Some of this host's groups come from a directory service, so `grep developers /etc/group` returns nothing even though the group exists. Type the complete command, with its database and its key, that prints the entry for the group `developers` as the system resolves it.
LPIC-1 Exam 102-500, objective 107. Administrative tasks medium
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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.
Answer
Type the answer.
Accepted answer
getent group developers
Case sensitive — Linux is, and grading LS as ls would teach a falsehood.
Why
getent queries the Name Service Switch, so each database it names — passwd, group, shadow, hosts, services and the rest — is resolved through whatever sources /etc/nsswitch.conf lists for it, in that order, rather than out of the local file alone. Given a key it prints only the matching entry and exits 0, or exits 2 with no output when nothing matches, which makes it usable in scripts; given no key it enumerates every entry the sources will hand over. For the group database that is also the quickest way to see a centrally maintained group's real GID and member list.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- manual page getent(1)
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 107 and space the ones you get wrong.
More questions on this objective
- The account alice already belongs to the supplementary groups audio and video. You must additionally put her in the group developers while keeping her existing memberships. Which command does that? machine-checked
- A departing employee's account bob must be deleted together with his home directory and mail spool. Which command does all of that in one step? machine-checked
- You want every newly created account to start with a company-standard .bashrc already in its home directory. Where do you place that file? machine-checked
- On a host whose accounts come partly from local files and partly from a directory service, `grep alice /etc/passwd` returns nothing even though `id alice` works. Which command shows alice's account entry the way the system itself resolves it? machine-checked
- Policy says passwords must be changed at least every 90 days, and the account carol must comply. Which command sets that maximum password age? machine-checked
- A line in /etc/group reads `developers:x:1500:alice,bob`. What does the final field contain? machine-checked