1RUNUSER(1) User Commands RUNUSER(1)
2
6 runuser - run a command with substitute user and group ID
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9 runuser [options] -u user [[--] command [argument...]]
10 runuser [options] [-] [user [argument...]]
12
14 runuser allows to run commands with a substitute user and group ID. If
15 the option -u is not given, it falls back to su-compatible semantics
16 and a shell is executed. The difference between the commands runuser
17 and su is that runuser does not ask for a password (because it may be
18 executed by the root user only) and it uses a different PAM configura‐
19 tion. The command runuser does not have to be installed with set-user-
20 ID permissions.
21 If the PAM session is not required then recommended solution is to use
23 setpriv(1) command.
24 When called without arguments, runuser defaults to running an interac‐
26 tive shell as root.
27 For backward compatibility, runuser defaults to not change the current
29 directory and to only set the environment variables HOME and SHELL
30 (plus USER and LOGNAME if the target user is not root). This version
31 of runuser uses PAM for session management.
32
34 -c, --command=command
35 Pass command to the shell with the -c option.
36 -f, --fast
38 Pass -f to the shell, which may or may not be useful depending
39 on the shell.
40 -g, --group=group
42 The primary group to be used. This option is allowed for the
43 root user only.
44 -G, --supp-group=group
46 Specify a supplemental group. This option is available to the
47 root user only. The first specified supplementary group is also
48 used as a primary group if the option --group is unspecified.
49 -, -l, --login
51 Start the shell as a login shell with an environment similar to
52 a real login:
53 o clears all the environment variables except for TERM
55 and variables specified by --whitelist-environment
56 o initializes the environment variables HOME, SHELL,
58 USER, LOGNAME, PATH
59 o changes to the target user's home directory
61 o sets argv[0] of the shell to '-' in order to make the
63 shell a login shell
64 -P, --pty
66 Create pseudo-terminal for the session. The independent terminal
67 provides better security as user does not share terminal with
68 the original session. This allow to avoid TIOCSTI ioctl termi‐
69 nal injection and another security attacks against terminal file
70 descriptors. The all session is also possible to move to back‐
71 ground (e.g. "runuser --pty -u username -- command &"). If the
72 pseudo-terminal is enabled then runuser command works as a proxy
73 between the sessions (copy stdin and stdout).
74 This feature is mostly designed for interactive sessions. If the
76 standard input is not a terminal, but for example pipe (e.g.
77 echo "date" | runuser --pty -u user) than ECHO flag for the
78 pseudo-terminal is disabled to avoid messy output.
79 -m, -p, --preserve-environment
81 Preserve the entire environment, i.e. it does not set HOME,
82 SHELL, USER nor LOGNAME. The option is ignored if the option
83 --login is specified.
84 -s, --shell=shell
86 Run the specified shell instead of the default. The shell to
87 run is selected according to the following rules, in order:
88 o the shell specified with --shell
90 o the shell specified in the environment variable SHELL
92 if the --preserve-environment option is used
93 o the shell listed in the passwd entry of the target
95 user
96 o /bin/sh
98 If the target user has a restricted shell (i.e. not listed in
100 /etc/shells) the --shell option and the SHELL environment vari‐
101 ables are ignored unless the calling user is root.
102 --session-command=command
104 Same as -c , but do not create a new session. (Discouraged.)
105 -w, --whitelist-environment=list
107 Don't reset environment variables specified in comma separated
108 list when clears environment for --login. The whitelist is
109 ignored for the environment variables HOME, SHELL, USER, LOG‐
110 NAME, and PATH.
111 -V, --version
113 Display version information and exit.
114 -h, --help
116 Display help text and exit.
117
119 runuser reads the /etc/default/runuser and /etc/login.defs configura‐
120 tion files. The following configuration items are relevant for
121 runuser:
122 ENV_PATH (string)
124 Defines the PATH environment variable for a regular user. The
125 default value is /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin.
126 ENV_ROOTPATH (string)
128 ENV_SUPATH (string)
129 Defines the PATH environment variable for root. ENV_SUPATH takes
130 precedence. The default value is /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:
131 /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin.
132 ALWAYS_SET_PATH (boolean)
134 If set to yes and --login and --preserve-environment were not spec‐
135 ified runuser initializes PATH.
136 The environment variable PATH may be different on systems where /bin
138 and /sbin are merged into /usr.
139
141 runuser normally returns the exit status of the command it executed.
142 If the command was killed by a signal, runuser returns the number of
143 the signal plus 128.
144 Exit status generated by runuser itself:
146 1 Generic error before executing the requested command
148 126 The requested command could not be executed
150 127 The requested command was not found
152
154 /etc/pam.d/runuser
155 default PAM configuration file
156 /etc/pam.d/runuser-l
157 PAM configuration file if --login is specified
158 /etc/default/runuser
159 runuser specific logindef config file
160 /etc/login.defs global logindef config file
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163 setpriv(1), su(1), login.defs(5), shells(5), pam(8)
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166 This runuser command was derived from coreutils' su, which was based
167 on an implementation by David MacKenzie, and the Fedora runuser command
168 by Dan Walsh.
169
171 The runuser command is part of the util-linux package and is available
172 from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
173 linux/⟩.
174util-linux July 2014 RUNUSER(1)