"root" is the name of the user with complete system wide privileges in a *nix system. The UID is usually 1 (IIRC).

Some people also use the term superuser, based on other people's usage and probably the su, sudo, and similar commands -- I prefer to use the term root which is the canonical (?) name of the user with those privileges, and consider su to mean switch user, because it can be used to switch to any user, not just root.

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Recommended

• (rhk) [[http://www.iodynamics.com/education/root101.html][Root 101:

If you don't ?get it,? you probably haven't got it]]; David Baker; ; - browsed, not read -- looks pretty good except that he does include a definition of root as the name of the user with system wide privileges -- he mentions root of the filesystem and an authorization level (rather than a user name -- maybe I'm just being picky) -- he does have a nice analogy that contrasts a home owner to an apartment dweller with analogies to a user vs. the system manager (root)

• (rhk) [[][]]; ; -

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• () RandyKramer - 18 Mar 2003
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