From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What does the minus sign - do?... in the command sudo su - Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 04:52:27 -0800 Organization: __________ Message-ID: <87mwn1njw4.fld@apaflo.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1380113985 15451 80.91.229.3 (25 Sep 2013 12:59:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 12:59:45 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Sep 25 14:59:51 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1VOoh4-0005OH-T4 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2013 14:59:51 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52375 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VOoh4-0004JZ-GQ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2013 08:59:50 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.glorb.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.posted.gcicommunications!news.posted.gcicommunications.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 07:52:27 -0500 Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: gnus 5.10.6/XEmacs 21.4.15/Linux 2.6.19 Cancel-Lock: sha1:xZGtwYSeWooq/nRB4ukhZEn4DVQ= Original-Lines: 19 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.237.127.152 Original-X-Trace: sv3-gue+zvE+/OJmEnjBoA0VV1u4E7I58rsnWzYMtbbemV5VZRifAmmPsNU/VSYptsYnNSfC9lhgKJOu2D4!K5vVK6lQF7A/K+dkkoMvFTWxcdbEc8eYYGgUgUrJnO+hiOyfQbqtHYKUeEps2bD7FXcLHlpk X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 1782 Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:201292 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 08:58:34 -0400 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:93562 Archived-At: Don Saklad 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