149: Sandwich

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Sandwich

Title text: Proper User Policy apparently means Simon Says.

Explanation

On a UNIX-type system, users can be assigned all kinds of rights, for example access to certain directories or files, executing certain commands etcetera. The “sudo” command overrides these policies by executing the command typed behind it as if the user were an administrator (the Super User) of the system. To prohibit abuse of the command, the user first must type (one of the) administrator password(s) before the command will be executed.

In the comic, Cueball is demanding a sandwich from a friend. Not being properly asked, the friend denies the request. Cueball then (ab)uses the sudo command on the friend, which then has no choice but to go and make the sandwich, because Cueball has all rights. The image text references this abuse, noting that an administrator should set a proper use of the command in order to control his system.

Transcript

[Cueball is sitting on a couch, talking to a friend.]

Cueball: Make me a sandwich.

Friend: What? Make it yourself.

Cueball: Sudo make me a sandwich.

Friend: Okay.

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Discussion

Note that it is more effective to write "sudo !!" to redo the last command but with sudo added to it. Agge.se (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Using sudo !! outputs the previous command with sudo into your bash (other shells as well) history, so to bash what you said was "sudo make me a sandwich" not "sudo !!". lcarsos (talk) 16:46, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

sudo requires user password, not admin password, but you need to be in sudoers file. --JakubNarebski (talk) 12:14, 15 December 2012 (UTC)