How to switch users in Linux?

That's a great follow-up question! In Linux, the standard way to switch users is by using the su command (which stands for substitute user or switch user).

Here are the most common ways to use it:

1. Switch to a specific user

If you want to switch to a user named john, you would use:

su john

The system will then prompt you for john's password.

2. Switch to the Root user (Administrator)

To switch to the superuser (root), you can simply type:

su -

Note: The - is recommended because it starts a "login shell," meaning it loads the environment variables and settings specific to that user.

3. Run a single command as another user (sudo)

In many modern Linux distributions (including this LabEx environment), we use sudo (superuser do). This allows you to run a command as another user (usually root) without completely switching your session:

sudo command_name

In this lab, the labex user has sudo privileges, so you can perform administrative tasks by adding sudo before your commands.

Try it out:
If you want to see whoami report a different user, try running:

sudo whoami

It should return root because you ran the command with administrative privileges