"Taong Bahay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I plan to install Ubuntu on a computer to be shared by two users. I > have not actually installed Ubuntu and used it only as rescue CD so I > don't know how the Ubuntu rootless system works in practice.
Ubuntu isn't rootless, just that it doesn't have a login for root, which also means doing stuff like `su -` is moot. > Since there is no root how do I copy files between two normal users? I > don't think sudo cp /home/apple/orig.txt /home/boy/copy.txt will work? I would prefer having the two users look into a shared directory (e.g. /home/shared,) thus avoiding the need for a copy. Setting this up is easy: 1. `sudo adduser shared --system` to make a new system user account named `shared'. This account will have a /home/shared directory, (which will have similar permissions as ordinary user directories) but just like root you won't be able to log into the system with it. 2. For each user you want to share stuff with, just add her to the `shared' group, e.g. `adduser apple shared`. 3. Optionally, for each users in the `shared' user group who wants easy access to /home/shared, just make a symlink to it from their $HOME, e.g. `sudo ln -sf /home/shared ~/shared`. With that setup, all those users would just dump the files they want to share inside /home/share, and even tidy it up without your help. > Another question: isn't sudo a security risk in a computer with many > users if user Apple can remove or reconfigure a program that user Boy > installed? This maybe deliberate or by accident when one user is > experimenting with all the programs available in the menus or when > clicking icon for autoupdate. Well, if everybody knew the password for the first Ubuntu account (the user account with UID 1000,) then sudo is moot. If not, then its fair game. You would probably want to read more about sudo(8), especially on writing a proper sudoers(8) file so you can assign responsibilities (or blames) to your users. Cheers, Zakame -- Zak B. Elep [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
