xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/su/su.1 (revision b52f49a9a0f22207ad5130ad8faba08de3ed23d8)
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 flms
45.Op Fl c Ar class
46.Op Ar login Op Ar args
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50utility requests appropriate user credentials via PAM
51and switches to that user ID
52(the default user is the superuser).
53A shell is then executed.
54.Pp
55PAM is used to set all policy.
56.Pp
57By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of
58.Ev USER ,
59.Ev HOME ,
60and
61.Ev SHELL .
62.Ev HOME
63and
64.Ev SHELL
65are set to the target login's default values.
66.Ev USER
67is set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0,
68in which case it is unmodified.
69The invoked shell is the one belonging to the target login.
70This is the traditional behavior of
71.Nm .
72Resource limits and session priority applicable to the original user's
73login class (see
74.Xr login.conf 5 )
75are also normally retained unless the target login has a user ID of 0.
76.Pp
77The options are as follows:
78.Bl -tag -width Ds
79.It Fl f
80If the invoked shell is
81.Xr csh 1 ,
82this option prevents it from reading the
83.Dq Pa .cshrc
84file.
85.It Fl l
86Simulate a full login.
87The environment is discarded except for
88.Ev HOME ,
89.Ev SHELL ,
90.Ev PATH ,
91.Ev TERM ,
92and
93.Ev USER .
94.Ev HOME
95and
96.Ev SHELL
97are modified as above.
98.Ev USER
99is set to the target login.
100.Ev PATH
101is set to
102.Dq Pa /bin:/usr/bin .
103.Ev TERM
104is imported from your current environment.
105Environment variables may be set or overridden from the login class
106capabilities database according to the class of the target login.
107The invoked shell is the target login's, and
108.Nm
109will change directory to the target login's home directory.
110Resource limits and session priority are modified to that for the
111target account's login class.
112.It Fl
113(no letter) The same as
114.Fl l .
115.It Fl m
116Leave the environment unmodified.
117The invoked shell is your login shell, and no directory changes are made.
118As a security precaution, if the target user's shell is a non-standard
119shell (as defined by
120.Xr getusershell 3 )
121and the caller's real uid is
122non-zero,
123.Nm
124will fail.
125.It Fl s
126Set the MAC label to the user's default label as part of the user
127credential setup.
128Setting the MAC label may fail if the MAC label of the invoking process
129is not sufficient to transition to the user's default MAC label.
130If the label cannot be set,
131.Nm
132will fail.
133.It Fl c Ar class
134Use the settings of the specified login class.
135Only allowed for the super-user.
136.El
137.Pp
138The
139.Fl l
140(or
141.Fl )
142and
143.Fl m
144options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified
145overrides any previous ones.
146.Pp
147If the optional
148.Ar args
149are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of
150the target login.
151.Pp
152By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user
153prompt is set to
154.Dq Sy \&#
155to remind one of its awesome power.
156.Sh FILES
157.Bl -tag -width /etc/pam.conf -compact
158.It Pa /etc/pam.conf
159.Nm
160is configured with PAM support; it uses
161.Pa /etc/pam.conf
162entries with service name
163.Dq su
164.El
165.Sh SEE ALSO
166.Xr csh 1 ,
167.Xr sh 1 ,
168.Xr group 5 ,
169.Xr login.conf 5 ,
170.Xr passwd 5 ,
171.Xr environ 7 ,
172.Xr pam 8
173.Sh ENVIRONMENT
174Environment variables used by
175.Nm :
176.Bl -tag -width HOME
177.It Ev HOME
178Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as
179specified above.
180.It Ev PATH
181Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.
182.It Ev TERM
183Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted
184user ID.
185.It Ev USER
186The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an
187.Nm
188unless the user ID is 0 (root).
189.El
190.Sh EXAMPLES
191.Bl -tag -width 5n -compact
192.It Li "su man -c catman"
193Runs the command
194.Li catman
195as user
196.Li man .
197You will be asked for man's password unless your real UID is 0.
198.It Li "su man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
199Same as above, but the target command consists of more than a
200single word and hence is quoted for use with the
201.Fl c
202option being passed to the shell.  (Most shells expect the argument to
203.Fl c
204to be a single word).
205.It Li "su -c staff man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
206Same as above, but the target command is run with the resource limits of
207the login class
208.Dq staff .
209Note: in this example, the first
210.Fl c
211option applies to
212.Nm
213while the second is an argument to the shell being invoked.
214.It Li "su -l foo"
215Simulate a login for user foo.
216.It Li "su - foo"
217Same as above.
218.It Li "su -  "
219Simulate a login for root.
220.El
221.Sh HISTORY
222A
223.Nm
224command appeared in
225.At v1 .
226