer hardware.
• Has a basic appreciation of system security, users/groups and file permissions for public and private directories.
• Basic understanding of how to make the system accessible and able to connect to other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN).
• Demonstrates a knowledge of Open Source Applications in the Workplace as they relate to Closed Source equivalents.
• Understands navigation systems on a Linux Desktop and where to go for help.
• Has a rudimentary ability to work on the command line and with files.
• Make and restore simple backups and archives.
• Can use a basic command line editor.
• Understands file compression.
• Ability to create and run simple scripts.

Version Information

These objectives are version 1.0.1.

The draft version 1.5 objectives can be found here.

Addenda

Clarification Addendum (Apr 1st, 2014)

• added Ubuntu (LTS), Red Hat to 1.1 partial file list.
• added dpkg, rpm, apt-get, yum to 1.2 partial file list.
• added /etc/hosts to 4.4 partial file list.
• added /etc/skel to 5.2 partial file list.
• added /dev/sd*, /dev/hd* to 4.2 partial file list.

Translations of Objectives

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

• English.
• Arabic.
• French.
• German.
• Greek.
• Spanish.
• Turkish.
• Italian.
• Dutch.

Objectives

Topic 1:The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source (weight: 7)

1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems

Weight	2
Description	Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Open Source Philosophy.
• Distributions.
• Embedded Systems.

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

• Android.
• Debian, Ubuntu (LTS).
• CentOS, Red Hat.

Nice to know:

1.2 Major Open Source Applications

Weight	2
Description	Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Desktop Applications.
• Server Applications.
• Mobile 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.
• Blender, Gimp, Audacity, ImageMagick.
• Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL.
• NFS, Samba, OpenLDAP, Postfix, DNS, DHCP.
• C, Java, Perl, shell, Python, PHP.
• dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum.

Nice to know:

1.3 Understanding Open Source Software and Licensing

Weight	1
Description	Open communities and licensing Open Source Software for business.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Licensing.
• Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI).

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

• GPL, BSD, Creative Commons.
• Free Software, Open Source Software, FOSS, FLOSS.
• Open Source business models.

Nice to know:

• Intellectual Property (IP): copyright, trademarks and patents.
• Apache License, Mozilla License.

1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux

Weight	2
Description	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.

Nice to know:

Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System (weight: 8)

2.1 Command Line Basics

Weight	2
Description	Basics of using the Linux command line.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Basic shell.
• Formatting commands.
• Working With Options.
• Variables.
• Globbing.
• Quoting.

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

• Bash
• echo
• history
• PATH env variable
• export
• which

Nice to know:

• Substitutions.
• ||, && and ; control operators.

2.2 Using the Command Line to Get Help

Weight	2
Description	Running help commands and navigation of the various help systems.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Man.
• Info.

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

• man.
• info.
• Man pages.
• /usr/share/doc.
• locate.

Nice to know:

• apropos, whatis, whereis.

2.3 Using Directories and Listing Files

Weight	2
Description	Navigation of home and system directories and listing files in various locations.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Files, directories
• Hidden files and directories
• Home
• 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 ~

Nice to know:

2.4 Creating, Moving and Deleting Files

Weight	2
Description	Create, move and delete files and directories under the home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Files and directories
• Case sensitivity
• Simple globbing and quoting

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

• mv, cp, rm, touch
• mkdir, rmdir

Nice to know:

Topic 3: The Power of the Command Line (weight: 10)

3.1 Archiving Files on the Command Line

Weight	2
Description	Archiving files in the user home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Files, directories.
• Archives, compression.

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

• tar.
• Common tar options.
• gzip, bzip2.
• zip, unzip.

Nice to know:

• Extracting individual files from archives.

3.2 Searching and Extracting Data from Files

Weight	4
Description	Search and extract data from files in the home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Command line pipes.
• I/O re-direction.
• Partial POSIX Regular Expressions (., [ ], *, ?).

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

• find.
• grep.
• less.
• cat, head, tail.
• sort.
• cut.
• wc.

Nice to know:

• Partial POSIX Basic Regular Expressions ([^ ], ^, $).
• Partial POSIX Extended Regular Expressions (+, ( ), |).
• xargs.

3.3 Turning Commands into a Script

Weight	4
Description	Turning repetitive commands into simple scripts.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Basic text editing.
• Basic shell scripting.

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

• /bin/sh.
• Variables.
• Arguments.
• for loops.
• echo.
• Exit status.
• names of common text editors.

Nice to know:

• use of pico, nano, vi (only basics for creating scripts).
• Bash.
• if, while, case statements.
• read and test, and [ commands.

Topic 4: The Linux Operating System (weight: 8)

4.1 Choosing an Operating System

Weight	1
Description	Knowledge of major operating systems and Linux distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Windows, Mac, Linux differences.
• 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.

Nice to know:

4.2 Understanding Computer Hardware

Weight	2
Description	Familiarity with the components that go into building desktop and server computers.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Hardware.

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

• Motherboards, processors, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals.
• Hard drives and partitions, /dev/sd*, /dev/hd*.
• Display types.
• Drivers.

Nice to know:

4.3 Where Data is Stored

Weight	3
Description	Where various types of information are stored on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Kernel.
• Processes.
• syslog, klog, dmesg.
• /lib, /usr/lib, /etc, /var/log.

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

• Programs, libraries, packages and package databases, system configuration.
• Processes and process tables, memory addresses, system messaging and logging.
• ps, top, free.

Nice to know:

4.4 Your Computer on the Network

Weight	2
Description	Querying vital networking settings and determining the basic requirements for a computer on a Local Area Network (LAN).

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Internet, network, routers.
• Domain Name Service.
• Network configuration.

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

• route.
• /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts.
• IPv4, IPv6.
• ifconfig.
• netstat.
• ping.

Nice to know:

• ssh.
• dig.

Topic 5: Security and File Permissions (weight: 7)

5.1 Basic Security and Identifying User Types

Weight	2
Description	Various types of users on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• Root and Standard Users.
• System users.

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

• /etc/passwd, /etc/group.
• id, who, w.
• sudo.

Nice to know:

• su.

5.2 Creating Users and Groups

Weight	2
Description	Creating users and groups on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• User and group commands.
• User IDs.

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

• /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, /etc/skel.
• id, last.
• useradd, groupadd.
• passwd.

Nice to know:

• usermod, userdel.
• groupmod, groupdel.

5.3 Managing File Permissions and Ownership

Weight	2
Description	Understanding and manipulating file permissions and ownership settings.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• File/directory permissions and owners.

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

• ls -l.
• chmod, chown.

Nice to know:

• chgrp.

5.4 Special Directories and Files

Weight	1
Description	Special directories and files on a Linux system including special permissions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

• System files, libraries.
• Symbolic links.

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

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

Nice to know:

• Hard links.
• Setuid/Setgid.

Notes and Comments

Feel free to add comments below: