3 ms·

To all people who type "sudo su - root": the much simpler "sudo -i" accomplishes the same (-i launches an interactive shell).

• Osiris 14y ago
  I thought "sudo -s" was the correct way to drop into a root user shell.
  • ralph 14y ago
    No, unless one understands the subtleties, it may be best to use -i. $ sudo -s $ pwd /home/ralph $ exit $ sudo -i root@orac:~# pwd /root root@orac:~# logout $ $ sudo strace -fe execve sudo -s execve("/usr/bin/sudo", ["sudo", "-s"], [/* 16 vars */]) = 0 execve("/bin/bash", ["/bin/bash"], [/* 16 vars */]) = 0 ... $ exit $ sudo strace -fe execve sudo -i execve("/usr/bin/sudo", ["sudo", "-i"], [/* 16 vars */]) = 0 execve("/bin/bash", ["-bash"], [/* 16 vars */]) = 0 ... root@orac:~# logout $
• kelnos 14y ago
  The "-i" option actually means "simulate Initial login" -- the idea being -i will drop you into a shell as if you'd logged in as the user in a fresh session. -s will also give you an interactive shell, but doesn't mess with the environment. (And both -i and -s can also not give you an interactive shell, if you give it a command to run. The point is that it will run the command in the shell rather than just fork()ing and exec()ing like a bare sudo invocation would do.)
  • etanol 14y ago
    Read carefully: "sudo -i" to replace "sudo su - root". You should check the "su" manpage and look for the -/-l/--login option.
    • kelnos 14y ago
      I'm not objecting to that. I'm objecting to the (perhaps unintended) assertion that "sudo -i" means "give me an interactive shell". It does happen to give you an interactive shell (assuming you don't specify a command), but as a side effect. "-s" gives you an interactive shell too, but the semantics are different.
• theblazehen 14y ago
  What is the difference between that and sudo bash
  • alexkus 14y ago
    One side effect of "sudo bash" is that when you exit that shell your local user's .bash_history file gets overwritten by one owned by root (and un{read/write}able by the local user), and so your local user loses the bash history functionality from that point on.