CS183 Midterm Review Exam Flashcards

What is the role of the systemd process during system boot?

A. It creates the filesystem

B. It manages user logins

C. It spawns all other processes as PID 1

D. It only manages timers

C

Which section of a systemd unit file specifies dependencies and required targets?

A. [Service]

B. [Install]

C. [Unit]

D. [Dependencies]

C

What signal is typically used to terminate a systemd service cleanly?

A. TERM

B. INT

C. QUIT

D. KILL

C

What does the chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o=r myfile command do?

A. Sets all permissions for all users

B. Grants full permissions to the group

C. Assigns specific permissions to user, group, and others

D. Removes write access for everyone

C

What Linux command is used to view the current status of processes in real time?

A. ps

B. strace

C. grep

D. top

D

What special file system entry refers to the parent directory?

A. .

B. ~

C. ..

D. /

C

Which file system component defines a hierarchy of object names?

A. API

B. Namespace

C. Security Model

D. Implementation

B

The root user (UID 0) is required to supply passwords when using su to switch to another user.

False

Only root can kill non-essential processes using the halt command.

False

systemctl can be used to both investigate and enable/disable systemd units.

True

The setuid permission allows a program to be executed with the privileges of the file's owner.

True

Sticky bit settings are ignored on normal files.

True

The crontab file is shared by all users on the system.

False

strace can attach to a running process and trace its system calls.

True

What is the PID of the initial process started by the Linux kernel?

A. 0

B. 1

C. 100

D. It varies on each boot

B

Anything managed by systemd is called a "unit."

True

Which of the following is not a section in a standard systemd unit file?

A. [Unit]

B. [Service]

C. [Install]

D. [Boot]

D

The systemctl command is used to modify and inspect systemd unit files.

True

Which flag allows you to view logs from a previous boot using journalctl?

A. -p

B. -u

C. -b

D. -r

C

The halt command powers off the system by default.

False

Which strategy can be used when the system fails to boot normally?

A. Use single-user mode

B. Format the disk

C. Disable systemd

D. Upgrade the kernel remotely

A

Only the root user can perform administrative operations like configuring network interfaces.

True

In the permission string drwxr-xr-x, what does the d indicate?

A. Device

B. Directory

C. Default

D. Deleted

B

The command chmod +x myfile adds execute permission to a file.

True

Which UID is used to determine access permissions?

A. Real UID

B. Effective UID

C. Saved UID

D. Backup UID

B

The root account logs every command it runs automatically.

False

The nosuid mount option disables:

A. Reading files

B. Executing setuid and setgid programs

C. Writing to the disk

D. System updates

B

The su command allows root to switch to any user without a password.

True

Which file defines what commands users can execute using sudo?

A. /etc/sudoers

B. /etc/passwd

C. /usr/sudo.conf

D. /var/log/sudo.log

A

Changing the root password to * disables root login.

True

Which of the following is an example of modern access control?

A. Role-based Access Control (RBAC)

B. File-based Access Control (FBAC)

C. Manual Access Control (MAC)

D. Static Access Control (SAC)

A

Processes in UNIX can be managed using the same tools regardless of whether they are system or user processes.

True

Which of the following is not tracked by the Process Control Block (PCB)?

A. Address Space Map

B. CPU Temperature

C. Execution Priority

D. Signal Mask

B

A process's allocated memory includes code, libraries, variables, and a stack.

True

Threads within a process share:

A. CPU context only

B. Their own memory space

C. The process’s memory space

D. Nothing

C

Niceness is a measure of process priority where lower values mean higher priority.

True

Where is a user’s crontab file typically located?

A. /var/spool/cron

B. /etc/cron.d

C. /usr/local/crontab

D. /tmp/crontab

A

Systemd timers require two files: a timer and a service.

True

Which version of kill sends a signal to processes by name?

A. kill

B. killall

C. pkill

D. Both B and C

D

The ps aux command displays user-friendly process information.

True

Which command can adjust a process's priority on the fly?

A. ps

B. nice

C. renice

D. strace

C

The strace tool shows system calls and kernel responses made by a process.

True

Which is not a main component of a filesystem?

A. Namespace

B. Implementation

C. API

D. Device Driver

D

An absolute path always starts with /.

True

Which file lists filesystems to be mounted at boot?

A. /etc/fstab

B. /boot/mount.conf

C. /etc/mounttab

D. /var/mntlist

A

Symbolic links can reference files across different file systems.

True

Which file type is used for communication between local processes?

A. Regular file

B. Named pipe

C. Local domain socket

D. Block device

C

Only the most specific permission applies when a user fits into multiple categories (user, group, all).

True

What is the octal value for the sticky bit?

A. 1000

B. 2000

C. 4000

D. 777

A