What is the each command's different merit between su and sudo?

[kevdog]

There are many ways to skin the cat. I just don't like the --forced option due to the lack of the root user. How backups are performed is kind of redirecting the argument here.

[TheFu]

There are many ways to skin the cat. I just don't like the --forced option due to the lack of the root user. How backups are performed is kind of redirecting the argument here.

There's no difference in the result from acme.sh with sudo vs root provide we are consistent about using

$ sudo acme.sh

or

$ sudo -H acme.sh

Consistency is the key.

We've probably highjacked this thread too much already.

[kevdog]

@TheFu

Agreed. No more hijacking.

[Doug S]

I will use "su" mode instead of the "sudo" command prefix when attempting to delete many many root owned files in one command.
Why, because "sudo" has an arbitrary, and rather low, limit on the argument list.

Example: 10,000 root owned files:

doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ ls -l | head
total 40000
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 22 09:07 ab00000000.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 22 09:07 ab00000001.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 22 09:07 ab00000002.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Mar 22 09:07 ab00000003.txt
...

Try to delete using "sudo":

doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ sudo rm *
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long

Now, delete using "su" to become root:

doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ sudo su
root@s15:/home/doug/sudo/test# rm *
root@s15:/home/doug/sudo/test# exit
exit
doug@s15:~/sudo/test$

note that even root (and normal users, for their owned files) has an argument list limit, it's just way bigger.
Example (100,000 files):

root@s15:/home/doug/sudo/test# rm *
bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long
root@s15:/home/doug/sudo/test#

While not really relevant, my real life example is my tcpdump capture logs, at 10 minutes per file internal and external interfaces, which I tend to only post process every couple of months, thus I end up with thousands of files:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  65534352 Mar 22 08:47 ext-2020-03-22-08-37-59.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 516828264 Mar 22 08:57 ext-2020-03-22-08-47-59.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 515930193 Mar 22 09:07 ext-2020-03-22-08-57-59.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 536203868 Mar 22 09:17 ext-2020-03-22-09-07-59.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 323516146 Mar 22 09:28 ext-2020-03-22-09-17-59.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     81920 Mar 22 09:29 ext-2020-03-22-09-28-01.bin

[TheFu]

xargs --max-lines=128000
or
xargs --max-chars=4096
will send chunks of arguments to the command.

https://www.gnu.org/software/finduti...mand-Size.html

[Captain Cookie]

Hello!

Thank you for reply may times!

I've read them.

Finishing checking, I will post about what I learn with a lot comments!

[Captain Cookie]

Hello malspa!
Do you use both of command?

I want to know subjective and objective,
both opinions.

Thank you for first comment!

[Captain Cookie]

I appreciate showing the most reliable page, yancek!

The part "Advantages and Disadvantages" seems suit
my question perfectly.

Thank you!

[Captain Cookie]

sudoedit is the best, safest, way I know to edit system files. Every time I see some article somewhere with sudo gedit I cringe a little. Doing that can break a system, if the userid running it hadn't already used gedit before WITHOUT sudo. Actually, this applies to almost any GUI program and sudo or su. In general, don't use either with GUI programs is the best advice. Sure, there are exceptions and techniques to get around the issues caused, but noob-users need to learn much more BEFORE those exceptions can make sense.

I understand that
Basically, it is better not to use su and sudo command with GUI programms.
And sudoedit is the best way to edit system files.

In other topic, how to allow users run su command in BSD,
some comment shows certain better way to changing
cunfiguration as well as you showed me.

I will break my system without such advice.

Thank you, TheFu!

[Doug S]

xargs --max-lines=128000
or
xargs --max-chars=4096
will send chunks of arguments to the command.

https://www.gnu.org/software/finduti...mand-Size.html

I was just trying to reply to the question, but thanks. However, I am always wanting to learn more, but so far haven't been able to use xargs to overcome the issue. Note sure what I'm doing wrong.

EDIT: (I stopped being so lazy) This seems to work for 200,000 root owned files:

ls | xargs rm

However, it can have issues also:

doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ ls *.txt | xargs rm
-bash: /bin/ls: Argument list too long
rm: missing operand
Try 'rm --help' for more information.
doug@s15:~/sudo/test$

which can be solved by, for example:

printf '%s ' *.txt | xargs rm

however, if I try:

doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ printf '%s ' *.txt | xargs sudo rm
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
sudo: unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long

it doesn't work because the default list limit is too long, as per my original issue with sudo.But, and as the fu suggested, this works:

doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ printf '%s ' *.txt | xargs --max-procs=6 --max-args=1000 sudo rm
doug@s15:~/sudo/test$ ls -l
total 0