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  4. su(1)

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SU(1) User Commands SU(1)

NAME

su - run a command with substitute user and group ID

SYNOPSIS

su [options...] [-] [user [args...]]

DESCRIPTION

su allows to run commands with substitute user and group ID.

When called without arguments su defaults to running an interactive shell as root.

For backward compatibility su defaults to not change the current directory and to only set the environment variables HOME and SHELL (plus USER and LOGNAME if the target user is not root). It is recommended to always use the --login option (instead it's shortcut -) to avoid side effects caused by mixing environments.

This version of su uses PAM for authentication, account and session management. Some configuration options found in other su implementations such as e.g. support of a wheel group have to be configured via PAM.

OPTIONS

Pass command to the shell with the -c option.
Same as -c but do not create a new session (discouraged).
Pass -f to the shell which may or may not be useful depending on the shell.
specify the primary group, this option is allowed for root user only
Specify a supplemental group. This option is available to the root user only. The first specified supplementary group is also used as a primary group if the option --group is unspecified.
-, -l, --login
Starts the shell as login shell with an environment similar to a real login:
clears all environment variables except for TERM
initializes the environment variables HOME, SHELL, USER, LOGNAME, PATH
changes to the target user's home directory
sets argv[0] of the shell to '-' in order to make the shell a login shell
Preserves the whole environment, ie does not set HOME, SHELL, USER nor LOGNAME. The option is ignored if the option --login is specified.
Runs the specified shell instead of the default. The shell to run is selected according to the following rules in order:
the shell specified with --shell
The shell specified in the environment variable SHELL if the --preserve-environment option is used.
the shell listed in the passwd entry of the target user
/bin/sh
If the target user has a restricted shell (i.e. not listed in /etc/shells) the --shell option and the SHELL environment variables are ignored unless the calling user is root.
Display help text and exit.
Display version information and exit.

CONFIG FILES

su reads the /etc/default/su and /etc/login.defs configuration files. The following configuration items are relevant for su(1):

FAIL_DELAY (number)

Delay in seconds in case of authentication failure. Number must be a non-negative integer.

ENV_PATH (string)

Defines the PATH environment variable for a regular user. The default value is /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin.

ENV_ROOTPATH (string)
ENV_SUPATH (string)

Defines the PATH environment variable for root. The default value is /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin.

ALWAYS_SET_PATH (boolean)

If set to yes and --login and --preserve-environment were not specified su initializes PATH.

EXIT STATUS

su normally returns the exit status of the command it executed. If the command was killed by a signal, su returns the number of the signal plus 128.

Exit status generated by su itself:

1
Generic error before executing the requested command
126
The requested command could not be executed
127
The requested command could was not found

FILES

/etc/pam.d/su
default PAM configuration file
/etc/pam.d/su-l
PAM configuration file if --login is specified
/etc/default/su
command specific logindef config file
/etc/login.defs
global logindef config file

SEE ALSO

runuser(8), pam(8), shells(5), login.defs(5)

AUTHOR

Derived from coreutils' su which was based on an implementation from David MacKenzie.

AVAILABILITY

The su command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive.

June 2012 util-linux