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+.TH RUNUSER 1 "July 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
+.SH NAME
+runuser \- run a command with substitute user and group ID
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.BR runuser " [options] " \-u
+.I user
+.RI "[[\-\-] " command " ["argument "...]]"
+.LP
+.BR runuser " [options] [" \- ]
+.RI [ user " [" argument "...]]"
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.B runuser
+allows to run commands with a substitute user and group ID.
+If the option \fB\-u\fR is not given, it falls back to
+.BR su -compatible
+semantics and a shell is executed.
+The difference between the commands
+.B runuser
+and
+.B su
+is that
+.B 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
+.B runuser
+does not have to be installed with set-user-ID permissions.
+.PP
+If the PAM session is not required then recommended solution is to use
+.BR setpriv (1)
+command.
+.PP
+When called without arguments,
+.B runuser
+defaults to running an interactive shell as
+.IR root .
+.PP
+For backward compatibility,
+.B runuser
+defaults to not change the current directory and to only set the
+environment variables
+.B HOME
+and
+.B SHELL
+(plus
+.B USER
+and
+.B LOGNAME
+if the target
+.I user
+is not root).
+This version of
+.B runuser
+uses PAM for session management.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+.BR \-c , " \-\-command" = \fIcommand
+Pass
+.I command
+to the shell with the
+.B \-c
+option.
+.TP
+.BR \-f , " \-\-fast"
+Pass
+.B \-f
+to the shell, which may or may not be useful depending on the
+shell.
+.TP
+.BR \-g , " \-\-group" = \fIgroup
+The primary group to be used. This option is allowed for the root user only.
+.TP
+.BR \-G , " \-\-supp\-group" = \fIgroup
+Specify a supplemental 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 \fB\-\-group\fR is unspecified.
+.TP
+.BR \- , " \-l" , " \-\-login"
+Start the shell as a login shell with an environment similar to a real
+login:
+.RS 10
+.TP
+o
+clears all the environment variables except for
+.B TERM
+and variables specified by \fB\-\-whitelist\-environment\fR
+.TP
+o
+initializes the environment variables
+.BR HOME ,
+.BR SHELL ,
+.BR USER ,
+.BR LOGNAME ,
+.B PATH
+.TP
+o
+changes to the target user's home directory
+.TP
+o
+sets argv[0] of the shell to
+.RB ' \- '
+in order to make the shell a login shell
+.RE
+.TP
+.BR \-m , " \-p" , " \-\-preserve\-environment"
+Preserve the entire environment, i.e. it does not set
+.BR HOME ,
+.BR SHELL ,
+.B USER
+nor
+.BR LOGNAME .
+The option is ignored if the option \fB\-\-login\fR is specified.
+.TP
+.BR \-s , " \-\-shell" = \fIshell
+Run the specified \fIshell\fR instead of the default. The shell to run is
+selected according to the following rules, in order:
+.RS 10
+.TP
+o
+the shell specified with
+.B \-\-shell
+.TP
+o
+the shell specified in the environment variable
+.B SHELL
+if the
+.B \-\-preserve\-environment
+option is used
+.TP
+o
+the shell listed in the passwd entry of the target user
+.TP
+o
+/bin/sh
+.RE
+.IP
+If the target user has a restricted shell (i.e. not listed in
+/etc/shells) the
+.B \-\-shell
+option and the
+.B SHELL
+environment variables are ignored unless the calling user is root.
+.TP
+.BI \-\-session\-command= command
+Same as
+.B \-c ,
+but do not create a new session. (Discouraged.)
+.TP
+.BR \-w , " \-\-whitelist\-environment" = \fIlist
+Don't reset environment variables specified in comma separated \fIlist\fR when clears
+environment for \fB\-\-login\fR. The whitelist is ignored for the environment variables
+.BR HOME ,
+.BR SHELL ,
+.BR USER ,
+.BR LOGNAME ", and"
+.BR PATH "."
+.TP
+.BR \-V , " \-\-version"
+Display version information and exit.
+.TP
+.BR \-h , " \-\-help"
+Display help text and exit.
+.SH CONFIG FILES
+.B runuser
+reads the
+.I /etc/default/runuser
+and
+.I /etc/login.defs
+configuration files. The following configuration items are relevant
+for
+.BR runuser :
+.PP
+.B ENV_PATH
+(string)
+.RS 4
+Defines the PATH environment variable for a regular user. The
+default value is
+.IR /usr/local/bin:\:/bin:\:/usr/bin .
+.RE
+.PP
+.B ENV_ROOTPATH
+(string)
+.br
+.B ENV_SUPATH
+(string)
+.RS 4
+Defines the PATH environment variable for root. The default value is
+.IR /usr/local/sbin:\:/usr/local/bin:\:/sbin:\:/bin:\:/usr/sbin:\:/usr/bin .
+.RE
+.PP
+.B ALWAYS_SET_PATH
+(boolean)
+.RS 4
+If set to
+.I yes
+and \-\-login and \-\-preserve\-environment were not specified
+.B runuser
+initializes
+.BR PATH .
+.RE
+.sp
+The environment variable PATH may be different on systems where /bin and /sbin
+are merged into /usr.
+.SH EXIT STATUS
+.B runuser
+normally returns the exit status of the command it executed. If the
+command was killed by a signal,
+.B runuser
+returns the number of the signal plus 128.
+.PP
+Exit status generated by
+.B runuser
+itself:
+.RS 10
+.TP
+1
+Generic error before executing the requested command
+.TP
+126
+The requested command could not be executed
+.TP
+127
+The requested command was not found
+.RE
+.SH FILES
+.PD 0
+.TP 17
+/etc/pam.d/runuser
+default PAM configuration file
+.TP
+/etc/pam.d/runuser-l
+PAM configuration file if \-\-login is specified
+.TP
+/etc/default/runuser
+runuser specific logindef config file
+.TP
+/etc/login.defs
+global logindef config file
+.PD 1
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+.BR setpriv (1),
+.BR su (1),
+.BR login.defs (5),
+.BR shells (5),
+.BR pam (8)
+.SH HISTORY
+This \fB runuser\fR command was
+derived from coreutils' \fBsu\fR, which was based on an implementation by
+David MacKenzie, and the Fedora \fBrunuser\fR command by Dan Walsh.
+.SH AVAILABILITY
+The runuser command is part of the util-linux package and is
+available from
+.UR https://\:www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
+Linux Kernel Archive
+.UE .