Command: sudo su -

Question

I understand what su - does

• logs you into root with the root environment
• (as opposed to su which logs you into root with your environment)

And I understand what sudo does

• you are root for one command

But I am unsure what this does: sudo su -

Anyone care to clarify

Answer 1

This question belongs on SuperUser, but:

In addition to what you said, su requires the root password and sudo requires your user password

Therefore sudo su- will put you into a root environment but it will ask you for your user password instead of the root password (once sudo has given you root privileges, su - can be executed with no password).

Answer 2

If you are allowed (configuration of sudo) to use the su command, it asks you for your password and then logs you in as root.