Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

Granting System Administrator Privileges to Regular Users

On occasion, it might be necessary for regular users to run a command as if they were the root user. They usually do not need these powers, but a user might on a special occasion—for example, to temporarily access certain devices or run a command for testing purposes.

There are two ways to run commands with root privileges. The first way is useful if you are the owner of both the super user account (an enabled root account) and a regular user; the second way is useful if you are not a regular user but are not privileged to access all super user functions. (This might happen on a large, multiuser network with senior and junior administrators as well as regular users.) Let’s look at each. ...