Block 1 Lab 3 — File Operations Under Pressure

Scenario

You have a change request to modify /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf on a production server. No change management system. No version control. Just you, the file, and the consequences if you break it. This lab is the discipline that stops a config change becoming an incident.

Objectives

#	Objective
1	Back up the config file before touching it
2	Make the change and verify it — then break it deliberately
3	Restore from backup and confirm the restore worked with diff
4	Organise backups — mv, rename with dates, archive directory
5	Safe deletion and symlinks — ln -s for managed config patterns
6	Knowledge check

Supported Commands

Command	Purpose
cp [-p] [-r] src dst	Copy file or directory; -p preserves permissions and timestamps
mv src dst	Move or rename a file
rm [-i] [-r] file	Remove; -i prompts before each deletion
mkdir [-p] dir	Create directory; -p creates parents too
diff file1 file2	Show differences between two files
ls [-la] [-lt] [path]	List files with detail and time sorting
cat / head / tail	Read file contents
ln -s target link	Create a symbolic link
stat file	Full file metadata: size, permissions, timestamps

The golden rule: cp -p before you edit. The -p flag preserves the original file's permissions and timestamps in your backup — critical on production systems.

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💻 Server State

🐧

rhel-prod-01

RHEL 9.3 · root@host

httpd failed

backup none yet

httpd.conf broken

diff not checked

Filesystem Snapshot

config

📄 httpd.conf broken

📄 httpd.conf.bak

📁 conf.d/

backups archive

📁 /root/conf-backups/

logs

📄 error_log

📄 access_log

symlink

🔗 httpd.conf.live

—

[root@rhel-prod-01 ~]#

📋 Tasks & Guide

Lab Information

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