xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/su/su.1 (revision 17d6c636720d00f77e5d098daf4c278f89d84f7b)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"	@(#)su.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd April 18, 1994
36.Dt SU 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm su
40.Nd substitute user identity
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl
44.Op Fl flm
45.Op Fl c Ar class
46.Op Ar login Op Ar args
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Nm Su
49requests appropriate user credentials via PAM
50and switches to that user ID
51(the default user is the superuser).
52A shell is then executed.
53.Pp
54PAM is used to set all policy.
55.Pp
56By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of
57.Ev USER ,
58.Ev HOME ,
59and
60.Ev SHELL .
61.Ev HOME
62and
63.Ev SHELL
64are set to the target login's default values.
65.Ev USER
66is set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0,
67in which case it is unmodified.
68The invoked shell is the one belonging to the target login.
69This is the traditional behavior of
70.Nm .
71Resource limits and session priority applicable to the original user's
72login class (See
73.Xr login.conf 5 )
74are also normally retained unless the target login as a user ID of 0.
75.Pp
76The options are as follows:
77.Bl -tag -width Ds
78.It Fl f
79If the invoked shell is
80.Xr csh 1 ,
81this option prevents it from reading the
82.Dq Pa .cshrc
83file.
84.It Fl l
85Simulate a full login.
86The environment is discarded except for
87.Ev HOME ,
88.Ev SHELL ,
89.Ev PATH ,
90.Ev TERM ,
91and
92.Ev USER .
93.Ev HOME
94and
95.Ev SHELL
96are modified as above.
97.Ev USER
98is set to the target login.
99.Ev PATH
100is set to
101.Dq Pa /bin:/usr/bin .
102.Ev TERM
103is imported from your current environment.
104Environment variables may be set or overridden from the login class
105capabilities database according to the class of the target login.
106The invoked shell is the target login's, and
107.Nm
108will change directory to the target login's home directory.
109Resource limits and session priority are modified to that for the
110target account's login class.
111.It Fl
112(no letter) The same as
113.Fl l .
114.It Fl m
115Leave the environment unmodified.
116The invoked shell is your login shell, and no directory changes are made.
117As a security precaution, if the target user's shell is a non-standard
118shell (as defined by
119.Xr getusershell 3 )
120and the caller's real uid is
121non-zero,
122.Nm
123will fail.
124.It Fl c Ar class
125Use the settings of the specified login class.
126Only allowed for the super-user.
127.El
128.Pp
129The
130.Fl l
131(or
132.Fl )
133and
134.Fl m
135options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified
136overrides any previous ones.
137.Pp
138If the optional
139.Ar args
140are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of
141the target login.
142.Pp
143By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user
144prompt is set to
145.Dq Sy \&#
146to remind one of its awesome power.
147.Sh FILES
148.Bl -tag -width /etc/pam.conf -compact
149.It Pa /etc/pam.conf
150.Nm
151is configured with PAM support; it uses
152.Pa /etc/pam.conf
153entries with service name
154.Dq su
155.El
156.Sh SEE ALSO
157.Xr csh 1 ,
158.Xr sh 1 ,
159.Xr group 5 ,
160.Xr login.conf 5 ,
161.Xr passwd 5 ,
162.Xr environ 7 ,
163.Xr pam 8
164.Sh ENVIRONMENT
165Environment variables used by
166.Nm :
167.Bl -tag -width HOME
168.It Ev HOME
169Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as
170specified above.
171.It Ev PATH
172Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.
173.It Ev TERM
174Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted
175user ID.
176.It Ev USER
177The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an
178.Nm
179unless the user ID is 0 (root).
180.El
181.Sh EXAMPLES
182.Bl -tag -width 5n -compact
183.It Li "su man -c catman"
184Runs the command
185.Li catman
186as user
187.Li man .
188You will be asked for man's password unless your real UID is 0.
189.It Li "su man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
190Same as above, but the target command constitutes of more than a
191single word and hence is quoted for use with the
192.Fl c
193option being passed to the shell.  (Most shells expect the argument to
194.Fl c
195to be a single word).
196.It Li "su -c staff man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
197Same as above, but the target command is run with the resource limits of
198the login class
199.Dq staff .
200Note: in this example, the first
201.Fl c
202option applies to
203.Nm
204while the second is an argument to the shell being invoked.
205.It Li "su -l foo"
206Simulate a login for user foo.
207.It Li "su - foo"
208Same as above.
209.It Li "su -  "
210Simulate a login for root.
211.El
212.Sh HISTORY
213A
214.Nm
215command appeared in
216.At v1 .
217