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Belmin Fernandez
Asked: 2010-12-02 12:15:53 +0800 CST

Why is the root user named root by default?

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This might seem like a silly question but I could see this as being confusing. For example:

"Go to root directory"

Could be interpreted as:

  1. Go to /

  2. Go to ~root (usually /root/)

I would think something like super would of made for a better default administrator username. This would avoid the ambiguity with directory structure.

Again: Silly question but I'm genuinely curious.

linux root user-management

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Have a look here for some information on root.

    The use of the term root for the all-powerful administrative user may have arisen from the fact that root is the only account having write permissions (i.e., permission to modify files) in the root directory. The root directory, in turn, takes its name from the fact that the filesystems (i.e., the entire hierarchy of directories that is used to organize files) in Unix-like operating systems have been designed with a tree-like (although inverted) structure in which all directories branch off from a single directory that is analogous to the root of a tree.

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