*BSD News Article 4314


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!mips!decwrl!pa.dec.com!engage.pko.dec.com!irenaeus.mlo.dec.com!eje
From: eje@irenaeus.mlo.dec.com (Eric James Ewanco)
Subject: su behavior
Message-ID: <1992Aug31.155112.18068@engage.pko.dec.com>
Sender: newsdaemon@engage.pko.dec.com (USENET News Daemon)
Reply-To: ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 15:51:12 GMT
Lines: 22


I noticed something unusual, at least to me, about su behavior on 386bsd.

I've used Ultrix in the past, Suns too, and they allow you to su on any
terminal. But 386bsd insists that the only ones who can su are those who are in
the group "wheel".  This is pretty stupid, though, because when I put my user
in group wheel, I automatically had root privileges!! This totally defeats the
purpose of su!  If you are allowed to su, then you don't need to because you
already have root access!!!

Is this standard behavior for su?  What is the reasoning behind this?

Of course if I don't like it I can just hack it and recompile it ;-)

Eric
--
/=============================================================================\
| Eric Ewanco - Software Engineer     For the rash and outrageous opinions ex-|
| Digital Equipment Corp, Maynard MA  pressed herein I alone am responsible;  |
| ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com          they do not belong to DIGITAL(TM).      |
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