UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi there, please could you assist me. I have no knowledge at all about Unix and I have applied for a job and they have given me a test and said that I can obtain the answers in any kind of way. There are 3 questions that I need answers for. I have tried researching the answers to these questions but cannot find them. There were a few other questions which I have answered by doing research but no luck with these. These are the 3 questions below.

1.What does the following command do

Code:

"FILE[2]=file1.txt;
 CNTR=2;
 if [ ! -f "${FILE[$CNTR]}" ];
 then 
    echo yes; 
 else 
    echo no;
 fi"

2. What does the following command do

Code:

cat file1.txt | sed '1d;$d'

3. Please supply the Sybase sql command used to restore a database called test.dmp which was
dumped with compression ratio 3

Moderator's Comments:

Please use code tags next time for your code and data. Thanks

So with regard to these questions, what have you worked out so far? What are you getting stuck with?

Not knowing unix is one thing, applying for a IT job having a single idea of what IT basic programming is is another...

2) someone from WIN* cannot guess so I would say catenate file1.txt and output only first and last line...
But if you are asked to explain, what will you answer?
1) Have you tried to figure out? with a litle programming knowledge you should be able to guess right...

I am stuck really. I have no clue what you are asking me. I have been asked questions in this test in various IT fields like OS, Networking, DatabaseS, SQL, Web Services and ITIL. I have managed to answer all those questions in that areas and I am only stuck with these 3. I have answered other Unix questions in this test but I am in a dead end with these 3. I guess the job I am applying for is testing to see if I can at least answer the questions because my cv clearly doesn't have Unix experience on it.

Well youve got the answer of 2)
1) is not not truly unix specific if you try to understand e.g. CNTR=2 is easy to guess the variable CNTR gets value 2... and If else fi is not unix specific... So you should be able to guess...
3) sorry Im no Sybase admin

Thank you....I am surprised myself about these questions, I am literally a dummy with Unix. They did say I can use the internet or text books what ever means. I will keep on trying I have a few days to still try and answer.

Poste here what you have figured out and we will correct...
An extra clue $VAR will give the value of the variable VAR so now it really should not be difficult...