[vox-tech] User with root privileges

[Rob Rogers]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:13:49 -0800, Rod Roark <rod@sunsetsystems.com> 
wrote:

> Having root privileges means your UID is 0 - i.e. you are
> logged in as root.
>
> I have never tried this, but I suppose you could go into
> /etc/passwd, etc/shadow and /etc/group and rename root to
> some other name.
>
> But there is surely a better way to do whatever it is that
> your friend wants to do.

I'd suggest going with Tim's method. You can have multiple usernames with 
the same UID. The only confusion will be when programs will grab a name to 
match a UID, it will grab the first one, assuming there is no others. i.e. 
ls will show your files as belonging to root if your UID is 0 you're 
logged in under another name.

I've seen the problem with renaming root... I had a friend who decided "I 
wonder what would happen if I renamed root to God" and all sorts of 
programs started getting confused. of course he may have just missed 
making the change in /etc/shadow or /etc/group, but I'm not sure I'd want 
to take the chance.