xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"

      type="topic" style="tip"

      id="user-admin-explain">

  <info>

    <link type="guide" xref="user-accounts#privileges"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.8.0" date="2013-03-09" status="candidate"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.10" date="2013-11-03" status="review"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.13.92" date="2014-09-22" status="review"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.18" date="2015-09-28" status="final"/>

    <credit type="author">

      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>

      <email>gnome-doc-list@gnome.org</email>

    </credit>

    <credit type="editor">

      <name>Ekaterina Gerasimova</name>

      <email>kittykat3756@gmail.com</email>

    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>You need administrative privileges to change important parts of your

    system.</desc>

  </info>

  <title>How do administrative privileges work?</title>

  
As well as the files that you create, your computer has a number

  of files which are needed by the system for it to work properly. If these

  important system files are changed incorrectly they can cause

  various things to break, so they are protected from changes by default.

  Certain applications also modify important parts of the system, and so are

  also protected.

  
The way that they are protected is by only allowing users with

  administrative privileges to change the files or use the

  applications. In day-to-day use, you will not need to change any system files

  or use these applications, so by default you do not have administrative

  privileges.

  
Sometimes you need to use these applications, so you may be able to

  temporarily get administrative privileges to allow you to make the changes.

  If an application needs administrative privileges, it will ask for your

  password. For example, if you want to install some new software, the software

  installer (package manager) will ask for your administrator password so it

  can add the new application to the system. Once it has finished, your

  administrative privileges will be taken away again.

  
Administrative privileges are associated with your user account.

  <gui>Administrator</gui> users are allowed to have these privileges while

  <gui>Standard</gui> users are not. Without administrative privileges you will

  not be able to install software. Some user accounts (for example, the “root”

  account) have permanent administrative privileges. You should not use

  administrative privileges all of the time, because you might accidentally

  change something you did not intend to (like delete a needed system file, for

  example).

  
In summary, administrative privileges allow you to change important parts

  of your system when needed, but prevent you from doing it accidentally.

  <note>

    <title>What does “super user” mean?</title>

    
A user with administrative privileges is sometimes called a super

    user. This is simply because that user has more privileges than normal

    users. You might see people discussing things like <cmd>su</cmd> and

    <cmd>sudo</cmd>; these are programs for temporarily giving you “super user”

    (administrative) privileges.

  </note>

<section id="advantages">

  <title>Why are administrative privileges useful?</title>

  
Requiring users to have administrative privileges before important system

  changes are made is useful because it helps to prevent your system from being

  broken, intentionally or unintentionally.

  
If you had administrative privileges all of the time, you might

  accidentally change an important file, or run an application which changes

  something important by mistake. Only getting administrative privileges

  temporarily, when you need them, reduces the risk of these mistakes

  happening.

  
Only certain trusted users should be allowed to have administrative

  privileges. This prevents other users from messing with the computer and

  doing things like uninstalling applications that you need, installing

  applications that you don’t want, or changing important files. This is useful

  from a security standpoint.

</section>

</page>