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

[Eduardo A. Suárez]

Multics has an admin mode for the operator and has a root directory
and a root card, but not a root account.

Quoting John Day <jeanjour at comcast.net>:

> I am surprised someone hasn't chimed in.  Isn't the origin of root
> account Multics?
>
> I always defined Unix as how much of Multics you could get on a PDP-11/45.
>
> It has been a long time since I looked at my MPM but there had to be a
> root account in Multics
>
> At 4:24 PM -0500 4/12/13, Larry Sheldon 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?
>>>
>>> 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)



-- 
Eduardo A. Suarez
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas - UNLP
FCAG: (0221)-4236593 int. 172/Cel: (0221)-15-4557542/Casa: (0221)-4526589


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