CompTIA Linux+ — System Management and Scripting flashcards

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Day-to-day Linux administration for Linux+: the filesystem hierarchy, boot and systemd, packages, partitions, LVM and fstab, users, groups and special permission bits, processes, signals and timers, network commands, Bash scripting, Git, containers and infrastructure as code.

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Learn deck · part of CompTIA Linux+ · written against: Current Linux+ exam objectives (topics common to XK0-005 and its successor). Updated 2026-10-10.

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Which FHS directory holds variable data such as logs, mail spools and package caches?

/var — data that changes during normal operation: logs in /var/log, caches in /var/cache, spools in /var/spool.
System Management › Filesystem Hierarchy
By FHS convention, where should locally built software that the package manager does not track be installed?

Under /usr/local (or /opt for self-contained add-on packages), so it never collides with files the distribution's packages own under /usr.
System Management › Filesystem Hierarchy
What are /proc and /sys, and why do their files take no space on disk?

They are virtual filesystems generated by the kernel in memory: /proc exposes process and kernel information, /sys exposes devices and drivers. Their contents are produced when read, so nothing is stored on disk.
System Management › Filesystem Hierarchy
/tmp versus /var/tmp — how long are files in each expected to survive?

/tmp may be wiped at every reboot and is often a RAM-backed tmpfs; /var/tmp is for temporary files that must persist across reboots.
System Management › Filesystem Hierarchy
What is stored in /etc/shadow that is not in /etc/passwd, and why are the two files separate?

/etc/shadow holds password hashes and ageing data and is readable only by root. /etc/passwd must stay world-readable so tools can map UIDs to names, so the hashes were moved out of it.
Security › Users and Groups
Which command adds the existing user alice to the docker group without removing her other supplementary groups?

usermod -aG docker alice — -a appends; -G on its own replaces the whole supplementary group list. She must log in again for the change to apply.
Security › Users and Groups
Which commands force a user to choose a new password at next login and show their password-ageing settings?

chage -d 0 alice marks the password as expired so it must be changed at next login; chage -l alice lists the ageing details.
Security › Users and Groups
What does a first line of #!/bin/bash do in a script?

The shebang tells the kernel which interpreter runs the file when it is executed directly as ./script.sh; the file also needs execute permission.
Scripting Containers and Automation › Bash Scripting
How does a script learn whether the previous command succeeded?

Every command returns an exit status — 0 means success, anything else failure — held in the special parameter ? (read with a leading dollar sign). if command; then tests it directly.
Scripting Containers and Automation › Bash Scripting
What is the difference between cmd1 && cmd2 and cmd1 || cmd2?

&& runs cmd2 only if cmd1 succeeds; || runs cmd2 only if cmd1 fails.

Example: mkdir /backup && cp app.conf /backup
Scripting Containers and Automation › Bash Scripting

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Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

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CompTIA Linux+ exam objectives — topic outline only; no text copied. Tags follow the four XK0-005 domains; as of October 2026 the current exam is XK0-006 (launched 2025-07-15), and XK0-005 retired on 2026-01-13.

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