.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)su.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/18/94 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/su/su.1,v 1.17.2.6 2002/06/21 15:29:18 charnier Exp $ .\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/su/su.1,v 1.4 2006/02/17 19:39:11 swildner Exp $ .\" .Dd April 18, 1994 .Dt SU 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm su .Nd substitute user identity .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl .Op Fl Kflm .Op Fl c Ar class .Op Ar login Op Ar args .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility requests the Kerberos password for .Ar login (or for .Dq Ar login Ns .root , if no login is provided), and switches to that user and group ID after obtaining a Kerberos ticket granting ticket. A shell is then executed. The .Nm utility will resort to the local password file to find the password for .Ar login if there is a Kerberos error. If .Nm is executed by root, no password is requested and a shell with the appropriate user ID is executed; no additional Kerberos tickets are obtained. .Pp By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of .Ev USER , .Ev HOME , and .Ev SHELL . .Ev HOME and .Ev SHELL are set to the target login's default values. .Ev USER is set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0, in which case it is unmodified. The invoked shell is the target login's. This is the traditional behavior of .Nm . Resource limits and session priority applicable to the original user's login class (See .Xr login.conf 5 ) are also normally retained unless the target login has a user ID of 0. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl K Do not attempt to use Kerberos to authenticate the user. .It Fl f If the invoked shell is .Xr csh 1 , this option prevents it from reading the .Dq Pa .cshrc file. .It Fl l Simulate a full login. The environment is discarded except for .Ev HOME , .Ev SHELL , .Ev PATH , .Ev TERM , and .Ev USER . .Ev HOME and .Ev SHELL are modified as above. .Ev USER is set to the target login. .Ev PATH is set to .Dq Pa /bin:/usr/bin . .Ev TERM is imported from your current environment. Environment variables may be set or overridden from the login class capabilities database according to the class of the target login. The invoked shell is the target login's, and .Nm will change directory to the target login's home directory. Resource limits and session priority are modified to that for the target account's login class. .It Fl (no letter) The same as .Fl l . .It Fl 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 .Xr getusershell 3 ) and the caller's real uid is non-zero, .Nm will fail. .It Fl c Ar class Use the settings of the specified login class. Only allowed for the super-user. .El .Pp The .Fl l (or .Fl ) and .Fl m options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified overrides any previous ones. .Pp If the optional .Ar args are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of the target login. .Pp Only users who are a member of group 0 (normally .Dq wheel ) can .Nm to .Dq root . \ If group 0 is missing or empty, any user can .Nm to .Dq root . .Pp By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user prompt is set to .Dq Sy \&# to remind one of its awesome power. .Sh ENVIRONMENT Environment variables used by .Nm : .Bl -tag -width HOME .It Ev HOME Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as specified above. .It Ev PATH Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above. .It Ev TERM Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted user ID. .It Ev USER The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an .Nm unless the user ID is 0 (root). .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/auth.conf -compact .It Pa /etc/auth.conf configure authentication services .El .Sh EXAMPLES .Bl -tag -width 5n -compact .It Li "su man -c catman" Runs the command .Li catman as user .Li man , assuming man's shell supports the .Fl c option. You will be asked for man's password unless your real UID is 0. .It Li "su -m man -c catman" Same as above, but use the shell and environment of the current user instead of those of man. This allows commands to be executed as user man even when man's shell is .Xr nologin 8 . .It Li "su -mf man -c catman" Same as above, but do not re-evaluate the current user's .Pa .cshrc either. .It Li "su -mf man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'" Same as above, but the target command consists of more than a single word and hence is quoted for use with the .Fl c option being passed to the shell. (Most shells expect the argument to .Fl c to be a single word). .It Li "su -mf -c staff man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man /usr/X11R6/man'" Same as above, but the target command is run with the resource limits of the login class .Dq staff . Note: in this example, the first .Fl c option applies to .Nm while the second is an argument to the shell being invoked. .It Li "su -l foo" Simulate a login for user foo. .It Li "su - foo" Same as above. .It Li "su - " Simulate a login for root. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr csh 1 , .Xr kerberos 1 , .Xr kinit 1 , .Xr login 1 , .Xr sh 1 , .Xr group 5 , .Xr login.conf 5 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr environ 7 , .Xr nologin 8 .Sh HISTORY A .Nm command appeared in .At v1 .