“sudo -s” becomes root when executed, reads the password, then starts a shell.

“sudo su” becomes root when executed, reads the password, then starts su, which looks whether it needs to read the password, discovers that it is already root, says “huh?” to itself, and starts a shell.
-Kai on May 9th, 2008 3:28 pm

I myself am by no stretch of the imagination proficient in Linux. But it seems that the major difference between the two is how they handle the shell. “Sudo -s” seems to create a new shell and “sudo su” seems to give the terminal super user rights.
Though, I’m not particulary sure on why one is better than the other.

One thing to clarify though sudo -s is the equivalent of sudo su using either command will provide root permissions. So… I’m not really sure what the difference would be? – Because this still gives me root’s environment.

However, if I sudo -i then I’ll again get root permissions AND change the (now rooted access) to the user’s (my root) environment (home directory, etc.) I think sudo -i is best used when security is an issue? Is that right?

Please could you clarify? :) I’m not by any stretch of the imagination a Linux expert, but I’d really like to know what the difference is?
It just seems to me that with sudo su (sudo -s) and sudo -i, I still get root’s environment.
Am I missing something here? :)

Thanks!

The link above states that you should not use “sudo su” to create a root shell, but instead use “sudo -i” or “sudo -s”