RUNUSER

runuser − run a shell with substitute user and group IDs

runuser [OPTION]... [-] [USER [ARG]...]

Change the effective user id and group id to that of USER. Only session PAM hooks are run, and there is no password prompt. This command is useful only when run as the root user. If run as a non−root user without privilege to set user ID, the command will fail as the binary is not setuid. As runuser doesn’t run auth and account PAM hooks, it runs with lower overhead than su.

−, −l, −−login

make the shell a login shell, uses runuser−l PAM file instead of default one

−g −−group=group

specify the primary group

−G −−supp−group=group

specify a supplemental group

−c, −−command=COMMAND

pass a single COMMAND to the shell with −c

−−session−command=COMMAND

pass a single COMMAND to the shell with −c and do not create a new session

−f, −−fast

pass −f to the shell (for csh or tcsh)

−m, −−preserve−environment

do not reset environment variables

−p

same as −m

−s, −−shell=SHELL

run SHELL if /etc/shells allows it

−−help

display this help and exit

−−version

output version information and exit

A mere − implies −l. If USER not given, assume root.

Written by David MacKenzie, Dan Walsh.

Report runuser bugs to bug−coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report runuser translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

More detailed Texinfo documentation could be found by command

info coreutils 'su invocation'

since the command runuser is trimmed down version of command su.