User Account Management

What account has full administrative privileges in Linux?

root account

When should the root account be used?

only when absolutely necessary

What type of account do most Linux distributions prompt you to create for daily tasks during setup?

a regular user account

How can you temporarily elevate privileges instead of staying logged in as root?

use special commands

What does the su command do?

switches to the specified user's account

How do you use su to switch to a specific user?

su username

How do you use su to switch to the root account?

omit the username

What password does su prompt for before switching?

the target account's password

What happens when su is used without options?

the original user's profile and home directory are retained

Why is su - a better practice than su without options?

it switches to the root account and starts a new shell with root's environment

What does the sudo command allow?

users listed in /etc/sudoers to run specified commands with superuser privileges

How is sudo typically used?

sudo followed by the desired command

When might sudo ask for a password?

if it hasn't been cached recently

What is the main advantage of sudo over su?

the root password does not need to be shared among multiple administrators

Which file stores user settings?

/etc/passwd

Which file stores group settings?

/etc/group

Which file typically stores encrypted password hashes and password settings like age and expiration date?

/etc/shadow

Which commands add, modify, and delete user information?

useradd, usermod, and userdel

Which command changes passwords?

passwd

Why are user accounts assigned to groups?

to manage file permissions

Which commands manage group memberships?

groupadd, groupmod, and groupdel

How many groups can a user belong to, and how many effective group IDs can they have at a time?

multiple groups, but only one effective group ID at a time

Where is the effective group ID listed?

/etc/passwd

Which command changes the effective group ID?

newgrp