For example, to have the permissions of a user named
jsmith, you??™d type the following:
$ su - jsmith
Even if you were root user before you typed this command, afterward you would have only the
permissions to open files and run programs that are available to jsmith. As root user, however, after
you type the su command to become another user, you don??™t need a password to continue. If you
type that command as a regular user, you must type the new user??™s password.
When you are finished using superuser permissions, return to the previous shell by exiting the current
shell. Do this by pressing Ctrl+D or by typing exit. If you are the administrator for a computer
that is accessible to multiple users, don??™t leave a root shell open on someone else??™s screen (unless
you want to let that person do anything he wants to the computer)!
Allowing Limited Administrative Access
As mentioned earlier, when you run GUI tools as a regular user (from Fedora, SUSE, or some other
Linux systems), you are prompted for the root password before you are able to access the tool. By
entering the root password, you are given root privilege for that task. In the case of Fedora, after
you enter the password, a badge icon appears in the top panel, indicating that root authorization is
still available for other GUI tools to run from that desktop session.
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