Another OS X discovery.
If you try to run TextEdit as root in OS X by typing ’sudo open /Applications/TextEdit.app’ you will get ‘open’ running as root, not TextEdit. TextEdit will run as the user you issued the command as.
Instead, try ’sudo “/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit”‘ and you’ll have TextEdit running as root.
[Adapted from something by user gatorparrots on Mac-Forums.com]
http://xkcd.com/149/
Comment by evanevanevan — 2009/09/01 @ 16:27