On 9/13/19, Richard Owlett <rowl...@cloud85.net> wrote:
> On 09/13/2019 03:30 AM, Paul Sutton wrote:
>> [snip]
>>
>> I have it working now after using the su - thing, well it wasn't a copy
>> / paste issue here but you do raise a good point there.
>>
>> Thanks to everyone for their help, would be good to figure out why
>> things like this happen. If I put my average user hat on (as in those
>> trying to switch from windows) most users would probably just give up
>> and see Debian as too complex.
>>
>
> I see an interleaving of problem sources.
>
> When I used Windows I was not a aware of permission issues be they root,
> owner, or group.
You didn't share that machine? I shared a desktop PC with a middle
schooler that I didn't want acting as an admin, so I created multiple
accounts with different privs. Even now that I'm the only user of the
PC I've still got an admin account + normal user account on the
windows PC.
> There has been a recent change from using "su " to using "su - ".
> I'm not yet sure if that is an actual syntax change or a change of
> 'recommended usage'.
My understanding is that it's a recent change in the su program.
Debian 9:
lee@izzy ~
$ echo $PATH
/home/lee/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin:/sbin
lee@izzy ~
$ su
Password:
root@izzy /home/lee
# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
Debian 10 apparently doesn't change the path unless you do "su -"
> I think what is needed is an essay comparing/contrasting the proper
> usage of "sudo" versus "su" versus "su -".
sudo you don't have to give out the root password
allows fine-grain control of who can do what (that I haven't
figured out. I just added my userid to the sudo group & said close
enuf)
Regards,
Lee
