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<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
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type="topic" style="tip"
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id="user-admin-explain">
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<link type="guide" xref="user-accounts#privileges"/>
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<desc>You need admin privileges to change important parts of your system.</desc>
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<revision pkgversion="3.4.0" date="2012-02-19" status="review"/>
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<revision version="13.10" date="2013-10-23" status="review"/>
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<credit type="author">
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<name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
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<email>gnome-doc-list@gnome.org</email>
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<include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
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<title>How do administrative privileges work?</title>
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<p>As well as the files that <em>you</em> create, your computer has a number
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of files which are needed by the system for it to work properly. If these
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important <em>system files</em> are changed improperly they can cause various
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things to break, so they are protected from changes by default. Certain
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applications also modify important parts of the system, and so are also
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<p>The way that they are protected is by only allowing users with
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<em>administrative privileges</em> to change the files or use the applications.
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In day-to-day use, you won't need to change any system files or use these
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applications, so by default you do not have admin privileges.</p>
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<p>Sometimes you need to use these applications, so you may be able to
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temporarily get admin privileges to allow you to make the changes. If an
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application needs admin privileges, it will ask for your password. For example,
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if you want to install some new software, the software installer (package
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manager) will ask for your admin password so it can add the new application to
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the system. Once it has finished, your admin privileges will be taken away
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<p>Admin privileges are associated with your user account. Some users are
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allowed to have admin privileges and some are not. Without admin privileges you
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will not be able to install software. Some user accounts (for example, the
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"root" account) have permanent admin privileges. You shouldn't use admin
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privileges all of the time, because you might accidentally change something
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you did not intend to (like delete a needed system file, for example).</p>
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<p>In summary, admin privileges allow you to change important parts of your
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system when needed, but prevent you from doing it accidentally.</p>
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<title>What does "super user" mean?</title>
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<p>A user with admin privileges is sometimes called a <em>super user</em>.
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This is simply because that user has more privileges than normal users. You
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might see people discussing things like <cmd>su</cmd> and <cmd>sudo</cmd>;
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these are programs for temporarily giving you "super user" (admin) privileges.</p>
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<section id="advantages">
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<title>Why are admin privileges useful?</title>
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<p>Requiring users to have admin privileges before important system changes
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are made is useful because it helps to prevent your system from being broken,
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intentionally or unintentionally.</p>
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<p>If you had admin privileges all of the time, you might accidentally change
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an important file, or run an application which changes something important by
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mistake. Only getting admin privileges temporarily, when you need them, reduces
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the risk of these mistakes happening.</p>
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<p>Only certain trusted users should be allowed to have admin privileges.
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This prevents other users from messing with the computer and doing things like
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uninstalling applications that you need, installing applications that you don't
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want, or changing important files. This is useful from a security standpoint.</p>
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