xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/su/su.1 (revision c68159a6d8eede11766cf13896d0f7670dbd51aa)
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32.\"	@(#)su.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
33.\" $FreeBSD$
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
45.Op Fl Kflm
46.Op Fl c Ar class
47.Op Ar login Op Ar args
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49.Nm Su
50requests the Kerberos password for
51.Ar login
52(or for
53.Dq Ar login Ns .root ,
54if no login is provided), and switches to
55that user and group ID after obtaining a Kerberos ticket granting ticket.
56A shell is then executed.
57.Nm Su
58will resort to the local password file to find the password for
59.Ar login
60if there is a Kerberos error.
61If
62.Nm
63is executed by root, no password is requested and a shell
64with the appropriate user ID is executed; no additional Kerberos tickets
65are obtained.
66.Pp
67By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of
68.Ev USER ,
69.Ev HOME ,
70and
71.Ev SHELL .
72.Ev HOME
73and
74.Ev SHELL
75are set to the target login's default values.
76.Ev USER
77is set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0,
78in which case it is unmodified.
79The invoked shell is the target login's.
80This is the traditional behavior of
81.Nm .
82Resource limits and session priority applicable to the original user's
83login class (See
84.Xr login.conf 5 )
85are also normally retained unless the target login as a user ID of 0.
86.Pp
87The options are as follows:
88.Bl -tag -width Ds
89.It Fl K
90Do not attempt to use Kerberos to authenticate the user.
91.It Fl f
92If the invoked shell is
93.Xr csh 1 ,
94this option prevents it from reading the
95.Dq Pa .cshrc
96file.
97.It Fl l
98Simulate a full login.
99The environment is discarded except for
100.Ev HOME ,
101.Ev SHELL ,
102.Ev PATH ,
103.Ev TERM ,
104and
105.Ev USER .
106.Ev HOME
107and
108.Ev SHELL
109are modified as above.
110.Ev USER
111is set to the target login.
112.Ev PATH
113is set to
114.Dq Pa /bin:/usr/bin .
115.Ev TERM
116is imported from your current environment.
117Environment variables may be set or overridden from the login class
118capabilities database according to the class of the target login.
119The invoked shell is the target login's, and
120.Nm
121will change directory to the target login's home directory.
122Resource limits and session priority are modified to that for the
123target account's login class.
124.It Fl
125(no letter) The same as
126.Fl l .
127.It Fl m
128Leave the environment unmodified.
129The invoked shell is your login shell, and no directory changes are made.
130As a security precaution, if the target user's shell is a non-standard
131shell (as defined by
132.Xr getusershell 3 )
133and the caller's real uid is
134non-zero,
135.Nm
136will fail.
137.It Fl c Ar class
138Use the settings of the specified login class.
139Only allowed for the super-user.
140.El
141.Pp
142The
143.Fl l
144(or
145.Fl
146)
147and
148.Fl m
149options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified
150overrides any previous ones.
151.Pp
152If the optional
153.Ar args
154are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of
155the target login.
156.Pp
157Only users who are a member of group 0 (normally
158.Dq wheel )
159can
160.Nm
161to
162.Dq root .
163\ If group 0 is missing or empty, any user can
164.Nm
165to
166.Dq root .
167.Pp
168By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user
169prompt is set to
170.Dq Sy \&#
171to remind one of its awesome power.
172.Sh FILES
173.Bl -tag -width /etc/auth.conf -compact
174.It Pa /etc/auth.conf
175configure authentication services
176.El
177.Sh SEE ALSO
178.Xr csh 1 ,
179.Xr kerberos 1 ,
180.Xr kinit 1 ,
181.Xr login 1 ,
182.Xr sh 1 ,
183.Xr group 5 ,
184.Xr login.conf 5 ,
185.Xr passwd 5 ,
186.Xr environ 7
187.Sh ENVIRONMENT
188Environment variables used by
189.Nm :
190.Bl -tag -width HOME
191.It Ev HOME
192Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as
193specified above.
194.It Ev PATH
195Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.
196.It Ev TERM
197Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted
198user ID.
199.It Ev USER
200The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an
201.Nm
202unless the user ID is 0 (root).
203.El
204.Sh EXAMPLES
205.Bl -tag -width 5n -compact
206.It Li "su man -c catman"
207Runs the command
208.Li catman
209as user
210.Li man .
211You will be asked for man's password unless your real UID is 0.
212.It Li "su man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
213Same as above, but the target command constitutes of more than a
214single word and hence is quoted for use with the
215.Fl c
216option being passed to the shell.  (Most shells expect the argument to
217.Fl c
218to be a single word).
219.It Li "su -c staff man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'"
220Same as above, but the target command is run with the resource limits of
221the login class
222.Dq staff .
223Note: in this example, the first
224.Fl c
225option applies to
226.Nm
227while the second is an argument to the shell being invoked.
228.It Li "su -l foo"
229Simulate a login for user foo.
230.It Li "su - foo"
231Same as above.
232.It Li "su -  "
233Simulate a login for root.
234.El
235.Sh HISTORY
236A
237.Nm
238command appeared in
239.At v1 .
240