diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 7f7af17..da7eabe 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1649,6 +1649,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde",
  "serde_derive",
  "toml",
+ "users",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1948,6 +1949,16 @@ dependencies = [
  "percent-encoding",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "users"
+version = "0.11.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "24cc0f6d6f267b73e5a2cadf007ba8f9bc39c6a6f9666f8cf25ea809a153b032"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+ "log",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "utf16_iter"
 version = "1.0.5"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 08bc996..144c2b8 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ gix = "0.70.0"
 serde = "1.0.217"
 serde_derive = "1.0.217"
 toml = "0.8.20"
+users = "0.11.0"
diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index e760f4a..f4a79e9 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ impl fmt::Display for ConfigFile {
   }
 }
 
+#[derive(PartialEq)]
 #[derive(Deserialize)]
 pub struct Config {
   from: String,
@@ -92,11 +93,13 @@ pub struct Config {
   schedule: Schedule
 }
 
+#[derive(PartialEq)]
 #[derive(Deserialize)]
 struct Git {
   ssh_identity_file: String,
 }
 
+#[derive(PartialEq)]
 #[derive(Deserialize)]
 struct Schedule {
   enabled: bool,
@@ -135,13 +138,14 @@ pub fn read_config(paths: Vec<PathBuf>, refractr: &common::Refractr) -> Vec<Conf
         eprintln!("refractr: warning: skipping config file \"{}\" as it was already read", path.as_path().display());
         dup = true;
         break;
+      } else if i.config == config_file.config {
+        eprintln!("refractr: warning: config files \"{}\" and \"{}\" appear to have the same config", i.path, config_file.path);
       }
     }
     
     if !dup {
       config_files.push(config_file);
     }
-
   }
 
   return config_files;
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index fa84cda..c504372 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ mod config;
 use clap::Parser;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 use std::process;
+use users;
 
 #[derive(Parser)]
 #[command(name = "refractor")]
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ fn get_config_default() -> &'static str {
   }
 }
 
-fn main() {
+fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
   let args = Args::parse();
   let refractr = common::Refractr {
     verbose: args.verbose,
@@ -44,6 +45,15 @@ fn main() {
     let example = include_str!("example/config.toml");
     println!("{}", example);
   } else {
+    // warn to avoid root/admin
+    if refractr.unix {
+      if users::get_current_uid() == 0 {
+        eprintln!("refractr: warning: this program should not ran as root")
+      }
+    } else {
+      // TODO: print message for Windows
+    }
+
     let cfgs = config::read_config(args.config, &refractr);
     if refractr.verbose >= 2 {
       // no need to loop over configs if verbose is not at the correct level
@@ -54,4 +64,6 @@ fn main() {
 
     common::verbose(refractr.verbose, 1, format!("Config file(s) read successfully"));
   }
+
+  Ok(())
 }