RE: /usr/share/doc...

[Michael Kahle <michael.kahle@scc-wi.com>]

>Cool. I used to reboot, then login as root just to do that... ;)

To clear up why I became root to do this operation...  I thought it faster
than copying the file somewhere else and then gunzip-ing the file.  I
thought it faster to type su and then password then to copy the file into
another location and have my way with it.  The problem with having my own
unix box is that I can bail myself out of tons of permissions situations
just by becoming root.  Very very bad, I know.  If I could have become
familiar with Unix without having to set one up myself first, I would most
likely have developed better habits than I have now.

I would type the following:

$ gzip -d filename.gz
Gzip: changelog: Permission denied
$

So, I was in /usr/share/doc/, and I didn't have permissions to change the
files that existed in there.  Which is why I had to be root to do the
decompress operation as above.  I could have copied the file to somewhere
else and then did it as non superuser.  But as we all know, this is silly.
There are far better ways to do this than I had been doing and I'm glad I
asked.

Thank you to all, for ALL of your suggestions...  I will do my best to
develop better habits!  ;)

Michael