What is su?
3 su examples
Syntax and Options
Related Commands
What is su?
su command is used to become another user during login session. By default (without username parameter), its become the superuser.
3 su examples
1. Login into another user account
By simply passing the username to the su command, it will provide the login session after the password authentication as shown below
$ su guest Password: $
2. Run specific command with another user privilege
Using -c option, su allows to run a specific command in the another user account and the output would be displayed in current login session as shown below.
$ su guest -c date Password: Sat Jan 8 11:18:12 IST 2011
3. Preserve the current environment
Using -p option, you can preserve the current environment as shown below
$ su -p guest
Syntax and Options
| Short Option | Long Option | Option Description |
|---|---|---|
| -c COMMAND | –command COMMAND | to run a specific command that will be invoked by the shell using its -c. |
| -l | –login | to provide the similar environment to what the would expect that the user had logged in already |
| -s SHELL | –shell SHELL | to invoke the specific shell accordingly |
| -p | –preserve-environment | to preserve the current environment |
Related Commands
login