[KLUG Members] Re: Coriolis/ExamCram Linux+ book has several _major_ errors -- WAS: Linux Opportunity ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Wed, 2002-06-05 at 16:43, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> I got the Linux+ Cram book and started laughing when I saw some of the
> multiple choice answers.  Serious BS-style favorites like A. reboot the
> server B. do blah (correct), etc... (no, A. wasn't the correct answer
> Steve ;-).

I just found several errors in the example test in this book.  Not
ExamCram.COM nor Coriolis.COM is responding, so I haven't been able to
check to see if they have any errata.  Anyhoo, here's one:

   Question 63 (paraphrased):

   If backup command is:
     tar czvf backup-home.tgz /home
   Where will this restore the files:
     [tr@linuxserver /tmp]$ tar xzvf backup-home.tar

   Their answer is a. --
      The home directory of each user is restored to the original
      location.  Why?  Because the absolute pathnames are stored.

   Correct answer is b. --
      The home directory of each user is restored to the /tmp/home
      directory.  Why?  Because GNU Tar, by default, _strips_ the
      leading "/" from any parameters passed, if you restore in /tmp,
      it will restore into /tmp/home -- you have to use the "-P" option
      to override so the leading "/" is not stripped (in _all_ distros
      I checked).  Furthermore, there are usually permission issues
      restoring as a regular user to an absolute path -- especially
      /home in this particular case.

This book is littered with errata in the example test!  I don't know if
its just the book or the test is going to do this BS.  I caught at least
5 other issues where the unfamiliarity with how commands operate, or the
ignorance of actual commands that *DO* exist in some _major_
distros/versions, will bite you if you know more than the book/test! 
Especially if you have some "good practices" they forget.  And to think
it was published in 2002 for a test that just came out September of last
year!

The NIS/NFS stuff really twerks me -- especially Question 52 (a very
_poor_ question) -- but the book only devotes 2 paragraphs and most of
the NFS commentary is regarding installation (Nuts!), like that's all
its good for!  Again, it might be the test he's just accommodating.

Otherwise, it's so-so, and a good "intro" to the trick-BS that the test
will utilize (damn they caught me a half dozen times -- although another
half-dozen were _wrong_ like above ;-).  The 116 "things to know" on the
"cheat sheet" is a nice start for newer admins as well.

-- Bryan

CC:  KLUG

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---------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, SmithConcepts, Inc.   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
Engineers and IT Professionals     http://www.SmithConcepts.com