sudo and cd

[champ_weller]

ok well i am just trying to learn the linux filesystem in the shell so i have been pretty much just been running

cd /randomdirectory

then running

ls -l

to see whats in the directory well i tried looking in the /proc and /root directory and i get permission denied.
so i try

sudo cd /root

and i get command not found how can i swith to the directory?

oh btw i am running ubuntu 11.04 and i only have one user installed on the maching so su doesnt switch me to root.

[elija]

First you switch to a root level of privileges

sudo -i

(that's a small eye) and then you do your cd.

Also Take the Linux Filesystem Tour | TuxRadar Linux

[Cabhan]

"cd" is not really a program: instead, it is an action taken by a shell. The reason that sudo complains is that sudo only understands programs:

[alex@niamh ~]$ which cd
which: no cd in (/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin/core_perl)

elija's suggestion works because "sudo -i" launches a new shell as the user: it's essentially the same as running "sudo bash". This creates a shell that runs as that user, so you can cd as that user:

[alex@niamh ~]$ whoami
alex
[alex@niamh ~]$ sudo -i
[root@niamh ~]# whoami
root

I personally prefer to avoid this (it falls into the same pitfalls that the su command does) because it can be a security risk.

Instead, you can try something like "sudo ls /root", and therefore use sudo in its generally intended way.

[jayd512]

There's another option for you, as well.
You can use su -c to perform root functions one at a time.

su -c 'ls -l /root

Enter your admin password, good to go. And, it avoids the security risk that Cabhan mentioned, as it doesn't save the password for any amount off time.