Chown ???

[Sjoerd Mullender]

g wrote:
> Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> 
>> The original meaning of 'su' is 'superuser'. You can find it in Unix
>> manuals from the 1970s. 'Substitute user' is a lame back-formation from
>> when the command was extended to allow changing effective id's to any
>> user and not just root.
> 
> i am not in disagreement with this as i used *unix* in it's early form. my early unix
> manuals are buried too deep to get to, so i can not quote from them or find when
> change came about.
> 
> but this is not *unix*,  we are discussing *linux*. in *linux*, the command 'su' is
> 'substitute user or group'.
> 
> in *linux*, 'su' gives a user who knows 'root' password, ability to become _any_user_
> or a member of _any_group_. therefore, i again say, command 'su' is not 'super user'.
> 
> so if i give command 'su poc' or 'su paul', i do not become a 'superuser'. i simply
> become user 'poc' or user 'paul'.
> 
>> DOS systems have no concept of user privilege, and hence have no concept
>> of superuser. Windows systems do have user privileges but AFAIK they
>> don't use the superuser terminology.
> 
> *msdos* systems and *ms windows* have very little concept of anything.
> 
> 

My Version 7 Unix manual (i.e. 7th edition Unix, 1979) says:
su - substitute user id temporarily

My 4.3 BSD user manual says the same thing.

My 9th edition unix manual says:
su, setlog - substitute userid temporarily, become super user

And on Fedora 10, the manual says:
su - run a shell with substitute user and group IDs

In all cases, the user name is an optional argument and defaults to
"root" (i.e. the super user).

-- 
Sjoerd Mullender

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