su
[-fKLlm]
[-a auth-type]
[-c login-class]
[login["shellarguments"]]
DESCRIPTION
su
requests the Kerberos password for
login
(or for
“login”,
if no login is provided), and switches to
that user and group ID after obtaining a Kerberos ticket granting access.
A shell is then executed, and any additional
"shellarguments"
after the login name
are passed to the shell.
su
will resort to the local password file to find the password for
login
if there is a Kerberos error or if Kerberos is not installed.
If
su
is executed by root, no password is requested and a shell
with the appropriate user ID is executed; no additional Kerberos tickets
are obtained.
By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of
LOGNAME,
HOME,
SHELL,
and
USER.
HOME
and
SHELL
are set to the target login's default values.
LOGNAME
and
USER
are set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0
and the
-l
flag was not specified,
in which case it is unmodified.
The invoked shell is the target login's.
This is the traditional behavior of
su.
If not using
-m
and the target login has a user ID of 0 then the
PATH
variable and umask value
(see
umask(2))
are always set according to the
/etc/login.conf
file (see
login.conf(5/)).
The options are as follows:
-
Same as the
-l
option (deprecated).
-a auth-type
Specify an authentication type such as
“skey”,
“securid”,
or
“krb5”.
-c login-class
Specify a login class.
You may only override the default class if you're already root.
-f
If the invoked shell is
csh(1),
this option prevents it from reading the
“.cshrc”
file.
-K
Do not attempt to use Kerberos to authenticate the user.
-L
Loop until a correct username and password combination is entered,
similar to
login(1).
Note that in this mode target
login
must be specified explicitly, either on the command line or interactively.
Additionally,
su
will prompt for the password even when invoked by root.
-l
Simulate a full login.
The environment is discarded except for
HOME,
SHELL,
PATH,
TERM,
LOGNAME,
and
USER.
HOME
and
SHELL
are modified as above.
LOGNAME
and
USER
are set to the target login.
PATH
is set to the value specified by the
“path”
entry in
login.conf(5).
TERM
is imported from your current environment.
The invoked shell is the target login's, and
su
will change directory to the target login's home directory.
-m
Leave the environment unmodified.
The invoked shell is your login shell, and no directory changes are made.
As a security precaution, if the target user's shell is a non-standard
shell (as defined by
getusershell(3))
and the caller's real UID is
non-zero,
su
will fail.
The
-l
and
-m
options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified
overrides any previous ones.
If the optional
"shellarguments"
are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of
the target login.
This allows it to pass arbitrary commands via the
-c
option as understood by most shells.
Note that
-c
usually expects a single argument only; you have to quote it when
passing multiple words.
If group 0 (normally
“wheel”)
has users listed then only those users can
su
to
“root”.
It is not sufficient to change a user's
/etc/passwd
entry to add them to the
“wheel”
group; they must explicitly be listed in
/etc/group.
If no one is in the
“wheel”
group, it is ignored, and anyone who knows the root password is permitted to
su
to
“root”.
By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the superuser
prompt is set to
“\&#”
to remind one of its awesome power.
ENVIRONMENT
HOME
Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as
specified above.
LOGNAME
The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an
su
unless the user ID is 0 (root).
PATH
Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.
TERM
Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted
user ID.
USER
Same as
LOGNAME.
EXAMPLES
Run the command
“makewhatis”
as user
“bin”.
You will be asked for bin's password unless your real UID is 0.
$ su bin -c makewhatis
Same as above, but the target command consists of more than a
single word:
$ su bin -c 'makewhatis /usr/local/man'
Same as above, but the target command is run with the resource
limits of the login class
“staff”.
Note that the first
-c
option applies to
su
while the second is an argument to the shell.
$ su -c staff bin -c 'makewhatis /usr/local/man'
Pretend a login for user
“foo”:
$ su -l foo
Same as above, but use S/Key for authentication:
$ su -a skey -l foo