For instance, to operate as a user named phoenixnap, run: Then, provide the password for the phoenixnap account and hit Enter. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. To invoke another user’s shell within the working directory/user environment, use the su command (without the hyphen). At one point, around 1994, sudo was being developed by Todd Miller at the Colorado University in Boulder, CO and an unofficial âforkâ of sudo was released called âCU sudoâ. sudo has some characteristics that su does not. Distributions based on Ubuntu, including Linux Mint, also use sudo instead of su by default. It also lets you enforce better access controls. The su command stands for substitute user, and it is mostly used for switching from one user to another. Su switches you to the root user account and requires the root accountâs password. If the command is used without the argument, it switches to the superuser (root) account. Use your new password to log in as root from a terminal login prompt or with the su command. Let's check out the root user in the sudoers configuration. Alongside her educational background in teaching and writing, she has had a lifelong passion for information technology. While sudo runs a single command with root privileges, su ⦠To do something that requires these permissions, youâll have to acquire them with su or sudo. Only administrator-type accounts in Ubuntu can run commands with sudo. The root user is basically equivalent to the administrator user on Windows â the root user has maximum permissions and can do anything to the system. GitHub issue #75. Running fewer commands as root increases security and prevents accidental system-wide changes. However, the user environment remains the same, as in the image below: To move to another user and switch to that target user environment, use the su - command. Bear in mind that the sudo option can only be used by users who belong to the sudoers group. Youâll have to provide your current user accountâs password instead of the root accountâs password. When you install Ubuntu, the standard root account is created, but no password is assigned to it. root ALL=(ALL) ALL. There is a root user and there is the su command, so why have yet another tool? Both su and sudo are used to run commands with root permissions. What’s the Difference Between Sudo and Su in Linux? Sudo will prompt you for your current user accountâs password before you can set a new password. Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) is the newest Ubuntu LTS release. Helm and Helm Charts Explained. sudo is used as a prefix to Linux commands, which allows the logged in user to execute commands that require root privileges. Both su and sudo elevate privileges assigned to the current user. The key element in sudo is it's ability to to run "one" command as root and then drop privileges to normal user. The sudo command has existed for a long time, but Ubuntu was the first popular Linux distribution to go sudo-only by default. Therefore, it is much safer to use sudo ⦠sudo, linux command is used to give such permissions to any particular command that a user wants to execute. This âforkâ added support for more distributions as well as numerous bug fixes. Once youâre done running commands in the root shell, you should type exit to leave the root shell and go back to limited-privileges mode. On the other hand, other Linux distributions, such as Fedora, create a root and user account upon installation. Type and retype a secure password, then hit Enter. Switch to the root user and acquire the root environment with: Type in the password for the user currently in use. Linux is flexible, so it doesnât take much work to make su work similarly to sudo â or vice versa. sudo commands makes it possible to execute system commands without root password. The real and effective uid and gid of the issuing user are then set to match those of the target user account as specified in the passwd file. By default, sudo requires that users authenticate themselves with a password. If sudo is run by root and the SUDO_USER environment variable is set, sudo will use this value to determine who the actual user is. Likewise, su can also function as sudo and run a single command as the root: After reading this article, you should understand the difference between the sudo and su command. Before the system executes the command, it asks for the password of the current user. By doing so, the current user is only granted privileged for the specified command. Bear in mind that Ubuntu recommends against this. âsudoâ is a root binary setuid, which executes root commands on behalf of authorized users and the users need to enter their own password to execute system command followed by sudo. Because they are similar in syntax and have overlapping functions, many new users are unsure when to use one over the other. The sudo configuration file sudoers is in most cases located in /etc/sudoers. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. You can change a user accountâs type from the User Accounts configuration window. If itâs not, a âcommand not foundâ message will be displayed. For more details about the su command, see our article on How to Use the su Command With Examples. The current legacy release is sudo 1.8.32, released on February 9, 2021.