AIX

Hello,

Is there any way to su another user and loading its profile with an argument.

For example I am user1 and I want to start user2

user2 .profile is interactive asking user to pass some values

I want to automate a process by switching user and if I pass an argument the interactive work will be skipped.

e.g. something like that

Code:

user1@aix $      su - user2 -c "/home/user2/.profile some_argument"

Is this possible?

Thanks

---------- Post updated at 09:42 AM ---------- Previous update was at 09:34 AM ----------

ok I found that

Code:

su user2 "-c /home/user2/.profile some_argument"

will do the job

is there any way to keep the spawned session instead of returning to the initial (user1 session)?

Your approach will do nothing but run .profile and return. man su:

Code:

       -c, --command COMMAND
           Specify a command that will be invoked by the shell using its -c.
           The executed command will have no controlling terminal. This option cannot be used to execute interractive programs which need a controlling TTY.

Usually, after logging in, a shell is executed to run the desired program or script. Parameters to the shell are commands to be executed, not arguments to control the session's behaviour.

This is not something I would expect to work. Apparently you have a .profile designed to be a "menu" aka interactive - so "su -" is not likely to work for you here.

I would consider using a hard link and looking at $0 to see if it is .profile, or something else. If .profile, then I am logging in.

Better yet perhaps - do not use "su -", but just su -c "some command".

Or, in your case: exec su user2 -c "some command"

In "some command" you can test if you are doing a "login"/"su -" because the effective uid will not match the uid of your $LOGNAME when you do not use the "su -" syntax.

Build some tests around this behavior:

Code:

michael@x071:[/home/michael]su - root
root's Password: 
root@x071:[/root]echo $LOGNAME
root
root@x071:[/root]
michael@x071:[/home/michael]su root
root's Password: 
michael@x071:[/home/michael]echo $LOGNAME
michael
michael@x071:[/home/michael]id
uid=0(root) gid=0(system) groups=0(system),2(bin),3(sys),7(security),8(cron),10(audit),11(lp),13(dbsysadm),207(idsldap)
michael@x071:[/home/michael]

Anyway, this is not standard - think creative - and I hope this helps you move forward!

First off: RudiC and MicahelFelt are right having concerns: what you attempt to do sounds not worth doing and most probably a careful analysis of your original problem (not what you think is a solution to your problem) will reveal that it can be done much better some other way. I suggest to explore such a solution.

Having said this: there is a way to do as you want - very ugly, not to be suggested but it works, at least with AIX:

Create several different user accounts by copying the line with the original user in /etc/passwd. Leave everything the same, most importantly the user ID, but change the usernames and the home directories to something distinctive. Create the mentioned home directories and give them the same filemodes and ownerships. Now put one variation of the .profile in each of these directories. Depending on into which user you su you will get the respective profile executed.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

I think you mean

Code:

su user2 -c "command"

You can simply switch to the user without a command, this opens a new interactive shell.

Code:

su user2

Also you can replace the current shell with

Code:

exec su user2

But both won't allow the calling shell to send further commands.