Unix Interview Questions and Answers

Answer - 1 : - The fork() function is used to create a new process from an existing process. The new process is called the child process, and the existing process is called the parent. You can tell which is which by checking the return value from fork(). The parent gets the child's pid returned to him, but the child gets 0 returned to him. Thus this simple code illustrate's the basics of it.

Answer - 2 : - Getting the value of an environment variable is done by using `getenv()'.      #include           char *getenv(const char *name); Setting the value of an environment variable is done by using `putenv()'.      #include           int putenv(char *string); The string passed to putenv must *not* be freed or made invalid, since a pointer to it is kept by `putenv()'.  This means that it must either be a static buffer or allocated off the heap.  The string can be freed if the environment variable is redefined or deleted via another call to `putenv()'. Remember that environment variables are inherited; each process has a separate copy of the environment. As a result, you can't change the value of an environment variable in another process, such as the shell. Suppose you wanted to get the value for the `TERM' environment variable. You would use this code:      char *envvar;           envvar=getenv("TERM");           printf("The value for the environment variable TERM is ");      if(envvar)      {          printf("%s\n",envvar);      }      else      {          printf("not set.\n");      } Now suppose you wanted to create a new environment variable called `MYVAR', with a value of `MYVAL'.  This is how you'd do it.      static char envbuf[256];           sprintf(envbuf,"MYVAR=%s","MYVAL");           if(putenv(envbuf))      {          printf("Sorry, putenv() couldn't find the memory for %s\n",envbuf);       &

Answer - 3 : - If you don't know the names of the environment variables, then the `getenv()' function isn't much use. In this case, you have to dig deeper into how the environment is stored. A global variable, `environ', holds a pointer to an array of pointers to environment strings, each string in the form `"NAME=value"'. A `NULL' pointer is used to mark the end of the array. Here's a trivial program to print the current environment (like `printenv'):      #include           extern char **environ;           int main()      {          char **ep = environ;          char *p;          while ((p = *ep++))              printf("%s\n", p);          return 0;      } In general, the `environ' variable is also passed as the third, optional, parameter to `main()'; that is, the above could have been written:      #include           int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)      {          char *p;          while ((p = *envp++))              printf("%s\n", p);          return 0;      } However, while pretty universally supported, this method isn't actually defined by the POSIX standards. (It's also less useful, in general.)

Answer - 4 : - Coming from a Microsoft operating system to Linux you may be surprised to see there is not an option for ifconfig to release and renew an IP address. Below are two different methods of how this can be done at the command line.

Answer - 5 : - A personal computer which possesses an operating system designed to operate by only one user at a given time is known as a single-user system. Single user system becomes more popular since low-cost hardware and availability of a wide range of software to perform different tasks.

Answer - 6 : - The following are a few features of UNIX; Machine independent Portability Multi-user operations Unix Shells Hierarchical file system Pipes and filters Background processors Utilities Development tools

Answer - 7 : - The program which serves as an interface between the user and the system called a shell. It is the layer of programming that understands and executes the commands a user enters. In some systems, it’s also called a command interpreter.

Answer - 8 : - Following are the responsibilities of a shell; Program Execution Input/ output redirection Filename and variable substitution Pipeline hookup Environment control Integrated programming language

Answer - 9 : - The command rm –r * erases all files in a directory with its subdirectories. rm is for deleting files -r is to delete directories and subdirectories with files within * is indicate all entries

Answer - 10 : - A directory in UNIX is a specialised form of a file that maintains a list of all the files which are included in it.