[colug-432] Psudo Sudo Su

[Richard Hornsby]

On Feb 22, 2011, at 18:22, "Steve VanSlyck" <s.vanslyck at spamcop.net> wrote:

> Any comment on why I can "su" but not "sudo" - perhaps sudo isn't installed?

What is "cannot"? What error message are you getting?  Does 'which sudo' give you an affirmative response?

-rj


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Stephen Potter <spp at unixsa.net>
> To: colug-432 at colug.net
> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:53:13 -0500
> Subject: Re: [colug-432] Psudo Sudo Su
> 
>> On 2/21/2011 2:55 PM, Steve VanSlyck wrote:
>>> If I a stoopid person may ask a schmardt question....
>>> 
>>> What is the difference between su and sudo? Should I expect to be able 
> to
>>> use both on every distro?
>> 
>> su is the "switch user" (or substitute user) command.  It allows you to 
>> change your current user shell to another user ID.  It is original to 
>> (Bell) Unix Seventh Edition from around 1978-79.  As long as you know 
>> the password for the other account (or are currently the root user), you 
>> can become that user and do anything that account can do.
>> 
>> sudo is a command that allows you to run a command as another user.  It 
>> has stronger authorization control, allowing it to be set up so that a 
>> user can only run a single command (even specific options or arguments) 
>> as another use.  The person running sudo only needs to know their own 
>> password, not the password of the privileged account.  It was written 
>> for SUNY/Buffalo to be used on (Berkeley) Unix around 1980.
>> 
>> Generally, you would give someone sudo to a specific command, such as 
>> "sudo -u apache /usr/sbin/apachectl restart"; the command "sudo -u root 
>> /bin/sh" might be seen as almost equivalent (except you would know your 
>> own password, rather than root's).
>> 
>> -spp
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