xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/su/su.1 (revision 0640d357f29fb1c0daaaffadd0416c5981413afd)
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32.\"	@(#)su.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
33.\"	$Id: su.1,v 1.14 1998/06/08 05:29:51 jkoshy Exp $
34.\"
35.\" this is for hilit19's braindeadness: "
36.Dd April 18, 1994
37.Dt SU 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm su
41.Nd substitute user identity
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm
44.Op Fl Kflm
45.Op Fl c Ar class
46.Op Ar login Op Ar args
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Nm Su
49requests the Kerberos password for
50.Ar login
51(or for
52.Dq Ar login Ns .root ,
53if no login is provided), and switches to
54that user and group ID after obtaining a Kerberos ticket granting ticket.
55A shell is then executed.
56.Nm Su
57will resort to the local password file to find the password for
58.Ar login
59if there is a Kerberos error.
60If
61.Nm
62is executed by root, no password is requested and a shell
63with the appropriate user ID is executed; no additional Kerberos tickets
64are obtained.
65.Pp
66By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of
67.Ev USER ,
68.Ev HOME ,
69and
70.Ev SHELL .
71.Ev HOME
72and
73.Ev SHELL
74are set to the target login's default values.
75.Ev USER
76is set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0,
77in which case it is unmodified.
78The invoked shell is the target login's.
79This is the traditional behavior of
80.Nm su .
81Resource limits and session priority applicable to the original user's
82login class (See
83.Xr login.conf 5 )
84are also normally retained unless the target login as a user ID of 0.
85.Pp
86The options are as follows:
87.Bl -tag -width Ds
88.It Fl K
89Do not attempt to use Kerberos to authenticate the user.
90.It Fl f
91If the invoked shell is
92.Xr csh 1 ,
93this option prevents it from reading the
94.Dq Pa .cshrc
95file.
96.It Fl l
97Simulate a full login.
98The environment is discarded except for
99.Ev HOME ,
100.Ev SHELL ,
101.Ev PATH ,
102.Ev TERM ,
103and
104.Ev USER .
105.Ev HOME
106and
107.Ev SHELL
108are modified as above.
109.Ev USER
110is set to the target login.
111.Ev PATH
112is set to
113.Dq Pa /bin:/usr/bin .
114.Ev TERM
115is imported from your current environment.
116Environment variables may be set or overridden from the login class
117capabilities database according to the class of the target login.
118The invoked shell is the target login's, and
119.Nm
120will change directory to the target login's home directory.
121Resource limits and session priority are modified to that for the
122target account's login class.
123.It Fl m
124Leave the environment unmodified.
125The invoked shell is your login shell, and no directory changes are made.
126As a security precaution, if the target user's shell is a non-standard
127shell (as defined by
128.Xr getusershell 3 )
129and the caller's real uid is
130non-zero,
131.Nm
132will fail.
133.It Fl c Ar class
134Use the settings of the specified login class. Only allowed for the super-user.
135.El
136.Pp
137The
138.Fl l
139and
140.Fl m
141options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified
142overrides any previous ones.
143.Pp
144If the optional
145.Ar args
146are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of
147the target login.
148.Pp
149Only users who are a member of group 0 (normally
150.Dq wheel )
151can
152.Nm
153to
154.Dq root .
155\ If group 0 is missing or empty, any user can
156.Nm
157to
158.Dq root .
159.Pp
160By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user
161prompt is set to
162.Dq Sy \&#
163to remind one of its awesome power.
164.Sh FILES
165.Bl -tag -width /etc/auth.conf -compact
166.It Pa /etc/auth.conf
167configure authentication services
168.El
169.Sh SEE ALSO
170.Xr csh 1 ,
171.Xr kerberos 1 ,
172.Xr kinit 1 ,
173.Xr login 1 ,
174.Xr sh 1 ,
175.Xr group 5 ,
176.Xr login.conf 5 ,
177.Xr passwd 5 ,
178.Xr environ 7
179.Sh ENVIRONMENT
180Environment variables used by
181.Nm su :
182.Bl -tag -width HOME
183.It Ev HOME
184Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as
185specified above.
186.It Ev PATH
187Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.
188.It Ev TERM
189Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted
190user ID.
191.It Ev USER
192The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an
193.Nm
194unless the user ID is 0 (root).
195.El
196.Sh EXAMPLES
197.Bl -tag -width 5n -compact
198.It Li "su man -c catman"
199Runs the command
200.Li catman
201as user
202.Li man .
203You will be asked for man's password unless your real UID is 0.
204.It Li "su man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
205Same as above, but the target command constitutes of more than a
206single word and hence is quoted for use with the
207.Fl c
208option being passed to the shell.  (Most shells expect the argument to
209.Fl c
210to be a single word).
211.It Li "su -c staff man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
212Same as above, but the target command is run with the resource limits of
213the login class
214.Dq staff .
215Note: in this example, the first
216.Fl c
217option applies to
218.Nm
219while the second is an argument to the shell being invoked.
220.It Li "su -l foo"
221Pretend a login for user
222.Li foo .
223.El
224.Sh HISTORY
225A
226.Nm
227command appeared in
228.At v1 .
229