“The power of sudo is strong with this one!”
Sudo is a command-line utility for Unix and Unix-based operating systems such as Linux and macOS. The utility provides an efficient way to temporarily grant users or user groups privileged access to system resources to run commands they cannot run under their regular accounts. Users can even be granted permission to run commands under the root account — the most powerful account on Unix-like systems. Sudo also logs all commands and arguments so that administrators can track the behavior of sudo users.
Many sources state that sudo stands for superuser do, which was true in the past. However, the group that developed sudo stopped using that description more than 10 years ago. According to the group’s website, sudo now means su “do,” which suggests a tool that delivers su-like capabilities.
Su is a command-line utility and stands for switch user or substitute user. Like sudo, the utility enables users to run commands under a different account. However, sudo has some crucial advantages over su.
For more on sudo, click here.
