Granting Root Privileges on Occasion: The sudo Command
It is often necessary to delegate some of the authority that root wields on a system. For a large system, this makes sense because no single individual will always be available to perform super user functions. The problem is that UNIX permissions come with an all-or-nothing authority. Enter sudo, an application that permits the assignment of one, several, or all the root-only system commands.
Note
As mentioned earlier, the sudo command is pervasive in Ubuntu because it is used by default. If you want to get to a root shell, thereby removing the need to type sudo for every command, just enter sudo -i to get the root prompt. To return to a normal user prompt, enter exit and press Enter. Again, ...
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