[OT] sudo, why not su?

[Magnus Therning]

On Mon, Aug 08, 2005 at 11:14:19AM -0700, Nathan Howell wrote:
>On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 09:12:22 +0100, Magnus Therning wrote:
>
>> The difference is that I use sudo, and my colleague use su. I wanted to
>> know exactly what the benefit of sudo is over su. In the most simple
>> usage of sudo (as in a newly installed Ubuntu) the benefit is that sudo
>> requires the user's password, su requires root's password. If su could,
>> in some way, be made to require the calling user's password then that
>> difference would disappear and, in that very simple scenario, su and
>> sudo would be so similar that either could be used.
>
>If the required password were the only difference, why would both
>options exist? It wouldn't make sense for su to ask for your password
>to do its thing, because with su you *become another user*. To do so,
>you need to enter *that users password* to show that you are authorized
>to become them. In contrast, sudo simply adds abilities to *your
>account*. In order to use these extra abilities that have been granted
>to you, you must know *your own password*.

This will be my very last post on this topic. I've already found the
answer I was looking for[1] and I have no real interest in continuing
the discussion for the discussion's sake.

However, if you had read through the whole thread (I'll be the first to
admit it hasn't been the easiest one to follow) you would have seen that
_in the scenario considered_ the only difference between 'sudo' and 'su'
(if there was a solution using 'su') would have been what password was
used.

You are correct in saying that in the general case that isn't the only
difference. That is because 'sudo' solves a more general problem than
'su' does.

/M

1. http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2005-August/045243.html

-- 
Magnus Therning                    (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
magnus at therning.org
http://therning.org/magnus

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intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
     -- John McFee
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