[CentOS-docs] becoming root

[Alan Bartlett]

On 06/04/2008, Ned Slider <nedslider at f2s.com> wrote:
>
> I've just drafted a FAQ/mini-HOWTO on becoming root as this is a topic I
> see come up time and time again.
>
> Perhaps someone with a reasonable understanding could check it for
> technical correctness, and if anyone would like to offer comments/feedback??
>
> Any suggestions as to where might be an appropriate home for this on the
> Wiki?


As someone who was used to all users having the same search-path (I'm going
back 25 or so years), when I first came across the use of a separate path
for the super-user I asked the question "Why?". I have long since answered
that question and support the concept. (An aside, can anyone tell me why one
of the original grep flags, -y, was changed to -i ?)

Perhaps what also needs to be said is that "su <user>" gives the current
user the identity of <user> whilst "su - <user>" gives the current user the
identity of <user> *along with* <user>'s environment that would normally be
obtained by logging in as <user>.

I probably haven't expressed the above very well. Looking in my old Unix
System V manuals for the su command, I read "An initial - flag causes the
environment to be changed to the one that would be expected if the user
actually logged in again."

Perhaps a mention of sudo and sudoers could also be made?

Alan.
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