unofficial mirror of help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
* What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
@ 2013-09-25  9:19 Don Saklad
  2013-09-25  9:27 ` Peter Dyballa
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Don Saklad @ 2013-09-25  9:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-gnu-emacs, Don Warner Saklad

What does the minus sign - do?... in the command

     sudo su -





.



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
  2013-09-25  9:19 Don Saklad
@ 2013-09-25  9:27 ` Peter Dyballa
  2013-09-25 13:09   ` Kevin Rodgers
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Peter Dyballa @ 2013-09-25  9:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Don Saklad; +Cc: help-gnu-emacs


Am 25.09.2013 um 11:19 schrieb Don Saklad:

> What does the minus sign - do?... in the command
> 
>     sudo su -

(Almost) Nothing. It just opens a shell…

--
Greetings

  Pete

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German, and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.
				– Albert Einstein, 1929




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
       [not found] <mailman.2834.1380100781.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
@ 2013-09-25 12:35 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
  2013-09-25 12:36 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
                   ` (2 subsequent siblings)
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Pascal J. Bourguignon @ 2013-09-25 12:35 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-gnu-emacs

Don Saklad <dsaklad@gnu.org> writes:

> What does the minus sign - do?... in the command
>
>      sudo su -

man su

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
       [not found] <mailman.2834.1380100781.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
  2013-09-25 12:35 ` What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su - Pascal J. Bourguignon
@ 2013-09-25 12:36 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
  2013-09-25 12:52 ` Floyd L. Davidson
  2013-09-30 20:04 ` Kai Grossjohann
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Pascal J. Bourguignon @ 2013-09-25 12:36 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-gnu-emacs

Don Saklad <dsaklad@gnu.org> writes:

> What does the minus sign - do?... in the command
>
>      sudo su -

Sorry, this was in emacs:   M-x man RET su RET
(or M-x woman RET su RET if you prefer it).

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
       [not found] <mailman.2834.1380100781.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
  2013-09-25 12:35 ` What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su - Pascal J. Bourguignon
  2013-09-25 12:36 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
@ 2013-09-25 12:52 ` Floyd L. Davidson
  2013-09-30 20:04 ` Kai Grossjohann
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Floyd L. Davidson @ 2013-09-25 12:52 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-gnu-emacs

Don Saklad <dsaklad@gnu.org> wrote:
>What does the minus sign - do?... in the command
>
>     sudo su -
>
>.

It should cause you to read the man page for su, where it is explained
as the equivalent of -l or -login.  But you want to read the details
of exactly what that means...

In practice it's the way you select the environment you'll be in after
the su command.  If you want to retain your own login environment, don't
use the -login option.  If you want the environment the specified user
would normally get, use the -login option.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                      floyd@apaflo.com


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
  2013-09-25  9:27 ` Peter Dyballa
@ 2013-09-25 13:09   ` Kevin Rodgers
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Kevin Rodgers @ 2013-09-25 13:09 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-gnu-emacs

On 9/25/13 3:27 AM, Peter Dyballa wrote:
>
> Am 25.09.2013 um 11:19 schrieb Don Saklad:
>
>> What does the minus sign - do?... in the command
>>
>>      sudo su -
>
> (Almost) Nothing. It just opens a shell…

Actually, it tells su to start a login shell (as opposed to a shell that
inherits the current environment:

      -l      Simulate a full login.  The environment is discarded except for
              HOME, SHELL, PATH, TERM, and USER.  HOME and SHELL are modified
              as above.  USER is set to the target login.  PATH is set to
              ``/bin:/usr/bin''.  TERM is imported from your current environ-
              ment.  The invoked shell is the target login's, and su will
              change directory to the target login's home directory.  This
              option is identical to just passing "-", as in "su -".

`M-x man' is your friend.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su -
       [not found] <mailman.2834.1380100781.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
                   ` (2 preceding siblings ...)
  2013-09-25 12:52 ` Floyd L. Davidson
@ 2013-09-30 20:04 ` Kai Grossjohann
  3 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Kai Grossjohann @ 2013-09-30 20:04 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-gnu-emacs

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:19:32 AM UTC+2, Don Saklad wrote:
> What does the minus sign - do?... in the command
> 
>      sudo su -

May I propose to use "sudo -i" instead?  It starts a login shell.

"sudo su -" is similar: sudo starts su which starts a login shell.  I think it makes more sense to have sudo start a login shell, than to have sudo start su which starts a login shell...


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2013-09-30 20:04 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
     [not found] <mailman.2834.1380100781.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-09-25 12:35 ` What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su - Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-09-25 12:36 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-09-25 12:52 ` Floyd L. Davidson
2013-09-30 20:04 ` Kai Grossjohann
2013-09-25  9:19 Don Saklad
2013-09-25  9:27 ` Peter Dyballa
2013-09-25 13:09   ` Kevin Rodgers

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).