osx man page for su

SU(1)							    BSD General Commands Manual 						     SU(1)

NAME
     su -- substitute user identity

SYNOPSIS
     su [-] [-flm] [login [args]]

DESCRIPTION
     The su utility requests appropriate user credentials via PAM and switches to that user ID (the default user is the superuser).  A shell is
     then executed.

     PAM is used to set the policy su(1) will use.  In particular, by default only users in the ``admin'' or ``wheel'' groups can switch to UID 0
     (``root'').  This group requirement may be changed by modifying the ``pam_group'' section of /etc/pam.d/su.  See pam_group(8) for details on
     how to modify this setting.

     By default, the environment is unmodified with the exception of USER, HOME, and SHELL.  HOME and SHELL are set to the target login's default
     values.  USER is set to the target login, unless the target login has a user ID of 0, in which case it is unmodified.  The invoked shell is
     the one belonging to the target login.  This is the traditional behavior of su.

     The options are as follows:

     -f      If the invoked shell is csh(1), this option prevents it from reading the ``.cshrc'' file.

     -l      Simulate a full login.  The environment is discarded except for HOME, SHELL, PATH, TERM, and USER.  HOME and SHELL are modified as
	     above.  USER is set to the target login.  PATH is set to ``/bin:/usr/bin''.  TERM is imported from your current environment.  The
	     invoked shell is the target login's, and su will change directory to the target login's home directory.

     -	     (no letter) The same as -l.

     -m      Leave the environment unmodified.	The invoked shell is your login shell, and no directory changes are made.  As a security precau-
	     tion, if the target user's shell is a non-standard shell (as defined by getusershell(3)) and the caller's real uid is non-zero, su
	     will fail.

     The -l (or -) and -m options are mutually exclusive; the last one specified overrides any previous ones.

     If the optional args are provided on the command line, they are passed to the login shell of the target login.  Note that all command line
     arguments before the target login name are processed by su itself, everything after the target login name gets passed to the login shell.

     By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user prompt is set to ``#'' to remind one of its awesome power.

ENVIRONMENT
     Environment variables used by su:

     HOME  Default home directory of real user ID unless modified as specified above.

     PATH  Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.

     TERM  Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted user ID.

     USER  The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an su unless the user ID is 0 (root).

FILES
     /etc/pam.d/su  PAM configuration for su.

EXAMPLES
     su man -c catman
	    Runs the command catman as user man.  You will be asked for man's password unless your real UID is 0.
     su man -c 'catman /usr/share/man /usr/local/man'
	    Same as above, but the target command consists of more than a single word and hence is quoted for use with the -c option being passed
	    to the shell.  (Most shells expect the argument to -c to be a single word).
     su -l foo
	    Simulate a login for user foo.
     su - foo
	    Same as above.
     su -   Simulate a login for root.

SEE ALSO
     csh(1), sh(1), group(5), passwd(5), environ(7), pam_group(8)

HISTORY
     A su command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

BSD
								September 13, 2006							       BSD