urgent:how to assign root privilege to any user 2

[sourabhjha]

is it possible to assign root privileges to any user.How do we do this.I have case where i have install a software whose installation guide says it has to be installed with root user.But i want to install it with some other user.So i need to give root privileges to that user.How can i acheive this
Thanks in advance
-Sourabh

 

[dickiebird]

You allow the user to su as root - how you do that
(Smit,Sysadm etc) will depend which flavour of Unix you have.
HTH
;-) Dickie Bird
db@dickiebird.freeserve.co.uk

 

[KenCunningham]

Alternatively (and dangerously) create the user with a uid of 0, ie root equivalent. Not to be recommended, however, for obvious security reasons. Why can't you use the legit. root user?

 

[mrjazz]

A safe solution to your question is the installation of the "sudo" package (I think it is available for every UNIX flavor).

The sudo main page is

http://www.courtesan.com/sudo

where everything is explained in detail.

sudo is extremely well configurable, so you can specify "who is allowed to do what".
Another advantage is that you don't have to give the users system user's passwords because every user works under his own account and can only execute root or other system user commands that you have specified (for example, if you have a couple of Sybase database admins they don't have to know the sybase password but can execute sybase commands under their own user accounts if you give them the rights).

mrjazz

 

[klasan]

Try also to add the users to the system group!

 

[afgs]

Here is the first three lines of my passwd file, the third user (backdoor) has root priviledges by the numbers after the login name.

root:x:0:3:Superuser:/:
daemon:x:1:1:System daemons:/etc:
backdoor:x:0:0::/:

as long as the second number is unique, you can assign it any number

 

[MikeLacey]

Assigning root privileges in this way is more than slightly risky. It's well worth the effort to install the sudo package, you won't regret it. Mike
________________________________________________________________

"Experience is the comb that Nature gives us, after we are bald."

Is that a haiku?
I never could get the hang
of writing those things.

 

[aixmurderer]

I have to agree with Mike, the sudo package is the way to go. It gives you absolute flexability and control over what the users are doing on the system.
It became a very valuable tool for us, and it stops many of the interruptions from the help desk over little things like browsing a log file etc. IBM Certified Confused - MQSeries
IBM Certified Flabbergasted - AIX 5 pSeries System Administration