Linux Advanced File System and Storage

Question 1

What does the `df -h` command display on a Linux system?

Accepted Answer

Disk space usage of mounted filesystems in human-readable format

Answer

df (disk free) reports filesystem disk space usage; -h makes sizes human-readable (KB, MB, GB) instead of raw block counts.

Question 2

Which command shows the disk usage of a directory and its subdirectories?

Accepted Answer

du -sh /path

Answer

du (disk usage) measures actual file/directory sizes on disk; -s summarizes total for the directory, -h makes it human-readable.

Question 3

What is the purpose of the `fsck` command in Linux?

Accepted Answer

Checks and repairs filesystem inconsistencies

Answer

fsck (filesystem check) scans for and repairs filesystem errors — it should be run on unmounted filesystems to avoid further corruption.

Question 4

What is an inode in Linux filesystems?

Accepted Answer

A data structure that stores metadata about a file (permissions, timestamps, size, data block pointers)

Answer

An inode stores all metadata about a file except its name and content: permissions, ownership, timestamps, size, and pointers to data blocks.

Question 5

What is the difference between a hard link and a symbolic (soft) link in Linux?

Accepted Answer

A hard link is a direct reference to the same inode; a symbolic link is a file containing a path to another file

Answer

Hard links share the same inode (same file, multiple names); symbolic links are separate files containing a path, similar to Windows shortcuts.

Linux Practice Test