SU(1) User Commands SU(1)
NAME
su - run a command with substitute user and group ID
SYNOPSIS
su [options...] [-] [user [args...]]
DESCRIPTION
su allows to run commands with substitute user and group ID.
When called without arguments su defaults to running an interactive shell as root.
For backward compatibility su defaults to not change the current directory and to only set the environment
variables HOME and SHELL (plus USER and LOGNAME if the target user is not root). It is recommended to always
use the --login option (instead it's shortcut -) to avoid side effects caused by mixing environments.
This version of su uses PAM for authentication, account and session management. Some configuration options
found in other su implementations such as e.g. support of a wheel group have to be configured via PAM.
OPTIONS
-c command, --command=command
Pass command to the shell with the -c option.
--session-command=command
Same as -c but do not create a new session (discouraged).
-f, --fast
Pass -f to the shell which may or may not be useful depending on the shell.
-g, --group=group
specify the primary group, this option is allowed for root user only
-G, --supp-group=group
Specify a supplemental group. This option is available to the root user only. The first specified
supplementary group is also used as a primary group if the option --group is unspecified.
-, -l, --login
Starts the shell as login shell with an environment similar to a real login:
o clears all environment variables except for TERM
o initializes the environment variables HOME, SHELL, USER, LOGNAME, PATH
o changes to the target user's home directory
o sets argv[0] of the shell to '-' in order to make the shell a login shell
-m, -p, --preserve-environment
Preserves the whole environment, ie does not set HOME, SHELL, USER nor LOGNAME. The option is ignored
if the option --login is specified.
-s SHELL, --shell=SHELL
Runs the specified shell instead of the default. The shell to run is selected according to the follow‐
ing rules in order:
o the shell specified with --shell
--version
Display version information and exit.
CONFIG FILES
su reads the /etc/default/su and /etc/login.defs configuration files. The following configuration items are
relevant for su(1):
FAIL_DELAY (number)
Delay in seconds in case of authentication failure. Number must be a non-negative integer.
ENV_PATH (string)
Defines the PATH environment variable for a regular user. The default value is /usr/local/bin:/bin:
/usr/bin.
ENV_ROOTPATH (string)
ENV_SUPATH (string)
Defines the PATH environment variable for root. The default value is /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:
/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin.
ALWAYS_SET_PATH (boolean)
If set to yes and --login and --preserve-environment were not specified su initializes PATH.
EXIT STATUS
su normally returns the exit status of the command it executed. If the command was killed by a signal, su
returns the number of the signal plus 128.
Exit status generated by su itself:
1 Generic error before executing the requested command
126 The requested command could not be executed
127 The requested command could was not found
FILES
/etc/pam.d/su default PAM configuration file
/etc/pam.d/su-l PAM configuration file if --login is specified
/etc/default/su command specific logindef config file
/etc/login.defs global logindef config file
SEE ALSO
runuser(8), pam(8), shells(5), login.defs(5)
AUTHOR
Derived from coreutils' su which was based on an implementation from David MacKenzie.
AVAILABILITY
The su command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨ftp://
ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩.
util-linux June 2012 SU(1)
Back to main site | Back to man page index