Debian User Forums

Posted: **2019-05-23 08:08**

@4D696B65 y is ur penguin sad?

Posted: **2019-05-23 12:57**

For clarity, let's look at this on two different machines: one running Debian Wheezy and one running Debian Buster. And to ease comparison, let's use the following prompts:

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w$ == wheezy normal user
b$ == buster normal user
w# == wheezy root
b# == buster root

Here is a normal user's $PATH. It is the same on both systems:

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w$ echo $PATH
/home/soul/.bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

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b$ echo $PATH
/home/soul/.bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

Now, let's login as root both ways on both systems. First, let's use su -

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w$ su -
Password: 
w# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
w# exit
logout

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b$ su - 
Password: 
b# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
b# exit
logout

Once again, the $PATH is the same.

The difference, of course, is in the behavior of su (alone)

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w$ su
Password: 
w# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
w# exit
exit

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b$ su
Password: 
b# echo $PATH
/home/soul/.bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
b# exit
exit

So the difference is that when you login with su (alone) now, the root user no longer has $PATH access to the executable files in the: /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin and /sbin directories, but does have $PATH access to the executable files in /usr/local/games, /usr/games and the normal user's $HOME/.bin.

Posted: **2019-05-23 13:44**

sickpig wrote:@4D696B65 y is ur penguin sad?

nope, just had 4 bowls this morning and only 1 was cereal.

Posted: **2019-05-23 22:06**

hahaha

that ought to do it! ok me exits from this thread dont want to sidetrack this post of Soul Singin'

Debian User Forums

su on buster, is this normal now?

Re: su on buster, is this normal now?

Re: su on buster, is this normal now?

Re: su on buster, is this normal now?

Re: su on buster, is this normal now?