I need to do FTP uploads and change user accts on the fly and dont want to be in there as root. I have an acct that I created the first time I ran my RH9 install. I just cannot do anything with it.

I can put
export PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH
to get my useradd stuff but, who wants to do that all the time. isnt there a way to be nearly as gawdly as the almighty root?

Check out sudo.

I do that but, it tells me that every command that i type is invalid.

HAve you setup the /etc./sudoers file?

To add yourself to the wheel group you should be able to, as root, type in

gpasswd -a <user-name> wheel

That will add the group wheel to your user. You can also add yourself to the root group the same way.

If you wish to use sudo, you must first make sure that sudo is installed. Check documentation for your distribution on how to do that. Then add this line to the /etc/sudoers file

<user-name> ALL = (ALL) ALL

It's been a long time since I've used sudo so that might be incorrect.

Also, depnding on your distribution, you may be able to use this command.

su -c <command you want to type>

Either one of those last two solutions will require a password. Sudo usually requires you to type in the uers password that you're signed in as, whereas the su command will require the root password.

Keep in mind that sudo is not recommended because it can be considered a security risk.