centos man page for su

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 implementa-
       tions 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 allowed for root user only

       -, -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 following rules in order:

		 o	the shell specified with --shell

		 o	The shell specified in the environment variable SHELL if the --preserve-environment option is used.

		 o	the shell listed in the passwd entry of the target user

		 o	/bin/sh

	      If  the  target  user has a restricted shell (i.e. not listed in /etc/shells) the --shell option and the SHELL environment variables
	      are ignored unless the calling user is root.

       --help Display help text and exit.

       --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)