On 06/11/2013 08:31 AM, Tim wrote:
Allegedly, on or about 10 June 2013, Joe Zeff sent:
> To me, sudo is a fine tool if you want to give access to a few admin
> tools to people who don't (and shouldn't) know the root password.
> However, I can't see the point of using it if you're the person who
> installed Linux and created the root password.
I can see only two reasons for using sudo when you're the sole computer
user and owner:
Once the command finishes, your terminal is left with your unprivileged
logon, so there's less chance of serious mistakes happening by accident
(e.g. badly wildcarded "rm" commands), if you're going to keep that
terminal open.
Potentially, there should be less chance for something to snaffle up a
copy of your root password if you're not typing it. Though I suspect
that if there is anything hanging around that could do that, then you're
already screwed.
And it's not just the potential for issuing dangerous commands in a root
terminal, that's a problem. People logged in as root often stay logged
in as root, doing things as root when they don't really need to. Then
they find that they're painted themselves into a corner, as some files
they wanted to use are owned by root, so they log back in as root, yet
again, for a really bad reason.
That said, I've really only recently made practical use of sudo, and
can't say that *I* find it to be a stand-out better thing to do than
doing "su -", I still do it either way.
When you're done with whatever you did and you get distracted then
return to the computer, you'll probably forget you are logged in as
root. And that's when a stupid command causes chaos. With sudo, you're
using root level privs on a command-by-command basis, so there's less
chance of blowing off some toes.
--
-- Steve