what kind of information can only be obtained as root?

julietbjer · 07-11-2008, 01:47 PM

I am totally new with linux, and I wonder besides sercurity reasons, what's the privilege root has? for instance, do we have a list of stuff only root is able to do and the other lesser privileged user can't?

say, is other use get cupinfo? kernel stats?

thanks

digerati1338 · 07-11-2008, 01:53 PM

Depends completely on what the system admin has set. Generally root is the only one allowed to use sbin. Root is also generally the only user with write access outside of his home folder, but this varies as well depending on directory access permissions.

trickykid · 07-11-2008, 03:41 PM

root is god on the machine. Technically speaking, root can do everything and see everything.

jamesapnic · 07-11-2008, 09:14 PM

Quote:

do we have a list of stuff only root is able to do and the other lesser privileged user can't?

By default some example activities:

kill any process
edit files in /etc/ specifically such as passwd/shadow to add users via "adduser" type commands
install programs/packages, i.e. place files in /usr
read log files such as those in /var/log (usually not readable by average users)
delete any users files
mount file systems

To name just a few things