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I was trying out a command yesterday that put my computer into hibernation mode. The first line in the command sequence was sudo -s which made my command line go from 

userName@computerName:~$

to 

root@computerName:~#

I looked at the manual page for sudo and it did not give any explanation as to why this happen or what mode it had entered.

What does the root and # mean in the second command line tag? what does this mode allow you to do and how do I get out of it? Thank you in advance for any help!

Florian Diesch
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NZyp
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1 Answers1

5

What does the root and # mean in the second command line tag?

It means you edit the system as "root". That is 1 more level up than from "sudo" and 1 more up from your normal users activities ...

what does this mode allow you to do

... and (almost) all permissions checks are neglected. So if want you can seriously destroy your system with a single command.

and how do I get out of it?

Type 

 exit
Rinzwind
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