Re: Help for Red Hat Enterpirise Linux

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By way of explanation (because you identified yourself as new to Linux):

Linux is different from Windows in that it is a multi-user system. (If anyone ever told you Windows was a multi-user system, they are clueless.) In Windows you can only be logged on as one user at a time. In Linux you can open multiple shells (or "terminals" from the desktop) and log in multiple times.

Although you hear admonitions to not log in as "Administrator" to Windows on a daily basis, it's a pain in the but when you are in the middle of a project and realize you have to log out, log back on as Admin, download and install your software, log out, log in as normal user, and start all over, isn't it?

In Linux, you don't need to do all that!

All Linux systems have the ability to "su" -- to change to the "superuser" (known as "root"). If you enter the "su" command you will be prompted for the root user's password. Logout when you are done and you are dumped back to your regular priveleges!

Most Linux distributions also come with the "sudo" program. This is the ability to run a specific command with root privileges but not stay logged in as the root user at all (even safer). You enter the "sudo" command followed by a space and your desired command with all its options like you normally would. It will ask you for the root password before it runs the command with elevated privleges.

For information on creating a user, read the manual page ("man page") for "useradd":
man useradd | less

"less" is a pager that allows you to move forward and back through command output using keyboard arrows and Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End buttons.

That character before it is a pipe, which is located on the same key as the backslash on the right-hand side of your keyboard. A pipe takes the output of one command and inputs it to another.

(And if I told you stuff you already knew, please excuse me.  [Wink]  )






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