hello....
my problem is when I log as 'user', I cannot execute the 'shutdown' command, neither the 'telinit' ... If I log as root, that commands work just fine.
Something similar happens with the aliases... first of all, there is not a '.bashrc'
file in my distro ...guess it's normal, so I discover I can make my aliases in the 'profile' file.... and it works ok...only if I'm root.. if I'm not, there is at least one alias that doesn't work, and it is the one who call the 'clear' command: when I log as user, when I execute 'myClearAlias', it returns me something like: 'can't find command' ..but if I execute the 'clear' command, it works ok... (in all of the unsuccessful cases, the error message is the same: 'can't find command', or something like that -- and ,of course, in the cases that the commad doesn't work, aliases pointing to that command neither works)
does anybody know what's wrong?
thanks in advance.

Hi,

Commands such as halt,telinit,shutdown and etc are not supposed to be run from other user than root. And that is for all of the distro's. For the .bashrc created yourself. And put what you like in it. And it's normal when you make an alias to none exsting command to give you can't find command . An alternative of .bashrc is .bash_profile. .bash_profile executes on login and .bashrc on interactive shell startup.

thanks for answer, Philip...
I have heard that's not good idea to log always as root , so -according with your explication, how should a plain user turn off the computer?
greetz

You've heared well, if you gone shutdown just su and shutdown. Normal practice is when you need root priviliges su and do what you(system administration things) and then back to the normal user.

If you are not concerned about other people being able to shutdow, you can also change the permissions for it. man chmod

thanks, pals!
gonna stay in touch