spawning a root shell

When you have several commands you need to run with root privileges, it may be easier to spawn a root shell, give the commands without having to type sudo in front of each one, and exit from the shell. This technique defeats some of the safeguards built in to sudo, so use it carefully and remember to return to a nonroot shell as soon as possible. Use the sudo –i option to spawn a root shell:

$ pwd
/home/sam
$ sudo -i
# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
# pwd
/root
# exit

Tested on ubuntu 8.04