g wrote:
Jim wrote:
Thanks for your reply, yes I'm aware about the SU, I just do that so it
will stand out in a message.
ok. i will accept that. that is as long as you know 'su' is 'substitute user and group'
and not 'super user' as msbsos people like to think of themselves. :)
I remember hearing "super user" back when I first was working on Unix in
the mid 1980's and I was positive that I hadn't picked it up from any
DOS-folk. But, of course, memory is not good enough when trying to say
"I don't quite think so", so I searched through my library and found
what I think is a good cause for source of the "super-user" meaning, not
"substitute user and group"
From "The Unix Programming Environment" by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob
Pike (c) 1984 (I think mine is 5th printing of that first edition) page 52:
"But we must warn you: there is a special user on every UNIX system,
called the super-user, who can read of modify any file on the system.
The special login name root carries super-user privileges: it is used by
system administrators when they do system maintenance. There is also a
command called su that grants super-user status if you know the root
password. This anyone who knows the super-user password can read you
love letters, so don't keep sensitive material in a file system."
(Syntax removed to make sure this doesn't turn into html doc)
The third sentence pretty much binds "su" to "super-user" as far as
Kernighan and Pike phrase it. Not msbsos (and I think you were the one
who answered my query many months ago to find out what msbsos meant (smile))
Paul
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