wheel bit n.
A privilege bit that allows the possessor to
perform some restricted operation on a timesharing system, such as
read or write any file on the system regardless of protections,
change or look at any address in the running monitor, crash or
reload the system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts. The
term was invented on the TENEX operating system, and carried over
to TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others. The state of being in a
privileged logon is sometimes called `wheel mode'. This term
entered the Unix culture from TWENEX in the mid-1980s and has been
gaining popularity there (esp. at university sites). See also
root.
A privilege bit that allows the possessor to
perform some restricted operation on a timesharing system, such as
read or write any file on the system regardless of protections,
change or look at any address in the running monitor, crash or
reload the system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts. The
term was invented on the TENEX operating system, and carried over
to TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others. The state of being in a
privileged logon is sometimes called `wheel mode'. This term
entered the Unix culture from TWENEX in the mid-1980s and has been
gaining popularity there (esp. at university sites). See also
root.
Related:
- wheel bit: n. A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform
some restricted operation on a timesharing system,
such as read or write any file on the system regardless... - root: [UNIX] n. 1. The {superuser} account (with user name
`root') that ignores permission bits,
user number 0 on a UNIX system. The term {avatar}... - TWENEX /twe'neks/ n.
The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC
-
the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 -- preferred... - root n.
[Unix] 1. The superuser account (with user
name `root') that ignores permission bits,
user number 0 on a Unix system. The term avatar... - wizard mode n.
[from rogue] A special access mode of a
program or system,
usually passworded, that permits some users godlike... - wizard mode: [from {rogue}] n. A special access mode of a
program or system,
usually passworded, that permits some users godlike... - wheel n.
[from slang `big wheel' for a powerful person] A
person who has an active wheel bit.
"We need to find a wheel to unwedge the hung tape... - boot v.,n.
[techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To
load and initialize the operating system on a machine.
This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into... - crash
1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often
said of the system (q.v.
sense 1), esp. of magnetic disk drives (the term...
