LPI Updated 101-500 Exam Questions and Answers by aayan

The correct answer is A, tr -d ‘\r’ < userlist.txt > newlist.txt. This command will use the tr utility to delete the carriage return characters (\r) from the userlist.txt file and redirect the output to the newlist.txt file. The tr utility is used to translate, delete, or squeeze characters from the standard input and write the result to the standard output. The syntax of the tr command is:

tr [options] set1 [set2]

The options can modify the behavior of the tr command, such as complementing, squeezing, or truncating the sets of characters. The set1 and set2 are strings of characters that specify the translation to be performed. The characters in set1 are replaced by the corresponding characters in set2. If set2 is omitted, the characters in set1 are deleted.

The -d option tells tr to delete the characters in set1 from the output. The \r character is a special escape sequence that represents the carriage return character, which is used in Windows systems to mark the end of a line, along with the line feed character (\n). The < and > symbols are redirection operators that redirect the input and output of a command to a file or device. The < symbol redirects the standard input of a command from a file, while the > symbol redirects the standard output of a command to a file, overwriting any existing content.

Therefore, the command tr -d ‘\r’ < userlist.txt > newlist.txt will read each character from the userlist.txt file, delete any carriage return characters, and write the output to the newlist.txt file. This will effectively change all CR-LF line breaks (\r\n) in the userlist.txt file to Linux standard LF line breaks (\n) and store the result in newlist.txt.

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

• B, tr -c ‘\n\r’ ‘’ userlist.txt: This command will not work as expected, because it has several errors. First, the -c option tells tr to complement the set of characters in set1, which means that the operations will apply to the characters that are not in the set1. However, the set1 in this command is ‘\n\r’, which includes both the line feed and the carriage return characters, so the complement will be all the other characters except these two. Second, the set2 in this command is an empty string (‘’), which means that tr will delete the characters that match the set1 (or its complement, in this case). Third, the redirection operators are reversed, which means that tr will read the input from the newlist.txt file and write the output to the userlist.txt file, instead of the other way around. Therefore, the command tr -c ‘\n\r’ ‘’ userlist.txt will delete all the characters except the line feed and the carriage return characters from the newlist.txt file and overwrite the userlist.txt file with the output, which will be a series of blank lines.
• C, tr ‘\r\n’ ‘’ newlist.txt: This command will not work as expected, because it has several errors. First, the set1 in this command is ‘\r\n’, which means that tr will match the carriage return and the line feed characters separately, not as a pair. Second, the set2 in this command is an empty string (‘’), which means that tr will delete the characters that match the set1. Third, the redirection operators are missing, which means that tr will not read the input from the userlist.txt file or write the output to the newlist.txt file, but instead it will expect the input from the standard input and write the output to the standard output. Therefore, the command tr ‘\r\n’ ‘’ newlist.txt will delete all the carriage return and the line feed characters from the standard input and write the output to the standard output, and treat the userlist.txt and newlist.txt as additional arguments that will cause an error.
• D, tr ‘\r’ ‘\n’ userlist.txt newlist.txt: This command will not work as expected, because it has several errors. First, the set1 and set2 in this command are ‘\r’ and ‘\n’, which means that tr will replace the carriage return characters with the line feed characters, not delete them. Second, the redirection operators are missing, which means that tr will not read the input from the userlist.txt file or write the output to the newlist.txt file, but instead it will expect the input from the standard input and write the output to the standard output. Third, the userlist.txt and newlist.txt are treated as additional arguments that will cause an error. Therefore, the command tr ‘\r’ ‘\n’ userlist.txt newlist.txt will replace all the carriage return characters with the line feed characters from the standard input and write the output to the standard output, and report an error for the extra arguments.
• E, tr -s ‘/M/J/’ userlist.txt newlist.txt: This command will not work as expected, because it has several errors. First, the -s option tells tr to squeeze the repeated characters in set1 with a single occurrence, not delete them. Second, the set1 in this command is ‘/M/J/’, which is not a valid escape sequence for the carriage return and the line feed characters. The correct escape sequences are ‘\r’ and ‘\n’, respectively. Third, the redirection operators are missing, which means that tr will not read the input from the userlist.txt file or write the output to the newlist.txt file, but instead it will expect the input from the standard input and write the output to the standard output. Fourth, the userlist.txt and newlist.txt are treated as additional arguments that will cause an error. Therefore, the command tr -s ‘/M/J/’ userlist.txt newlist.txt will squeeze the repeated occurrences of the characters /, ^, M, and J from the standard input and write the output to the standard output, and report an error for the extra arguments.

References:

• Tr Command in Linux with Examples | Linuxize
• tr command in Unix/Linux with examples - GeeksforGeeks
• How to Use the Linux tr Command - How-To Geek
• [tr(1) - Linux manual page - man7.org]
• [Linux tr command help and examples - Computer Hope].

[character list] matches any one of the characters in the list. ? matches any single character. * matches any number of characters, including none.

Therefore, the wildcard ttyS[1-5] will match any filename that starts with ttyS and ends with a digit from 1 to 5, such as ttyS1, ttyS2, ttyS3, ttyS4, or ttyS5. However, it will not match ttyS0, which has a 0 at the end.

The wildcard tty?[0-5] will match any filename that starts with tty, followed by any single character, followed by a digit from 0 to 5, such as ttyS0, ttyS1, ttyS2, ttyA0, ttyB5, or ttyZ4. This wildcard will match all the given filenames.

The wildcard tty*2 will match any filename that starts with tty and ends with 2, such as ttyS2, ttyA2, ttyB2, or ttyZZZ2. This wildcard will match ttyS2, but not the other two filenames.

The wildcard tty[A-Z][012] will match any filename that starts with tty, followed by a capital letter from A to Z, followed by a digit from 0 to 2, such as ttyA0, ttyB1, ttyC2, ttyZ0, or ttyZ2. This wildcard will match ttyS0 and ttyS2, but not ttyS1, which has a 1 at the end.

The wildcard tty[Ss][02] will match any filename that starts with tty, followed by either S or s, followed by either 0 or 2, such as ttyS0, ttyS2, ttys0, or ttys2. This wildcard will match ttyS0 and ttyS2, but not ttyS1, which has a 1 at the end.

The regular expression that represents a single upper-case letter is [A-Z]. This is a character class that matches any one character from the range A to Z, which are the 26 upper-case letters of the English alphabet. A character class is enclosed in square brackets and can contain a list or a range of characters to match. For example, [abc] matches any one of the letters a, b, or c, and [0-9] matches any one digit from 0 to 9. The other options are not valid regular expressions for a single upper-case letter. The :UPPER: option is not a valid syntax for a character class, and it would be interpreted as a literal string of seven characters. The !a-z option is not a valid syntax for a negated character class, and it would be interpreted as a literal string of four characters. The %C option is not a valid syntax for a character class, and it would be interpreted as a literal string of two characters. The {AZ} option is not a valid syntax for a character class, and it would be interpreted as a literal string of four characters. The curly braces are used for interval expressions, which specify the number of repetitions of a character or a group of characters. For example, a{2,4} matches the letter a repeated two, three, or four times. References:

• How to Use Regular Expressions (regexes) on Linux1
• How to Use Regular Expressions (RegEx) on Linux2
• A beginner’s guide to regular expressions with grep3

The correct answer is C, 2dd. This command will delete two lines, the current and the following line, in vi editor. The syntax of the command is:

[number]dd

The number specifies how many lines to delete, starting from the current line. The dd command deletes the lines and puts them in a buffer, which can be pasted later with the p command. If no number is given, the command will delete only the current line.

The other commands are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, d2: This command will delete two characters, not two lines. The syntax of the command is:

d[motion]

The motion specifies how many characters to delete, starting from the current cursor position. The 2 motion means two characters to the right. The d command deletes the characters and puts them in a buffer, which can be pasted later with the p command.

• B, 2d: This command is incomplete and will not work. The d command requires a motion argument to specify how many characters to delete. The 2 argument is only a number, not a motion. The command will wait for another keystroke to complete the motion.
• D, dd2: This command will delete the current line and then move the cursor two lines down. The syntax of the command is:

dd[number]

The dd command deletes the current line and puts it in a buffer, which can be pasted later with the p command. The number specifies how many lines to move the cursor down, after deleting the current line. If no number is given, the command will move the cursor to the next line.

• E, de12: This command will delete from the current cursor position to the end of the word, and then move the cursor to the 12th line. The syntax of the command is:

d[motion][number]

The d command deletes the characters specified by the motion and puts them in a buffer, which can be pasted later with the p command. The e motion means the end of the word. The number specifies the line number to move the cursor to, after deleting the characters.

References:

• vi/vim delete commands and examples | alvinalexander.com
• How to Delete Lines in Vim / Vi | Linuxize
• How can I delete multiple lines in vi? - Stack Overflow