Alan Cox Calls Fedora 18 "The Worst Red Hat Distro"

[yogi_berra]

Which is exactly what I said, except for using real world examples?

not really, you said this:

it was "invented" to allow certain users to run certain applications (with certain options) as root (or as a certain user) without (necessarily) needing the root password (or the password of that certain user).

Additionally, it also logs every invocation.

That just explains what sudo does, not why it was written.

[JanC]

Not quite. It was written because gnu su will never limit users from root access because someone decided RMS didn't need root access at MIT (he probably didn't) and it scarred him for life.

Which is exactly what I said, except for using real world examples?

[JanC]

You should not even have to run anything as root, except some commands, in which case "su" in a terminal is better than "sudo", because with sudo you either constantly have to type the damn sudo command, or automatically get root rights for a period of time, so the user looses track of what commands run as root, and what runs as user. Better just have a root terminal where one can be sure what commands will run as root and what commands run as user.

With 'sudo -i' (or 'sudo -s' which does some things differently with the environment) you can start a root shell (provided the 'sudoers' config allows that for your user, of course).

[lsatenstein]

Tried it, like it, thank you

That's why you should also append a dot, so instead of "sudo nautilus", "sudo nemo" or "kdesu dolphin", do "sudo nautilus .", "sudo nemo ." or "kdesu dolphin .", they will then default to the directory they were called from. Also, in KDE the shortcut in the K menu is also set to default to starting in ~ instead of /root.




Lithuania. I should probably update my profile to show that, hmm...

I tried the dot, I like it, and will now not be following my old ways.

It reminds me of setting up new path statements with a bash script, only needed to put the dot before the script name.





The closest to Lithuania I have been is Riga Latvia.

[GreatEmerald]

Whein I run sudo nautilus or sudo nemo, nemo or nautilus has root privileges, and I am in /root I do not want to do so because I do not want to be in /root.

That's why you should also append a dot, so instead of "sudo nautilus", "sudo nemo" or "kdesu dolphin", do "sudo nautilus .", "sudo nemo ." or "kdesu dolphin .", they will then default to the directory they were called from. Also, in KDE the shortcut in the K menu is also set to default to starting in ~ instead of /root.

I am in Montreal Quebec Canada. GreatEmerald, where are you located?

Lithuania. I should probably update my profile to show that, hmm...

[lsatenstein]

You are right

It does in Dolphin, when running in root mode.

===
Whein I run sudo nautilus or sudo nemo, nemo or nautilus has root privileges, and I am in /root I do not want to do so because I do not want to be in /root.

My only gui logon to root is to allow me to safely move or copy files, create, rename or delete directories, and after doing that, to get out of there. I use sudo su to change ownership of the files I moved or copied, (from user A to user B, and not A to root)
Since sudo su leaves me in the current directory, I complete the permissions and changes of ownership and groups in this session, and then i get out of there.

I learned in the discussions of hours of responding to the topic surrounding Alan Cox and his views. We waste energy discussing "WIP" (Work in Process).



I have done software engineering fo 40+ years and have common sense and experience, and know when and how to be super careful. For example, I do not do 16 consecutive hours of programming. I learned long long ago how error prone those last hours can be.

I am in Montreal Quebec Canada. GreatEmerald, where are you located?

[GreatEmerald]

Permissions does not change ownership or group (at least not with nautilus, or nemo)

It does in Dolphin, when running in root mode.

[lsatenstein]

Permissions

How about right-clicking on whatever you want to change and choosing Properties -> Permissions in Dolphin?

Permissions does not change ownership or group (at least not with nautilus, or nemo)

[GreatEmerald]

So far there is no graphical "chown" or "chgrp" that I could use in GUI mode. It is coming some day, right?

How about right-clicking on whatever you want to change and choosing Properties -> Permissions in Dolphin?

[Rigaldo]

@lsatenstein
In case you missed it, you can easily launch just the GUI programs you need as root and not have to face the other "dangers".
Let's say the file manager. You make a launcher for it too(to start gksu nautilus/nemo or kdesudo dolphin, nemo gives you an option to start/open folders as root IIRC and dolphin can get that too as a service). Saves you logging in and out, too.(Except if you only use the root account 0_o , but I doubt that)