Commands You Need to Know to Pass The LPI Linux Essentials Certification
“Quick Stop At Command Shop”
Intro
Linux commands share the form: command option(s) argument(s). Together, in a list format, we are going to go through the essential commands you have to know to pass the LPI Linux Essentials Certification. Furthermore, I employ you to dive deeper into each command’s option(s) and argument(s) yourself, using hands-on practice in your own command line interface, personal research and other resources. This will help you get a holistic understanding of each command as the information in this post serves only as a “Quick Stop At Command Shop”: a compiled list of essential commands.
Upon writing this, surprisingly, I recently passed this certification with a perfect score of 800/800, so I hope you trust me when I say, “I will not lead you astray!”
Background
The LPI Linux Essentials Certification is designed for those who want to validate their fundamental Linux knowledge and skills. Passing this certification proves your understanding of the Linux and open-source industry, knowledge of the popular open-source Applications, major components of the Linux operating system and technical proficiency to work in the Linux command line. The most critical aspect of the exam is its assessment on the fundamental understanding of security and administration related topics such as user/group management and permissions.
Please note, there isn’t any educational pre-requisites needed to take the exam. You can be a total newb, put in the work to skill-up using this post, along with other resources and be eligibility to sit and pass the exam. Also, a bonus, once you pass this certification, it is valid for life!
Prerequisites
· Basic knowledge and use of computer systems (desktops, laptops)
· A Linux Command Line Interface with “sudo” privileges as non-root user
Now get on your preferred Linux Command Line Interface and let’s get to it!
Basic Commands
ls — list all the files that your current folder contains
man — display user manuals of any command that you can run
info — display more detailed information for a command, as compared with the man page
cd — navigate and change your working directory
pwd — display the path of your working directory, starting from the root
mkdir — create or make new directories
rmdir — remove already empty directories
mv — move or rename files or directories
open — open files, directories and applications
echo — display lines of text or string which are passed as arguments
touch — create empty files, and change timestamps of files or folders
find — find files and directories and perform operations on them
clear — clear your terminal screen
history — view your previously executed commands
tail — display the last few numbers of lines (10 lines by default) of a file
head — display the first few numbers of lines (10 lines by default) of a file
whoami — display the currently logged-in user
who — display information about users who are currently logged in
Intermediate Commands
cat — create single or multiple files, view content of a file, concatenate files and redirect output in the terminal or to other files
less — read the contents of a text file one page (one screen) at a time
wc — display number of lines, word count, byte and character count in files
grep — search for a string of characters in a specified file
sort — sort a file, arranging its output in a particular order
apropos — shows the manual’s section(s) that contain a set of keywords
ln — create links to files or directories
alias — create a shortcut name for a command, file name, or any shell text
id — display the user and group names and numeric IDs
last — display the list of all the users who logged in and logged out since the file /var/log/wtmp was created
su — execute commands with the privileges of another user account
sudo — temporarily elevate current user account to have root privileges
export — ensures environment variables and functions to be passed to child processes
uname — check the system information of your Linux system
env — display environment variables. Also used to run a utility or commands in a custom environment
printenv — display the values of environment variables in the current shell
Advanced Commands
chown — change the file’s owner or group
chmod — change the access permissions of files and directories
useradd — add a user account to your system
usermod — modify existing user account details, such as username, password etc.
groupadd — add a group to your system
groupmod — modify or change an existing group on your system
passwd — changes password for user accounts
umask — set up default permissions for newly created files and folders
df — display the amount of disk space available on the filesystem
free — output summary of RAM usage, including total, used, free, shared, and available memory and swap space.
ps — check the status of active processes on a system, as well as display technical information about the processes
top —monitor system/display system-performance information
uptime — display how long your system has been active (running)
vim — a text editor that is an upgraded version of its predecessor, Vi editor
gzip — seamlessly compress and decompress files
gunzip — compress or expand a file or a list of files
zip — put one or more compressed files into a single zip archive
tar — compress a group of files into an archive for backup or distribution
ping — check the network connectivity between host and server/host
dig — retrieve information about DNS name servers
traceroute — display the route that a packet takes to reach the host
route — access and modify the Linux kernel’s routing tables
crontab — submit, edit, list, or remove cron jobs
Thats It!
Thank you for making a “Quick Stop at Command Shop”. These are the most essential commands you have to know how to use to be able to pass the LPI Linux Essentials Certification exam.
If you are interested in other resources to assist you in your preparation, I would recommend using the LPI Linux Essentials Certification course by A Cloud Guru platform or Jason Dion’s Udemy course.
For practice exams, definitely check the test sets provided by testpreptraining.com.
I hope you found this worthwhile. Thank you for reading!
Ifeanyi Otuonye is a Cloud/DevOps Engineer obsessed with cloud technologies and the DevOps culture. He is motivated by his eagerness to learn and develop and thrives in collaborative environments. He has a background in Information Technology and Project Management and balances the life of being a Professional Athlete. Since the end of 2021, he has strategically embarked on the Cloud/DevOps Engineer journey through self study and just recently, joining the Level Up In Tech program!
Keep up with his journey by following him on twitter and instagram at ifeanyi_otuonye.
