Hello, On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 06:57:11AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote: > I think what is needed is an essay comparing/contrasting the proper usage of > "sudo" versus "su" versus "su -". It should also include a discussion of the > change from "su" to "su -".
A lot has already been written about the change of "su" program in Debian and it's difficult to see how writing one more page will help anyone. The information is there for anyone to find, if they know they need to look. I think that's the problem here: those stumbling over issues with changed "su" behaviour are already used to the old behaviour of "su", so when they type something like: $ su # some-admin-command and get back a message that "some-admin-command" can't be found, they do not immediately think, "what can be wrong with my usage of su?" Instead they think, "what can be wrong with my install of some-admin-command?" hence threads like these. They feel they are comfortable with their use of "su" because it's worked for them so many times before. It's the new "some-admin-command" that must be messed up. So in fact the problem is harder than education because it is actually re-education. Over time, the "new" behaviour of "su" (which is now consistent with the behaviour of "su" on most other Linux distributions) will implant itself as the only known behaviour for "su" users, so these problems should reduce. As for "su" vs "sudo", it is a debate that has raged amongst small factions for years and I don't see it as possible to objectively make recommendations as to which is best and when, as it is all personal preference. Whatever "recommendation" one would make, there are going to be plenty of people who will pop up to say that is an anti-recommendation. You could try to just describe their functionality in contrast to each other, but it's been done so many times already. Type "difference between su and sudo" in your favourite search engine and there are pages and pages of results. It is probably some sort of failure that a GUI application needs the user to do anything at all with "su" or "sudo" or anything at a shell prompt. Although I would never want to give up use of the shell prompt, it is a steep learning curve for the new user, who just wants to install and play a game. Cheers, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
