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Full Discussion: Confusion with "su -c" and quotes, user context switching?
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Confusion with "su -c" and quotes, user context switching? Post 302814143 by kchinnam on Tuesday 28th of May 2013 08:01:17 PM
Old 05-28-2013
Confusion with "su -c" and quotes, user context switching?
Trying to execute commands for different Unix user with that user's environment variable context without fully switching as that user using sudo && su capabilities.
Hoping this would help with security and not having to waste time switching between 10 different app users on same server.

I do not understand why 'ls' command would not get executed, but 'ls -l' would from below output!?..
Does anyone know why?

( Using solaris8, ksh Version: M-11/16/88 )
Code:
 
/home/userA>sudo -l
(root) /usr/bin/su - userB *
 
/home/userA>sudo /usr/bin/su - userB '/bin/ls' 
ksh: ls: cannot execute
 
# double quotes do not make any difference
/home/userA>sudo /usr/bin/su - userB "/bin/ls"
ksh: /bin/ls: cannot execute
 
 # Here " -c " option makes this work !
/home/userA>sudo /usr/bin/su - userB -c '/bin/ls'
folderA folderB fileA fileB ...
 
# giving command options make this work.. why?
/home/userA>sudo /usr/bin/su - userA '/bin/ls -l' 
drwxr-x--x 8 userB groupX 8192 Jan 1 00:20 BKUP
..........

Please explain what difference does "-c" really make?
I am able to execute commands as a sudo userB and his env variables(.profile, .login etc) without "-c" option as well.

[QUOTE]
/home/userA> man su
.........
Example 2: Becoming User bin and Changing to bin's Login
Environment
To become user bin but change the environment to what would
be expected if bin had originally logged in, execute:
example% su - bin
Example 3: Executing command with user bin's Environment and
Permissions
To execute command with the temporary environment and per-
missions of user bin, type:
example% su - bin -c "command args"
[/QUOTE]
Last edited by kchinnam; 05-28-2013 at 09:02 PM.. Reason: formatting
 

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