svn commit: r41667 - in projects/ISBN_1-57176-407-0/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook: basics users

[Benjamin Kaduk]

On Sun, 19 May 2013, Tom Rhodes wrote:

> Modified: projects/ISBN_1-57176-407-0/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.xml
> ==============================================================================
> --- projects/ISBN_1-57176-407-0/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.xml	Sat May 18 23:44:23 2013	(r41666)
> +++ projects/ISBN_1-57176-407-0/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.xml	Sun May 19 00:01:57 2013	(r41667)
> @@ -1034,4 +1034,49 @@ uid=1001(jru) gid=1001(jru) groups=1001(
>       <filename>/etc/group</filename>, refer to &man.pw.8; and
>       &man.group.5;.</para>
>   </sect1>
> +
> +  <sect1 id="users-becomesuper">
> +    <title>Becoming Superuser</title>
> +
> +    <para>There are several ways to do things as the superuser.  The
> +      worst way is to log in as <username>root</username> directly.
> +      Usually very little activity requires <username>root</username>
> +      so logging off and logging in as <username>root</username>,
> +      performing tasks, then logging off and on again as a normal user
> +      is a waste of time.</para>
> +
> +    <para>A better way is to use &man.su.1; without providing a login
> +      but using <literal>-</literal> to inherit the root environment.
> +      Not providing a login will imply super user.  For this to work
> +      the login that must be in the <groupname>wheel</groupname> group.

This sentence doesn't seem quite right; "login" is used to mean the 
currently-logged-in user, as opposed to the previous sentences where it is 
used to specify an argument to su(1).

-Ben

> +      An example of a typical software installation would involve the
> +      administrator unpacking the software as a normal user and then
> +      elevating their privileges for the build and installation of
> +      the software.</para>