Being Someone Else for a While: su, sudo
Because Unix is a multiple user operating system, it's sometimes convenient to be able to momentarily switch user IDs so that you can do something as a different user than the one you're currently logged in as. To eliminate the need to log out and log back in under an alternative ID, Unix provides the su command (meaning switch user), which allows you to briefly act as another user for whom you know the login password. The su command is often used to switch to the root user ID for the purpose of performing system maintenance, but it can also be used to switch to any other user ID on the system.
The su command can be dangerous. When you are running as another user, you have all the permissions that the ...
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