Re: Chown ???

[Aldo Foot <lunixer gmail com>]

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 7:15 AM, Dave Ihnat <dihnat dminet com> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 08, 2009 at 01:11:49PM +0000, g wrote:
>> not to argue a point, but.
>>
>> 'su' is 'substitute user' as you can substitute to *any* 'user' or 'group', not just 'root user'.
>> you are a 'super user' if you you become 'root' or 'adm'.
>
> Bzzzt.  Wrong answer.  Thank you for playing.
>
> I was at BTL in the very early '80s.  Writing kernel mods and drivers
> for Unix, and teaching Unix internals to BTL employees.  It's always been
> "superuser".  I don't know where anyone got this lame "substitute user"
> stuff, but it's not authentic.
>
> Cheers,
> --
>        Dave Ihnat
>        dihnat dminet com
___

For all intents and purposes the definition has changed over the years, but
the practical use remains the same. So,  if I'm user joe and do "su - jane",
then I'm no becoming 'superuser', I'm [s]witching [u]users and I don't have
[s]uper [u]ser privileges. And if I switch to root, it's just another user on
steroids --really good ones.

~af