Changing the name of home folder

Question

When I set up my machine, I set up the name of my home folder without knowing some of the ramifications of using it. I reviewed the steps in http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html which seemed reasonably straight forward.
I created another user called limited, and logged out of my administrators account, and into the newly created "limited" account.
All of the steps, up to step 10, went smoothly - modified the short name, and Home directory to the desired new name.
Step 10 required changing the folder name using the following sudo command syntax:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
I received the following error after I entered the password:
"limited is not in the sudoers file."
The only thing I could think of was that the account I created, "limited", was not set up with admin rights - so I went in and selected the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox for this account. However, a warning saying the change won't take affect until I logout and back in. I'm reluctant to do this, in case something happens where the Mac requires shutting down before all steps have been completed. I'm thinking of changing the short name and home directory settings (in the Account Preferences) back so they agree with the home folder name, and then redo the process once I know the "sudo" command will work. *Does this seem like a reasonable precaution?* I want to avoid having half the job done in case something happens and the Mac has to be restarted.
At this point, I don't know if my assumption is correct about the failure to execute the sudo command. Will adding the Admin rights to the account "limited" insert "limited" into the sudoers file? If not, what do I need to do to resolve that problem.
I've included the steps below:
============================================
1. If Automatic Login is enabled (in Accounts preferences) for the account you’re modifying, disable it. Similarly, if File Vault is enabled (in Security preferences), disable it. You can re-enable these features, if desired, after completing the procedure.
2. Log in as a different user than the one you want to modify; make sure the account you want to modify is not logged in.
3. Open the Accounts pane of System Preferences.
4. If the lock icon in the lower-left of the Accounts window is “locked,” click on it and provide an administrative username and password; this allows you to make changes.
5. In the list of accounts on the left, right-click (or Control-click) on the name of the account you want to modify; choose Advanced Options from the resulting menu.
6. In the Advanced Options screen, delete your current short username in the Short Name field, and then type in your desired new short username.
7. In the Home Directory field, change /Users/oldusername to /Users/newusername, where oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username. Make note of the original and new paths.
8. Click on OK and close System Preferences.
9. Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
10. Type the following command, all on one line, and then press Return; when prompted, provide the password of the admin account you’re currently using, and then press Return again:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
(These are the original and new Home Directory paths from Step 7; oldusername is your original short username and newusername is your new short username.) This step renames your home folder in the Finder.
11. Restart your Mac.

Answer 1

NibblesNBits wrote:
When I set up my machine, I set up the name of my home folder without knowing some of the ramifications of using it. I reviewed the steps in http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html which seemed reasonably straight forward.
I created another user called limited, and logged out of my administrators account, and into the newly created "limited" account.
All of the steps, up to step 10, went smoothly - modified the short name, and Home directory to the desired new name.
Step 10 required changing the folder name using the following sudo command syntax:
sudo mv /Users/oldusername /Users/newusername
I received the following error after I entered the password:
"limited is not in the sudoers file."
The only thing I could think of was that the account I created, "limited", was not set up with admin rights - so I went in and selected the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox for this account. However, a warning saying the change won't take affect until I logout and back in. I'm reluctant to do this, in case something happens where the Mac requires shutting down before all steps have been completed.
nothing will happen. just log out/in and rerun the command. an account has to be admin to use sudo.
Message was edited by: V.K.