RUNUSER
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: July 2014
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NAME
runuser - run a command with substitute user and group ID
SYNOPSIS
runuser [options]
-u
user
[[--]
command [argument
...]]
runuser [options] [-]
[user [argument...]]
DESCRIPTION
runuser
allows to run commands with a substitute user and group ID.
If the option
-u is not given, it falls back to
su-compatible
semantics and a shell is executed.
The difference between the commands
runuser
and
su
is that
runuser
does not ask for a password (because it may be executed by the root user only) and
it uses a different PAM configuration.
The command
runuser
does not have to be installed with set-user-ID permissions.
If the PAM session is not required then recommended solution is to use
setpriv(1)
command.
When called without arguments,
runuser
defaults to running an interactive shell as
root.
For backward compatibility,
runuser
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).
This version of
runuser
uses PAM for session management.
OPTIONS
- -c, --command=command
-
Pass
command
to the shell with the
-c
option.
- -f, --fast
-
Pass
-f
to the shell, which may or may not be useful depending on the
shell.
- -g, --group=group
-
The primary group to be used. This option is allowed for the root user only.
- -G, --supp-group=group
-
Specify a supplemental group. This option is available to the root user only. The first specified
supplementary group is also used as a primary group if the option --group is unspecified.
- -, -l, --login
-
Start the shell as a login shell with an environment similar to a real
login:
-
- o
-
clears all the 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
-
Preserve the entire environment, i.e. it does not set
HOME,
SHELL,
USER
nor
LOGNAME.
The option is ignored if the option --login is specified.
- -s, --shell=shell
-
Run 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.
- --session-command=command
-
Same as
-c ,
but do not create a new session. (Discouraged.)
- -V, --version
-
Display version information and exit.
- -h, --help
-
Display help text and exit.
CONFIG FILES
runuser
reads the
/etc/default/runuser
and
/etc/login.defs
configuration files. The following configuration items are relevant
for
runuser:
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
runuser
initializes
PATH.
EXIT STATUS
runuser
normally returns the exit status of the command it executed. If the
command was killed by a signal,
runuser
returns the number of the signal plus 128.
Exit status generated by
runuser
itself:
-
- 1
-
Generic error before executing the requested command
- 126
-
The requested command could not be executed
- 127
-
The requested command was not found
FILES
- /etc/pam.d/runuser
-
default PAM configuration file
- /etc/pam.d/runuser-l
-
PAM configuration file if --login is specified
- /etc/default/runuser
-
runuser specific logindef config file
- /etc/login.defs
-
global logindef config file
SEE ALSO
setpriv(1),
su(1),
login.defs(5),
shells(5),
pam(8)
HISTORY
This
runuser command was
derived from coreutils'
su, which was based on an implementation by
David MacKenzie, and the Fedora
runuser command by Dan Walsh.
AVAILABILITY
The runuser command is part of the util-linux package and is
available from
Linux Kernel Archive
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- CONFIG FILES
-
- EXIT STATUS
-
- FILES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- HISTORY
-
- AVAILABILITY
-
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