NAME

     su - temporary become superuser or another user


SYNOPSIS

     su [-[e]] [user [shell-arguments ...]]


DESCRIPTION

     Su can be used to temporarily run a shell under the identity
     of  the  superuser  or another user.  Unless the caller is a
     member of the operator group, one is prompted for the  pass-
     word  of  the  user-to-be.   Calls  that need a password are
     logged, whether they succeed or not.  The  default  user  is
     root.   Further  arguments  are  handed  to  the  shell.  By
     default the shell started is the shell of the  invoker,  and
     the environment is passed on as is.

     The activities of su  are  logged  through  syslog(3)  under
     Minix-vmd.


OPTIONS

     -    Constructs a new environment consisting  of  the  PATH,
          USER, LOGNAME, HOME, SHELL, TERM, TERMCAP, and TZ vari-
          ables.  The environment is the  same  as  on  a  normal
          login, except that TERM, TERMCAP and TZ are copied from
          the current environment if set.   The  current  working
          directory  is  changed  to the user home directory, the
          shell of the user-to-be is run, and it is started as  a
          login shell, with the first character a minus sign.

     -e   Like above, but the shell is started normally, not as a
          login shell.


SEE ALSO

     sh(1), login(1), syslog(3).


AUTHOR

     Kees J. Bot <kjb@cs.vu.nl>