I had an interesting dialog the other day with a colleague about the use, or misuse, of the term “superuser” when referring to the root user in Unix. My side of the argument is that there is no such user as superuser; it is the root user. Superuser is a misnomer that evolved from the use of the ’su’ utility. The ’su’ utility means substitute user and any user may use it. It is not limited to the root user.
Well, his side of the argument was simply “I don’t agree.” He left it at that and didn’t elaborate. Well, later I noticed that he had mistakenly used the term superuser in referring to the directory /sbin. He stated that the directory name is from superuser binaries since only the superuser can execute them. In reality, /sbin stands for system binaries because they are associated with the system itself and not “user-oriented” utilities. I didn’t bother correcting him but others did in a gentle and refined fashion. He never responded to them.
The bottom line is this: There is no superuser, super user, or super-user in Unix. There are only ordinary users and the root user. That is all there has ever been. Does it matter to me that even the wisest of IT folk refer to the root user as superuser? Not really. Well, it bothers me a little or I wouldn’t be writing about it. This isn’t even a matter of opinion or a “to each his own” kind of thing. It is simply incorrect so please don’t do it. 
Filed under: Raves, Rants, and Reviews
