Root:-THE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS LOGIN UNIX system provides a special login name for the exclusive use of the

e administrator; its root. Roots password is generally set at the time of installation of the system & has to be used on logging in. Login: root Password: ******** [enter] #_ Prompt of root is #. Once you login as root, you are placed in roots home directory and it can be / or /root. Most of the administrator commands reside in /sbin or /usr/sbin. Roots path is different from other users: / sbin: / bin: / usr / sbin: / usr / bin: / usr / dt / bin It doesnt have current directory.

Su: Acquiring Superuser Status $ su password: ******** [roots password] # pwd / home / sudhan Prompt changes but directory doesnt Current directory doesnt change, the # prompt indicates that sudhan has powers of the super user. Creating a user environment:- su when used with a (hyphen), recreates the users environment without taking login-password route by administrator. su Henry No password required This sequence executes Henrys profile (startup script) and temporarily creates Henrys environment. su runs a separate sub-shell, so this mode can be terminated by hitting [ctrl-d] or using exit.

Any user can acquire superuser status with the su command with the roots password.

Administrator Privileges:-

Administrator (superuser) privileges are: Change the contents or attributes of any file, like its permissions and ownership. He can delete any file with rm even if it is write-protected!

 Initiate or kill any process. The administrator can directly kill all processes except the ones essential for running the system.

Change any users password without knowing the existing one. Change the system clock with date. Address all users concurrently with wall. Limit the maximum size of files that users are permitted to create with ulimit. Control users access to the scheduling services like at and cron. Control users access to many networking services like Telnet, Ftp, etc.

Date: Setting the System date Date is a passive command for a non-privilege user i.e. to display system date. Same command with a numeric argument MMDDhhmm (s-character string) optionally followed by a two or four digit year string is used to set the system date. # date 12092124 Thu Dec 5 21:24:00 IST 2006 Wall: Communicating with Users Most UNIX systems dont permit users to use this command, and reserve it for administrator. # wall The machine will be shut down today at 14:30 hrs. [ctrl-d] All users currently logged in will receive this message on their terminal. Ulimit: Setting limits on file size Limit the maximum size of files that user are permitted to create with ulimit. The ulimit command imposes a restriction on the maximum size of a file that a user is permitted to create. Ordinary user can only reduce the default value. Superuser can also increase the default value. Unlimit with no arguments displays the current settings. / etc / profile: - Unlimit is places in / etc / profile so that every user has to work within these restrictions.

Controlling use of at and cron Control user access to the scheduling services like at & cron The access to the use of at & batch is restricted & controlled by the files at.allow & at.deny in / etc / cron.d If at.allow is present, only the users listed in the file are permitted to use at & batch. If it is not present, the system checks at.deny for users who are barred from using these commands. If neither file is present only the system administrator is permitted to invoke at & batch. The access to the use of cron scheduler is controlled in identical manner by two files, cron.allow & cron.deny in / etc / cron.d