[ale] bash commands

[Brian Mathis]

By "desktop" I mean a computer that sits on your desk either at home
or work, as opposed to servers that run in a data center.  I think
most people who don't see the difference between using 'su' vs 'sudo'
think that way because they are only playing with Linux on their home
desktop so it doesn't really matter.  However, in a server environment
where you need to manage resources, it does.

I don't think anyone is using "desktop" to refer to using a GUI
instead of a shell prompt; at least that doesn't make sense in the
context of this discussion.


❧ Brian Mathis


On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 2:48 AM, Matthew <simontek at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't usually work in a desktop environment. Even though our project
> is using kde, I still do everything from command line.
>
> On 5/21/12, Brian Mathis <brian.mathis+ale at betteradmin.com> wrote:
>> There is an ENORMOUS difference between using "su" and "sudo -i", and
>> it's big enough that any old codgers out there should learn this new
>> trick:
>>
>>     To use 'su' you need the ROOT password.
>>     To use 'sudo', you need YOUR password.
>>
>> In any environment outside of your personal desktop, this is a huge
>> difference.  Securely distributing the root password to any number of
>> sysadmins, keeping track of who has it, and changing it every time
>> someone leaves (and redistributing the changed password) is a
>> nightmare, and it also violates most accepted rules of good security
>> (using shared passwords).
>>
>> If you grant root access through sudo, even if admins use 'sudo -i',
>> you only need to manage the sudoers file and you can forget about the
>> root password issue.  You still need to keep track of the root
>> password, but now you can set it to some long random string and keep
>> it locked in a safe somewhere.  You also get an audit trail of who's
>> logging in and switching to root, even if you don't get a full audit
>> of every command they run.
>>
>>
>> ❧ Brian Mathis
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 9:30 PM, matt <ur.matt at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Why not just log in as root and stomp around if you're going to use sudo
>>> -i?
>>>
>>> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 6:27 PM, matt <ur.matt at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> sudo -i is definitely bad practice, it completely negates the purpose of
>>>> using sudo in the first place.
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 6:19 PM, Brian Stanaland <brian at stanaland.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> I use 'sudo su -' which gets you the complete root experience.
>>>>>
>>>>> -- Brian
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Mike Harrison <cluon at geeklabs.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, 20 May 2012, Jim Lynch wrote:
>>>>>> > If that's current thinking, then it's changed.  I've been
>>>>>> > administrating
>>>>>> > Unix systems for about 25 years.  Sudo didn't exist and you needed to
>>>>>> > su
>>>>>> > in order to do admin tasks.  It was accepted and expected.  You
>>>>>> > couldn't
>>>>>> > install SunOS, HPUX, UNICOS or Irix without it.  I'm afraid this old
>>>>>> > dog
>>>>>> > isn't learning new tricks, I use sudo -s or sudo -i on a regular
>>>>>> > basis
>>>>>> > when I don't have su enabled.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I use sudo -s on my desktop when I need to do root things. Saves a lot
>>>>>> of
>>>>>> time and typing over "sudo foo" for every command. On a desktop, normal
>>>>>> user system.. it seems to be the "right way". Be a user for user
>>>>>> things,
>>>>>> become almost root for doing admin stuff on my box.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On a server.. there is only root for most sysadmin tasks. I've only
>>>>>> been
>>>>>> running Linux since 94.. but have also worked on DG Nova's, SCO unix,
>>>>>> Slowlaris, etc.. but it seems to be the right way to admin a server.
>>>>>> If you can't handle SSHing in/logging in as root..  you should not be.
>>>> --
>>>> Matt Urbanski | iflowfor8hours.info | @iflowfor8hours
>>> --
>>> Matt Urbanski | iflowfor8hours.info | @iflowfor8hours
>>
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