Wheel (Unix term)

In computing, the term wheel refers to a user account with a wheel bit, a system setting that provides additional special system privileges that empower a user to execute restricted commands that ordinary user accounts cannot access.^[1][2] The term is derived from the slang phrase big wheel, referring to a person with great power or influence.^[1] It was first used in this context with regard to the TENEX operating system, later distributed under the name TOPS-20 in the 1960s and early 1970s.^[2][3]

The term was adopted by Unix users in the 1980s, due to the movement of operating system developers and users from TENEX/TOPS-20 to Unix.^[2] Modern Unix implementations generally include a security protocol that requires a user to be a member of the wheel user privileges group in order to gain superuser access to a machine by using the sudo command.^[1][2][4]

Wheel group

Modern Unix systems use user groups to control access privileges. The wheel group is a special user group used on some Unix systems to control access to the sudo command, which allows a user to masquerade as another user (usually the super user).

Wheel war

The phrase wheel war, which originated at Stanford University,^[5] was first documented in the 1983 version of The Jargon File. A 'wheel war' was characterized as a part of an immature 'larval phase' wherein students with administrative privileges would attempt to lock each other out of a university's multi-user (see also:multiseat) computer system, sometimes causing unintentional harm to other users.^[6] By 2008, it had come into colloquial use amongst Wikipedia administrators in reference to the misuse of administrative tools during disputes.^[7]

References