Making a user ROOT

[spamcan2001]

What is the best way to give root permissions for a user without giving them the root username and root password? What permissions should I change? I've already placed them in the root group.

[trekker]

Sorry... but i couldn't help wondering why would you need to do that?

I have always read about "Don't root around". And one can always "su" when root privileges are needed.

Maybe you have a special situation?

[Craig McPherson]

Disclaimer #1: You should not do this unless you know what you're doing.

Disclaimer #22: If you DO do this, you demonstrate that you don't know what you're doing. (If anybody doesn't catch the reference ... don't worry about it, it's not important.)

Anyway, there's a way to do it.

All you have to do is edit the /etc/passwd file, and change the user's UID to 0.

That's it: any user who has UID 0 is a superuser, and has full access to the system. There's nothing special about the "root" name, it's UID 0 that gives a username full access to the system, and any number of usernames can have UID 0.

[DMR]

Craig is right, but why go through the trouble? :confused:
By giving users root permissions, they can hose your system without knowing the password, so your concern about keeping the password secret becomes moot.