Bugzilla – Bug 682726
Reference suggests only "su" instead of "su -"/su -l/su --login "make the shell a login shell"
Last modified: 2017-08-11 20:12:30 UTC
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0 The manual "Referece" describes only to get superuser privileges without really becoming root (without using a login shell or an equivalent). So the user will get root rights without using the environment of the user root. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Open the documentation/Manual "Reference" http://doc.opensuse.org/products/opensuse/openSUSE/opensuse-reference 2. Go to Reference > Chapter 21. Shell Basics > 21.4. Becoming Root > 21.4.1. Using su http://doc.opensuse.org/products/opensuse/openSUSE/opensuse-reference/cha.new.bash.html#sec.new.bash.root 3. Read Actual Results: "su" The procedure of getting superuser privileges but not logging in as superuser actual is described: [CITE] 21.4.1. Using su¶ In order to temporarily become root in a shell, proceed as follows: 1. Enter su. You are prompted for the root password. 2. Enter the password. If you mistyped the root password, the shell displays a message. In this case, you have to re-enter su before retyping the password. If your password is correct, a hash symbol # appears at the end of the prompt, signaling that you are acting as root now. [...] [/CITE] Expected Results: "su -"="su -l"="su -login" should be described. The procedure of getting superuser privileges and simultaneous logging in as root with root's enviorment should be described. In addition a warning before using only "su" might be appropriate. See also: Vincent Untz Re: [opensuse-factory] Trouble starting yast2 from terminal Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:47:34 +0100 Message-id: <20110310094734.GC27272@vuntz.net> http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2011-03/msg00298.html [CITE] Use "su -", not "su". I'm actively wondering if there's any reason to keep the "su" default behavior around. It just keeps harming us again and again. [/CITE] Guido Berhörster Bug 655751 - gdbus aborting due to unauthorized socket in DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS Comment 10 of that thread 2011-03-17 18:51:17 UTC [CITE](In reply to comment #9) > You are right. I wasn't using "-" before. I tested it and it worked. While I > k now that is the standard way of doing things, previous versions of Suse > didn't require it--made me lazy I guess. You shouldn't do that, GNU coreutils su has in contrast to other implementations like Solaris su no security precautions at all and if you don't request a login shell, $PATH and any $LD_* variables are happily passed along. But this is getting offtopic, this bug is about glib not handling an invalid $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS gracefully. [/CITE] SDB:Login as root # A longer terminal session as root http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root#A_longer_terminal_session_as_root http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_%28Unix%29#Usage [CITE][...]It should generally be used with a hyphen by administrators (su -, which is identical to su - root), which can be used to start a login shell. This way users can assume the user environment of the target user:[..] [/CITE] Because of that I presume the Serverity Major is appropriate.
P.S. See also: Thread: Become su in Terminal - HowTo http://forums.opensuse.org/forums/english/get-technical-help-here/how-faq-forums/unreviewed-how-faq/424498-become-su-terminal-howto.html with further references and example of caused failures by the use of "su" without the additional login argument.
Thanks for the report, I see your point. Initially, this snippet was part of a chapter dedicated to newbies where I didn't want to go into any details regarding environment variables -- that's why I did not mention su - there. But I will change this for the future.
(In reply to comment #2) > Thanks for the report, I see your point. > > Initially, this snippet was part of a chapter dedicated to newbies where I > didn't want to go into any details regarding environment variables -- that's > why I did not mention su - there. But I will change this for the future. Thanks for becoming assignee of this bug, Tanja. A explanation *why* to use su better with a login would be fine but I think that other thing may be an "Enhancement" not a real (Major) bug. Regards Martin
I couldn't find that chapter in the current (openSUSE Leap 42.3) Reference Guide. Also, basic Linux command-line usage is out-of-scope for that document.