On Mon, Nov 07, 2016 at 09:57:14AM -0600, Richard Owlett wrote: > In any case, off-list someone suggested using > /sbin/blkid /dev/sda* > That works. *BUT* I wonder about unknown implications of "/sbin" > being required if not explicitly running as root.
It's simply because /sbin is not in your default PATH as a regular user. Most of the commands in /sbin require root privileges to do their jobs, but there are a few that don't, at least for certain limited parts of their jobs. (/sbin/ifconfig is probably the most famous.) If you want to run this command without root privileges, you can add /sbin to your PATH. This is not a security problem. It's just that most regular users don't need these commands. There is a minuscule decrease in efficiency when another directory in PATH has to be searched, but it's probably not going to be noticeable.
