NAME
runuser - run a command with substitute user and group IDSYNOPSIS
runuser [options] -u user [[--] command [argument...]]DESCRIPTION
runuser can be used to run commands with a substitute user and group ID. If the option -u is not given, runuser 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.OPTIONS
-c, --command=commandPass command to the shell with the
-c option.
Pass -f to the shell, which may or may
not be useful, depending on the shell.
The primary group to be used. This option is
allowed for the root user only.
Specify a supplementary 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 not
specified.
Start the shell as a login shell with an
environment similar to a real login:
•clears all the environment variables
except for TERM and variables specified by
--whitelist-environment
•initializes the environment variables
HOME, SHELL, USER, LOGNAME, and PATH
•changes to the target user’s
home directory
•sets argv[0] of the shell to
'-' in order to make the shell a login shell
Create a pseudo-terminal for the session. The
independent terminal provides better security as the user does not share a
terminal with the original session. This can be used to avoid TIOCSTI ioctl
terminal injection and other security attacks against terminal file
descriptors. The entire session can also be moved to the background (e.g.,
runuser --pty -u username -- command
&). If the pseudo-terminal is enabled, then runuser works as
a proxy between the sessions (sync stdin and stdout).
This feature is mostly designed for interactive sessions. If the standard input
is not a terminal, but for example a pipe (e.g., echo "date" |
runuser --pty -u user), then the ECHO flag for the
pseudo-terminal is disabled to avoid messy output.
Preserve the entire environment, i.e., do not
set HOME, SHELL, USER or LOGNAME. The option is
ignored if the option --login is specified.
Run the specified shell instead of the
default. The shell to run is selected according to the following rules, in
order:
•the shell specified with
--shell
•the shell specified in the environment
variable SHELL if the --preserve-environment option is
used
•the shell listed in the passwd entry
of the target user
•/bin/sh
If the target user has a restricted shell (i.e., not listed in
/etc/shells), then the --shell option and the SHELL
environment variables are ignored unless the calling user is root.
Same as -c, but do not create a new
session. (Discouraged.)
Don’t reset the environment variables
specified in the comma-separated list when clearing the environment for
--login. The whitelist is ignored for the environment variables
HOME, SHELL, USER, LOGNAME, and PATH.
Display help text and exit.
Print version and exit.
CONFIG FILES
runuser reads the /etc/default/runuser and /etc/login.defs configuration files. The following configuration items are relevant for runuser:Defines the PATH environment variable for a
regular user. The default value is /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin.
Defines the PATH environment variable
for root. ENV_SUPATH takes precedence. The default value is
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin.
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.Generic error before executing the requested
command
The requested command could not be
executed
The requested command was not found
FILES
/etc/pam.d/runuserdefault PAM configuration file
PAM configuration file if --login is
specified
runuser specific logindef config file
global logindef config file
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.SEE ALSO
setpriv(1), su(1), login.defs(5), shells(5), pam(8)REPORTING BUGS
For bug reports, use the issue tracker at <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.AVAILABILITY
The runuser command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.2022-05-11 | util-linux 2.38.1 |