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This answer exists to list suggested improvements to the canonical answer to “How do I run a command as root”. Please add todo items here and remove them when done. Discuss the current contents and planned changes in the comments here or on the unix.se chat.

• sudo

  • Older versions of sudo didn't have -e or -i.

• su

  • Are there OS-dependent su options worth mentioning?
  • What variants use the wheel group?

• other programs

  • calife: give a usage example; website link; where is it found?
  • op: give a usage example; website link; where is it found?
  • super: give a usage example; website link; where is it found?
  • kstuss: give a usage example; is it in fact a wrapper around su?
  • beesu: give a usage example; website link

• Running X programs

  • There are frontends like gksu and gksudo that do everything automatically, but they're not available everywhere. Discuss the general case (there might already be something on unix.se or superuser).

• Editing files

  • briefly discuss vipw and friends on various OSes (e.g. mention OSes where the password database is generated by vipw and won't be updated if you just edit /etc/passwd)

• single user mode

  • Should we include a section on single user mode? How detailed should it be with regards to how to edit your kernel parameters via grub?