Workbook 3: User and Groups: Chapter 4: Changing Identity

Question 1

You are currently logged in as user prince. Give a command line to temporarily switch your
identity to the root user.

Answer 1

su - [28]

Question 2

What is the difference between
(i) su
and
(ii) su –

Answer 2

(ii) will change current user to a new user and still will be running as it own user
(ii) will change only to a new user

Question 3

What character is used in the command line prompt to indicate that the shell is being run as

(i) the root user and
(ii) an ordinary user?

Answer 3

(i) [root@localhost ~]#

(ii) [user@localhost~]$

Question 4

Why would an ordinary user use the newgrp command?

Answer 4

users might want to make one of their secondary groups the primary group [28/29]