Investigating a suspected change, you run `rpm -V openssh-server` and one line of output reads `S.5....T. c /etc/ssh/sshd_config`. What does that line say about the file?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 102. Linux installation and package management hard
Machine-checked — no person has signed for it. This question was read against the source cited below by an automated pass, which found no contradiction. That is a weaker claim than it sounds: the same kind of process wrote the question, so it can confirm its own mistake.
Treat it as a good draft rather than as settled fact, and read the source below before you rely on it. It is not used in mock exams here — only questions a person has signed for are.
How these questions are written — where each question comes from, what the verification ledger records, and what happens when one is found wrong.
The options
Correct Its size, its digest and its modification time no longer match the values recorded when the package was installed, and the c marks it as a configuration file
Correct. In the verification mask each position is a test: S size, M mode, 5 digest, D device, L symlink target, U owner, G group, T mtime, P capabilities. A dot means the test passed, a letter means it failed. The attribute marker after the mask classifies the file, c for config.
Not correct The file is missing from the filesystem entirely
Wrong. A file that a package installed but which no longer exists is reported with the word 'missing' in place of the mask, not with letters in it.
Not correct The package's GPG signature could not be verified
Wrong. Signature checking is a different operation, done with rpm -K (--checksig) against a package file, and it reports on the package, not on individual installed files.
Not correct The file's owner, group and permissions were changed after installation
Wrong. Ownership and mode failures appear as U, G and M in the mask. Those three positions here are dots, so they still match.
Why
rpm -V compares each installed file against the metadata stored in the RPM database and prints only the files that differ. The single discriminator to memorise is that letters mark failed tests and dots mark passed ones, so reading the mask position by position tells you what changed. Configuration files (marked c) differing is normal and expected on an administered system; a binary under /usr/bin showing 5 and T is far more interesting, since nothing but a package operation should rewrite it.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- manual page rpm(8)
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 102 and space the ones you get wrong.
More questions on this objective
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