Wheel (computing)
{{Short description|Type of user account in Unix systems}}
In Unix operating systems, 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.{{cite web|title=Wheel |url=http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/W/wheel.html |access-date=2017-04-22 |work= Jargon File 4.4.7 |publisher=Eric S. Raymond }}
Origins
The term wheel was first applied to computer user privilege levels after the introduction of the TENEX operating system, later distributed under the name TOPS-20 in the 1960s and early 1970s.{{cite web|title=Wheel bit |url=http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/W/wheel-bit.html |access-date=2017-04-22 |work= Jargon File 4.4.7 |publisher=Eric S. Raymond }}{{cite web |title= TWENEX|url= http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/TWENEX.html |access-date=2008-09-12 |work=Jargon File 4.4.7 |publisher=Eric S. Raymond }} The term was derived from the slang phrase big wheel, referring to a person with great power or influence.
In the 1980s, the term was imported into Unix culture due to the migration of operating system developers and users from TENEX/TOPS-20 to Unix.
Wheel group
Modern Unix systems generally use user groups as a security protocol to control access privileges. The wheel group is a special user group used on some Unix systems, mostly BSD systems,{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} to control access to the su{{Cite web|url=https://man.openbsd.org/su|title=su(1) - OpenBSD manual pages|website=man.openbsd.org|access-date=2018-05-05}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=su&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+11.1-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html|title=su|website=www.freebsd.org|access-date=2018-05-05}} or sudo command, which allows a user to masquerade as another user (usually the super user).{{cite book|title=UNIX Administration: A Comprehensive Sourcebook for Effective Systems and Network Management |first=Bozidar |last=Levi |publisher=CRC Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-8493-1351-1 |page=207}} Debian and its derivatives create a group called sudo with purpose similar to that of a wheel group.{{Cite web |title=Why is Debian not creating the 'wheel' group by default? |url=https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4460/why-is-debian-not-creating-the-wheel-group-by-default |access-date=2024-04-08 |website=Unix & Linux Stack Exchange |language=en}}
Wheel war
The phrase wheel war, which originated at Stanford University,{{cite web |title= Jargon File |author= Raymond|display-authors=etal |url= http://jargon-file.org/archive/jargon-2.1.1.dos.txt |work=Jargon File 2.1.1 |access-date=2016-08-15 |publisher=Eric S. Raymond}} is a term used in computer culture, first documented in the 1983 version of The Jargon File. A 'wheel war' was a user conflict in a multi-user (see also: multiseat) computer system, in which students with administrative privileges would attempt to lock each other out of a university's computer system, sometimes causing unintentional harm to other users.{{cite web |title= Jargon File |author= Steele|display-authors=etal |url= http://jargon-file.org/archive/jargon-1.5.0.dos.txt |work=Jargon File 1.5.0 |access-date=2016-08-15}}