2003/12/10 su

© December 2003 Tony Lawrence

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Without any arguments, this assumes you want to become "root", which is probably most of what it is used for. It will ask for the password (root's password if you haven't specified a user) and if you can give that, you will effectively become the other user.

I say "effectively" because this is NOT exactly the same as logging in as the user. For one thing, with just "su", you keep your own environment (PATH, etc.). That's something that throws new users often: use "su -" and you will pick up the login environment.

Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:~ apl$ echo $PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/Users/apl/bin:/usr/local/bin:/Developer/Tools
Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:~ apl$ su
Password:
[Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:/Users/apl] apl# echo $PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/Users/apl/bin:/usr/local/bin:/Developer/Tools
[Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:/Users/apl] apl# exit
Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:~ apl$ su -
Password:
[Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:~] root# echo $PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
[Anthony-Lawrences-Computer:~] root# 
 

Also, it's your effective uid that is changed. Programs can, if they want to, distinguish between real and effective id's, so it is possible that some program will not work using su.

The "su -" is useful if you are root, and need to login as some other user. Because you are root, you don't need their password: "su - bill" will act just like bill logging in.

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