Re: [tlug] [Newbie] Becoming 'root' in Kubuntu

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 24/08/07, Darren Cook <darren@example.com> wrote:

> Just to check your meaning, there is nothing hanging around after I type
> "exit" is there?

No. But how soon do you type "exit"? If it is after one or two
commands, as it should be, how is that actually easier than prefixing
commands with "sudo"?

> But you still type in "su -" when you need to be root?

No. There is no real need to become root 99.99% of the time. All you
care about is the ability to execute certain commands with root
privileges, which is what sudo provides. But that is not all sudo
does; sudo allows the administrators to be *very* selective about when
and to whom to give out root privileges. e.g. web developers might
need to be able to run '/etc/init.d/apache2 reload', but not
'/etc/init.d/apache2 stop/start/restart', which is reserved for
webadmins. But neither class actually needs root access outside of the
LAMP stack, so why give them the right to "su - root"?

Better yet, sudo provides an easy way to log *every* command run and
the real user that ran it. So when some sysadmin screws up and then
won't admit to it, you just wave the sudo logs in front of his face
and show him the door. ;)

> Other than having to know root password [...]

sudo also allows you to give out root privs to certain commands with
no password, or the user's password, or authentication against any
arbitrary PAM module.

In my experience as a Unix SA for Amazon, the times I needed to become
root in my 10-month stint could be enumerated on the fingers of one
hand. Amazon has a special version of bash, modified to log
everything, so you have to run "sudo sooperbash[1]" to do it. But like
I said, you almost *never* need to.

So break yourself of the habit of "su -" now, before you do something
nasty to your system. Because it is only a matter of time before you
paste a command into the wrong xterm...

Cheers,
Josh

[1] Not the real name of the command, so don't get excited, Keith and Mauro. ;)