Re: [linuxiran] Normal user called root [was:Download a File Via wget]

[Aryan Ameri]

On Tuesday 19 August 2003 20:33, Hossein S. Zadeh wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Aryan Ameri wrote:
> > root can't be a user name. normal users on Unix systems do not have
> > the ability to use 'root' as their username.
>
> Of course you can! Just edit /etc/passwd file.
>

No you can't. The reason is simple.

On any Unix system, the first username that is assigned to the system is 
'root'. On any Unix installation, you first setup root, and then add 
other users to the system.

Now the problem is that after there is a user called root, you can not 
add another user called 'root' to the system. there can't be two users 
with the same user name on the system.

So, in order to have a normal user called root, you have to remove 
'root'. And you simply can't do that, because in order to add/remove 
users to the system, you have to be root, and a user can not delete 
himself (root can not delete root).

In a nuttshell, no, in no Unix system, can you have a normal user called 
root. It's one of the principles of Unix. 

The issue was solved, way back, in 1970. When Thompson and Ritchie were 
designing Unix, one of the foundaions of their OS, was that there 
should be a user, which can not be removed, and should have a unique 
username. That user was called 'root'.

Refer to 'The Unix Philosophy' 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1555581234/104-0954486-7271150?v=glance

Cheers

-- 
/*  "Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a
theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those
 who are cold and are not clothed."*/
                --President Eisenhower

Aryan Ameri