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Root equivalence?

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Trudi

Technical User
Feb 25, 2003
8
GB
Hi

Is there any way I can create a SCO user that has all the functionality of root but that, when processes are checked they do not report as root.
I'm trying to create a user that can do various maintenance tasks but that does not log in as root. No matter what I change the only way I've been able to give the user the ability to do everything they need to do is to change UID to 0, but then that's still reported as root...

I know there are products you can use to do this but would rather not introduce another software if that's at all possible.

I hope that makes sense?

Thanks

TRUDI
 
Have you tried making your user part of the groups that root is in?
 

Yes, I tried that. I can create new users in SCOadmin but cannot (for example) then vi their .profile or create a new file in their home directory or chmod files. (Which is basically what I need the user to be able to do - user administration)
I added other groups to the 'super' user I created but to no avail.
 
It's not usually considered good security practice to create a duplicate root user. Despite your reservations, I'd strongly recommend you consider a tool like sudo (assuming there's a SCO implementation). It's better to have a couple of hours grief setting it up than it is to explain why 'root' did something drastic to bring the system down.
 

Thanks to both of you. I agree it's not ideal but it's something that has been asked for as a result of such a problem!
I think I am going to have to suggest they use sudo or similar, I was just trying to avoid introducing more variables!
I just wondered if I was missing something - doesn't sound like it though. Thanks again.
 
Something is wrong with the create user, since you cannot edit the profile or create files in the home directory.

Try to delete the user, and use command line useradd.
 
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