What is Sudo

Superuser Do - related: User Management Basics

• important because
  • we need it to keep our system up to date / install additional tools
• Elevates privileges temporarily
  • If you use sudo, you are temporarily borrowing root privileges.
  • Your user is listed in the sudoers file (/etc/sudoers) or is part of the sudo group.
  • type groups in bash and you will see your name
  • This method requires your password, not the root password.
    • Imagine a computer with multiple users.
    • Not everyone should have the power to run sudo and get root access.
    • Imagine ur user is in the sudoers list, so ur allowed to use sudo
• sudo ls /root
  • /root is the home directory of the super user (it’s not under/home/(user))
  • as normal user we’re not allowed, only the root user can access it
  • but sudo elevates our privileges, which allows us to access it temporariliy
• be careful with sudo, always make sure you understand what a command does
  • ex. sudo rm -f /etc would destroy our entire system without even giving a msg lol
• if sudo doesnt work
  • udemy lecture link
  • maybe system is configured that your default regular user does not have this additional options to use sudo
  • might need to create new user and give this user administrative privileges, then try using sudo while logged into this new user account