wheel

	This is the JargonFile ^(V4.00) entry for wheel - Next: wheel bit, Prev: What's a spline?
: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 drives." (See wedged, sense 1.) The traditional name of security group zero in BSD (to which the major system-internal users like root belong) is wheel. Some vendors have expanded on this usage, modifying Unix so that only members of group wheel can go root.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996* - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)*