- Times we need to switch temporarily, to access
root or another resource.
whoami
- Prints out the user you are logged in as.
logname
- Does a similar thing to
whoami
- The differences between the two are:
su root
- Then if type in
whoami
- If type in
logname
- Shows the user you originally logged in as.
- The environment (system configuration etc) is what occurs when you log in.
- Can check with
echo $PATH
- Shows a list of directories that Linux will look through to find commands.
- The directories also show your username in them.
- When switching to
root, you still keep the original user’s environment.
- For
su - root, emphasis on the -
- Do the same Path Variable command as above.
- In this case, we also inherit the
root user’s environment.
- Can also switch users by using the
sudo command.