The sudo Command

You will find as you work through this book that Ubuntu relies on the sudo command while you work at the command line. This command is used in front of other commands to tell Ubuntu that you want to run the specified command with super user powers. This sounds really special, and it actually is. When you work using the sudo command, you can make wide-ranging changes to your system that affect the way it runs. Be extra careful when running any command prefixed with sudo, however; a wrong option or incorrect command can have devastating consequences.

The use of sudo is straightforward. All you have to do is enter it like this:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo command commandoptions

Just replace the word

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