[CentOS] Sudo command

Fri Oct 23 06:02:14 UTC 2009
Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net>

On Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:18:56 +0530
vijay shanker wrote:

> if it expects my own password then why not i can execute these command
> without giving "sudo" as prefix.

Because sudo is the program that gives you the rights to execute certain
commands as root without actually being the root user.  If you don't run the
program "through" sudo, you won't get the rights.

> If i am a genuine sudoer then can i edit files on which only root has
> execution rights.

If you have the relevant permissions set in sudoers, then the answer is yes.

The whole objective of sudo is to allow some users to do certain things that
could otherwise be done only as root, without actually allowing the user to
become root.

In short, sudo allows you to set things up so a certain user can execute a
specific list of commands as root, but can't execute other commands as root.
The list of commands that you allow that user to execute is determined by the
sudoers file.

-- 
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com