i. What is a daemon? State two roles that might be carried out by daemons. ii. What are the three types of access permissions for a file or directory? iii. What is the difference between physical and virtual memory?
Question 1 (30 marks)
This question tests your knowledge of key concepts of operating systems.
a. Answer each of the following questions with a sentence or two. (10 marks)
i. What is a daemon? State two roles that might be carried out by daemons.
ii. What are the three types of access permissions for a file or directory?
iii. What is the difference between physical and virtual memory?
iv. What is the difference between Linux and GNU?
v. Give two advantages of using Bash scripts over commands entered on the command line. 25/04/2021, 10:37 Page 2 of 7 Table 1
b. In Linux, how is user management conducted? Include in your answer a brief description of what users and groups are, an explanation of types of user accounts and the main benefits of using groups. You should write no more than 150 words for this part of the question. (10 marks) c. Using the information in Table 1, fill in the correct values for the directory, File Allocation Table (FAT) and the disk blocks. The characters ‘EOF’ indicate the last block of a file. The file aaa contains a number of a characters, bbb contains b characters and ccc contains c characters. (10 marks)
This question tests your practical skills of using Linux. For Linux, everything is considered a file, including regular files, directories, hardware devices and sockets. In this question, you are ask ed to carry out some practical activities to manipulate files using Linux. Include either screenshots or output from the command line to document your answers.
a. Outline how you would approach working out how to achieve a task through the command line when you don’t know the appropriate commands. (4 marks)
b. Recursively list the subdirectories of /usr/lib, showing their contents by file size. For this question, you only need to display the command and first few lines (about 10) of the output. (6 marks)
c. Add a new user fred to your system, giving their account a userid of 1300. (4 marks)
d. Create a new directory named NewDir which includes a new file NewFile. Using octal values, change the permissions of NewFile so that the user can write and execute but not read the file, and the group and others can write the file but not read or execute it.
e. Describe what the command base64 /dev/urandom | head -n 700 > NewFile.txt does. (6 marks)
f. Compress NewFile into a new file named NewFileComp and make NewFileComp read-only for all users. (4 marks)
Printable page generated Sunday, 25 Apr 2021, 10:29
Tutor-marked assignment
TMA 03
Introduction
The cut-off date is 29 April 2021 (12 noon UK local
time).
This TMA counts for 20% of the assessment on TM129. The
weightings of the other assignments are listed in the Module
Guide. Each TMA is marked out of 100.
Submitting your TMA
This module uses the online TMA/EMA (eTMA) service for
submission of TMAs. To submit your TMA go to the
Assessment page and follow the link provided.
Give your name, your personal identifier, the module code
and the assignment number at the start of your assignment. It
will help your tutor if you save your TMA document with a file
name that includes your name, the module code and the TMA
identifier – for example ChrisSmith_TM129_TMA03.doc.
You should create one file for this TMA. This file should
contain your answers to all TMA questions including the
ePortfolio question.
If you foresee any difficulty with submitting your assignment
on time, contact your tutor well in advance of the cut-off date.
For further information about policy, procedure and general
submission of assignments please refer to the Assessment
Handbook, which can be accessed via your StudentHome
page.
Checklist before submission
Check the following before you submit your assignment:
Have you answered mainly in your own words?
If you have used short quotes, are they shown in
quotation marks?
Have you given references to your sources in the Cite
Them Right Harvard style?
Have you complied with the word limits?
Are your screenshots legible? Are they cropped to show
just important material?
Is your document in an acceptable file format (.doc,
.docx or .rtf)?
See the Module Guide and Writing in your own words for
further guidance on these issues.
Question 1 (30 marks)
This question tests your knowledge of key concepts of
operating systems.
a. Answer each of the following questions with a sentence
or two.
(10 marks)
i. What is a daemon? State two roles that might be
carried out by daemons.
ii. What are the three types of access permissions for
a file or directory?
iii. What is the difference between physical and virtual
memory?
iv. What is the difference between Linux and GNU?
v. Give two advantages of using Bash scripts over
commands entered on the command line.
Table 1
b. In Linux, how is user management conducted? Include
in your answer a brief description of what users and
groups are, an explanation of types of user accounts
and the main benefits of using groups. You should write
no more than 150 words for this part of the question.
(10 marks)
c. Using the information in Table 1, fill in the correct values
for the directory, File Allocation Table (FAT) and the disk
blocks. The characters ‘EOF’ indicate the last block of a
file. The file aaa contains a number of a characters, bbb
contains b characters and ccc contains c characters.
(10 marks)
Directory FAT Disk blocks
file start 0 0
aaa 1 1 6 1 aaaaaaaaaaaa
bbb 2 2 cccccccccccc
ccc 2 3 3
4 5 4 bbbbbbbbbbbb
5 9 5 bbbbbbbbbbbb
6 7 6 aaaaaaaaaaaa
7 7 aaaaaaaaaaaa
8 14 8 cccccccccccc
9 10 9 bbbbbbbbbbbb
10 13 10
11 11 aaaaaaaaaaaa
12 12
13 EOF 13 bbbbbbbbbbbb
14 EOF 14 cccccccccccc
15 15
Question 2 (30 marks)
This question tests your practical skills of using Linux.
For Linux, everything is considered a file, including regular
files, directories, hardware devices and sockets. In this
question, you are asked to carry out some practical activities
to manipulate files using Linux. Include either screenshots or
output from the command line to document your answers.
a. Outline how you would approach working out how to
achieve a task through the command line when you
don’t know the appropriate commands.
(4 marks)
b. Recursively list the subdirectories of /usr/lib, showing
their contents by file size. For this question, you only
need to display the command and first few lines (about
10) of the output.
(6 marks)
c. Add a new user fred to your system, giving their
account a userid of 1300.
(4 marks)
d. Create a new directory named NewDir which includes a
new file NewFile. Using octal values, change the
permissions of NewFile so that the user can write and
execute but not read the file, and the group and others
can write the file but not read or execute it.
(6 marks)
e. Describe what the command base64 /dev/urandom |
head -n 700 > NewFile.txt does.
(6 marks)
f. Compress NewFile into a new file named
NewFileComp and make NewFileComp read-only for all
users.
(4 marks)
Question 3 (30 marks)
This question tests your ability to discuss topics around Linux
and to perform basic research.
Imagine you have a spare desktop at home that you want to
turn into a media centre using a Linux distribution.
a. Identify three different media centre Linux distributions.
For each distribution, discuss two key features. Make a
justified recommendation as to which distribution you
should install, giving a brief reason for your choice.
(12 marks)
b. Outline two ways of testing the distribution you have
selected without installing it as your main operating
system. Provide a positive and negative aspect of each
way of testing the distribution you have outlined. Make a
justified recommendation as to which mechanism you
should use, giving a brief reason for your choice.
(18 marks)
You should write no more than 500 words for this question.
This word count is an indication of how much detail you
should provide.
To answer this question, you will need to find additional
information from the Internet. Reference the sources of
information you obtained using the Cite Them Right Harvard
style and following the guidance on Referencing and
plagiarism. References do not count towards the word limit.
Question 4 (10 marks)
This question tests your engagement with your ePortfolio.
a. Pick two of the TM129 ePortfolio activities from the
operating systems block.
For each activity, first state which activity it is. Then
provide a piece of evidence for having attempted the
activity. This can take the form of a single screenshot
(e.g. a screenshot of the command line showing your
work), or a textual answer to an ePortfolio question.
(2 marks)
b. Write a short description in which you tell your tutor
about your experience of the ePortfolio activities. You
can either focus on the two activities you chose for
part (a), or consider all the ePortfolio activities across
the block.
In your description, you could discuss:
any aspects you found particularly interesting or
challenging
any problems you encountered and how you dealt
with them
anything you found surprising
what you found out that was new
what skills you developed through the activity – this
could be in terms of content (e.g. something
specific about operating systems), technical skills
(e.g. using command-line tools), study skills (e.g.
communicating results), or soft skills (e.g.
overcoming problems).
You do not need to reflect on all of these areas to
receive full marks.
You should write no more than 250 words.
(8 marks)