UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello all -

On some of the systems we use - AlphaServer es40 Tru64 digital unix - you can login with the username: shutdown - with no password - and it shuts down the system gracefully. I've tried to trace what's going on in the system, but to no avail.

I've been searching the web, but haven't found anything useful. I entered a new user (shutdown) modified it's .bash_profile to call shutdown, but this doesn't seem to work.

How is this accomplished?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks.

The main reason of this problem can be:
the user "shutdown" is not using .bash_profile, or
you're using .bash_profile with bad shutdown command.
The command "shutdown -h now" need user who has uid=0.
So the user "shutdown" must have it.
Use:
userdel shutdown
useradd shutdown -u 0
It works fine with my linux.
However, there can be other problem:
your motherboard doesn't support "shutdown -h now", so
you should try "man shutdown" or "shutdown --help" for more info.