101-500 Practice Questions

 The commands that directly execute the instruction from the file /usr/local/bin/runme.sh without starting a subshell are source /usr/local/bin/runme.sh and . /usr/local/bin/runme.sh. These commands use the source or dot builtins, which read and execute commands from the given file in the current shell environment. This means that any changes made by the file, such as setting variables, defining functions, or changing directories, will affect the current shell. This is different from running the file as a script, which will create a new shell process and execute the commands in a separate environment. The source or dot commands are useful for loading configuration files, such as ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile, or for running scripts that modify the current state of the shell.

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

C.  

/bin/bash /usr/local/bin/runme.sh: This command will run the file as a script using the /bin/bash interpreter. This will create a new shell process and execute the commands in a separate environment. Any changes made by the file will not affect the current shell.

D.  

/usr/local/bin/runme.sh: This command will also run the file as a script, but using the interpreter specified by the shebang line (#!) at the beginning of the file. If the file does not have a shebang line, it will use the default shell interpreter, which may or may not be /bin/bash. This will also create a new shell process and execute the commands in a separate environment. Any changes made by the file will not affect the current shell.

E.  

run /usr/local/bin/runme.sh: This command is not valid, as there is no builtin or external command called run. This will produce an error message.

The signal that is missing from the following command that is commonly used to instruct a daemon to reinitialize itself, including reading configuration files, is SIGHUP. The command should be:

kill -HUP pid

The option -HUP specifies the signal to be sent to the process, which is the hangup signal (SIGHUP). This signal is traditionally used to notify a process that the controlling terminal has been closed, but it is also commonly used to instruct a daemon to reinitialize itself, such as reloading its configuration files or reopening its log files. The argument pid is the process ID of the daemon to be reinitialized. For example, to reinitialize the nginx web server daemon with the PID 1234, the command would be:

kill -HUP 1234

This will cause the nginx daemon to reload its configuration files and gracefully restart its worker processes1. The other signals are not commonly used for this purpose, as they have different meanings and effects. For example, SIGTERM requests the process to terminate gracefully, SIGKILL forces the process to terminate immediately, SIGSTOP suspends the process, and SIGCONT resumes the process2. References:

Controlling nginx — nginx 1.21.3 documentation

Linux Signals - GeeksforGeeks

 Run levels are predefined modes of operation in the SysV init system that determine which processes and services are started or stopped. The default run level is the one that the system enters after booting. It is usually specified in the /etc/inittab file with a line like id:5:initdefault:. The run levels 0 and 6 should never be declared as the default run level because they are used to halt and reboot the system, respectively. If they are set as the default, the system will enter an endless loop of shutting down and restarting. The other run levels (1-5) have different meanings depending on the distribution, but they usually correspond to single-user mode, multi-user mode, network mode, graphical mode, etc. References: LPI Linux Essentials - 1.101.2, LPI Linux Administrator - 101.3