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syntaxpackageinstallationpear

Given "$ sudo pear install...." - what does the $ sudo mean?

I'm new to PEAR and trying out some packages. I've installed a couple but I ran into some documentation I don't understand.

I see instructions for installing packages such as:

pear install packagename

I also see

$ pear install packagename

and

$ sudo install packagename

I understand the first one but the other two ???

I read one place that they were putting the $ in front to clearly indicate the input from the output on their examples. That is, lines with $ were what you entered at CLI and ones without were output from the entry.

Okay, fine, but what is sudo?

As I expect, entering $ or sudo or $ sudo gives the classic DOS error message which drove so many people crazy - xxx is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Solution

  • The dollar sign $ is to indicate that your user on a UNIX system is a non privileged user. Usually # indicates a privileged user, most typically root.

    sudo is a tool that temporarily elevates authorized users to execute commands as root.