[OT] sudo, why not su?

Sean Miller sean at seanmiller.net
Mon Aug 8 22:03:27 UTC 2005


Derek Broughton wrote:

>I don't buy that.
>  
>
You don't buy that "su" and "sudo" have different purposes?

>>su
>>----
>>su switches user. 
>>    
>>
>
>like sudo -i (or sudo -i -u user)
>  
>
That's like saying that you can get your dog to meouw... doesn't make it 
a cat...

>While the more generic sudo doesn't have a -i option, I think you can get
>there with -s or -c (as long as the /etc/sudoers file permits it)
>  
>
Right, so our task in life is to make the "dog" behave like a "cat"? 
Whatever it takes? I just don't understand the point...

>_Somebody_ has to have full root access to everything :-)
>  
>
Yeah... in the late 60s they came up with an exceptional idea... let's 
let *root* have root access to everything.... worked well for about 
35-40 years... personally having been introduced to the "culture" in 
about 1990 I am quite happy with the way I've worked since then.... you 
are going to have to work a lot harder than that to persuade me I know 
nothing about Unix.

Sean




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