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Chirag
Asked: 2012-08-14 09:54:12 +0800 CST

Why few commands (eg: fdisk -l) do not inform user "you do not have privilege"?

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Few commands that need to do sudo remind you that "You do not have the privilege" or "Are you root?" etc.

while a few commands do not give such message. For example, if you do fdisk -l instead of sudo fdisk -l ubuntu does not give any message. This is particularly confusing for people who come from different linux distro (eg: CentOS, RHEL etc.).

Wouldn't it be a good idea to notify user each time he commits such mistake, that he/she must be a sudoer to execute that particular command.

root

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Many of these commands are old, and for historical reasons, have been available to only systems administrators. While it is a good idea to use sudo over logging as root, many old applications that are not specifically made for just Ubuntu/Debian are not made aware of there being a sudo functionality. While it would be trivial to make such a change, it would require quite a bit of work for many programs, some very obscure or forgotten. It is best to use gpart or a GUI in lieu of fdisk now.

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