Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Regardless of the name, the superuser always has a user ID of 0. The root user can do many things an ordinary user cannot, such as changing the ownership of files and binding to network ports numbered below 1024. The name root may have originated because root is the only user account with permission to modify the root directory of a Unix
sudo (/ s uː d uː / [4]) is a program for Unix-like computer operating systems that enables users to run programs with the security privileges of another user, by default the superuser. [5] It originally stood for "superuser do", [ 6 ] as that was all it did, and this remains its most common usage; [ 7 ] however, the official Sudo project ...
A command line tool for Unix. su (substitute user) allows users to switch the terminal to a different account by entering the username and password of that account. If no user name is given, the operating system's superuser account (known as "root") is used, thus providing a fast method to obtain a login shell with full privileges to the system.
The command su, including the Unix permissions system and the setuid system call, was part of Version 1 Unix.Encrypted passwords appeared in Version 3. [5] The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.
Ordinary users are granted only enough permissions to accomplish their most common tasks. UNIX systems have built-in security features. Most users cannot set up a new user account nor do other administrative procedures. The user “root” is a special user, something called super-user, which can do anything at all on the system.
Super-users refer to a proposed class of administrators who would have all the powers of full administrators with the exception of blocking and unblocking rights. Users could put in requests for adminship to become either super-users or full admins. "Super-user" is merely one proposed name for this class of users.
The wheel group is a special user group used on some Unix systems, mostly BSD systems, [citation needed] to control access to the su [4] [5] or sudo command, which allows a user to masquerade as another user (usually the super user). [1] [2] [6] Debian and its derivatives create a group called sudo with purpose similar to that of a wheel group. [7]
This method, among others, also enables the superuser to delegate some administrative tasks to normal users, similar to the Administrators group on Microsoft Windows NT and its derivatives. A group identifier, often abbreviated to GID, is a numeric value used to represent a specific group. [1]