Summary

In this lesson, you were introduced to root level commands that if not used properly could cause serious problems. However, if these commands are mastered and practiced, they can help you in a great many ways that this 10-minute lesson could never cover in this page count. Make sure that if any of these commands interest you, and you want to progress on further past this book, set up a Unix or Linux system at home or in a lab somewhere and practice! It is truly the only way to really get good at this, especially something as cryptic as Unix. You need to practice and read more.

To tie up the book, I would personally like to wish you the best in your Unix studies beyond this point. I hope you enjoyed this book and that you learned enough to get to the next level. Let me know at [e-mail] or visit me on the web at http://www.rsnetworks.net. It truly has been a pleasure to teach you the fundamentals of Unix. The following is a review of some of the other points from this lesson:

• Never touch a machine if it looks like it's running a root shell. Root is powerful and should only be used by experienced users and system administrators.

• Never ever turn the power to your machine off without permission from your administrator. If you've got a shutdown button on your machine, pretend it doesn't even exist.

• Root (administrative users) can change ownership of files for you, but consider whether it's really necessary or whether a copy will do.