Re: sudoers

[Scott Reese <sreese@indianaheart.org>]

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Andrew Critchlow wrote:
> How would I know if sudoers is already installed on my system? Is
> sudoers the same as when you type >su - to get root access?
> I can't seem to find sudoers in apt?
>  
>  

Greetings Andrew:

The package name is sudo.  You can check your system by using the dpkg
command:

dpkg -l | grep sudo

will show a line with the package name and version if it is installed.

The functionality of sudo is different than the functionality of su.
With su, you can become the superuser (or any other user) and do
anything that the other user can.  You appear to the system to be that
user.  With sudo, you are given limited permission to run programs that
you would not normally have the permissions to run.  You activity can be
logged with your username so the administrator can keep track of who is
doing what.

If you are running a single user system that only you use, then there is
not really any functional difference between su and sudo.  If you are
running a system where several people need to do administrative tasks,
then sudo can be helpful with its tracking of who does what.

- -Scott
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