From the course: Learning Linux Command Line

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Understand user roles and sudo

Understand user roles and sudo - Linux Tutorial

From the course: Learning Linux Command Line

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Understand user roles and sudo

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- [Instructor] Modern Linux is a multi-user environment. On older systems and on single user systems, there's only one user. Whoever uses the computer is the system administrator, and they can do whatever they want. On a multi-user system, I can have a user, you can have a user, and our files are kept separate in our individual home directories. We can create files that only one or another user can access. At the command line, we can switch between users with the SU command, which is variously referred to as set user, switch user, or substitute user. To use SU, we write that command, followed by the name of the user we want to switch to, and then we'll need to provide the password for that user. One of the most common tasks for switching users at the command line is to do some system administration tasks. There are two basic user roles on a modern Linux system, normal users and the super user. The difference is one of privilege. A normal user can modify, create, delete, and move their…

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