[Gllug] Basic Linux Test

Dave Cridland dave at cridland.net
Sat Nov 10 11:11:52 UTC 2001


On Fri, 2001-11-09 at 13:34, tet at accucard.com wrote:
> 
> >Here: http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=1780/urm0111c/0111c.htm
> 
> Yikes. That's hideous. Many of the questions are distribution or setup
> specific, ambiguous, or only take account of the common case. Great if
> you're looking to hire a "learn by rote" sort of person, rather than
> someone that actually knows the subject...

Quite.

I mean:

>> Which field of the /etc/passwd file holds the passwords for users?

Correct answer is "None of them, it's the second field in /etc/shadow,
most commonly, but it might be in the Kerberos database, or even in the
clear in /etc/sasldb, and if it *is* anywhere in /etc/passwd, then it's
probably upgrade time.".

And another favourite:

>> Which of the following will set the variable DAY equal to FRIDAY?

In what language? Assuming [ba]sh gives you the right answer, mind.

Having moaned about all that, someone reasonably experienced in Linux
and UNIX ought to be able to pass this with ease - it's really quite
easy - but it'll still let the weanies through, I think.

Even I only got one question wrong, and I don't consider myself an
ubertechie. (FWIW, I got the question of print queue manipulation wrong,
which personally I consider okay - I've yet to put a printer on Linux.)

Maybe I ought to pick this one up just for a laugh - Never had a
pertinent qualification before, although I'm not sure this one counts.

Dave.

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