[ih] Ping Eduardo A. Suárez (was Re: What is the origin of the root account?)

[Larry Sheldon]

On 4/11/2013 1:58 PM, Eduardo A. Suárez wrote:

> this is off-topic, but perhaps anyone can help. What is the origin of
>  the root account in unix?
>
> Thanks, Eduardo.-

My first reply to your question derailed the thread irreparably but I
would like for you to know that there were at least two attempts at
answering your question.

I have copied below two messages (that contain other replies) that I
think contain all the material on your question.


> At 1602 on 4.11 I said:
>
> On 4/11/2013 1:58 PM, Eduardo A. Suárez wrote:
>
>> this is off-topic, but perhaps anyone can help. What is the origin
>> of the root account in unix?
>
> It certainly is "history" although the "internet" part is a little
> weak since unix existed before the Internet did, I don't think unix
> had much to do with the development of the Internet except as the
> operating system on some hosts that were reachable in the early
> days.
>
> Be fore I continue let me confirm for you all that I have no
> credentials whatever in the area and all I say is based on an
> accretion of hearsay, the result of working one, with, and for
> computers and networks of several kinds for several years in several
> "environments".
>
> Every computer (or more precisely, every operating system instance)
> with an "account structure" has to have a place to start.
>
> On EXEC 8 systems, the first accesses via the construction of the
> boot tape, fleshed out via the (presumed) physically secure console.
> From those come the first accounts and their "permissions" and from
> there the construction of additional accounts and file structures
> expands.
>
> MS-DOS systems presumed the only accesses were via the (presumed)
> physically secure console and were presumed to be be single-user and
> there was not much in the way of control or constraint on the
> file-system structure.
>
> MS-WINDOWS (I have not forgotten the original question--I'll arrive
> back there momentarily) introduced the notions of (at first, serial)
> multi-user and installed itself with an "admin" account (with either
> a publicly known, or no password) that the authority to establish
> file-system structures and to construct "accounts" with some subset
> of its "permissions" (the most common subset was "all of them", I
> think).
>
> I think unix (and multics, from which it sprouted*) was designed to
> support multiple users from the outset, and since that first or
> starter account (also accessible initially only via the (presumed)
> physically secure console) had to have permissions on the "root"
> directory it no doubt seemed natural to the GE, MIT and Bell Labs
> people to call it the "root" account.
>
> Obviously, MS had to use another symbol for the root directory and
> another name for the starter account with access to it.
>
> I have not mentioned any of the myriad IBM "OS"s, nor any other
> because I don't know anything about them, and don't (as I did here)
> pretend to.
>
> *http://www.multicians.org/unix.html
>
> At 2256 on 4/11 I said:
>
> On 4/11/2013 10:07 PM, Bill Ricker wrote:
>> On 4/11/2013 1:58 PM, Eduardo A. Suárez wrote:
>>>
>>> this is off-topic, but perhaps anyone can help. What is the
>>> origin of
>>>> the root account in unix?
>>>>
>>>
>> Etymologically, i have always //suspected// that the userid=0
>> account is called username='root' because that's the special userid
>> that owns the root directory '/' also called 'Root', which indeed
>> is the root of the singular file-system. Unix was peculiar in
>> having *all* files in a single-rooted tree, not a forest of
>> separate directory trees named by devices.
>
> That is what I was trying to say when I derailed the train.  I think
> that this is exactly right sub environment in which it occurred.




-- 
Requiescas in pace o email           Two identifying characteristics
                                         of System Administrators:
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio      Infallibility, and the ability to
                                         learn from their mistakes.
                                           (Adapted from Stephen Pinker)