My profile

[Qcheck]

I have my own profile, when I su to root still I want to use my own profile not the root's. [I know if I use su -, then I am using root's profile.] So whenever I su, the variables are resetting. How can I avoid this?

[Adam W.]

The easiest way would be to copy your profile to the root account. Are you the only SA?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

# su root

...without the '-'

Regards!

...JRF...

[Qcheck]

No Adam, I don't want to do that. there are other admins.

[Adam W.]

That is why I asked if you were the only one.

James, good to know. I was not aware of that.

[Qcheck]

That is what I am doing James. I know if I do su - then I am using root's profile. But I expect to use my profile when I just su. But still my profile is not working. When I did man on su, it says it will reset the variables, wheich I don't want to do. I should be able to list type all the root commands, show my PS1 variable and can do "esc k" to recall my previous commands.

[Michael Mike Reaser]

Which variables are resetting? The su(1) man page states that if you're su'ing to root with*OUT* a "-", then PATH and PS1 are set to default values while HOME, ENV, LD_PRELOAD, LD_LIBRARY_PATH and SHLIB_PATH are deleted and all other variables are kept.

Maybe you should look at "man 4 security" for how to set up the /etc/default/security file on your system? That might allow you to keep most, if not all, of the variables that you're current seeing reset.

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

Why not just source your own profile after you su.

$ su - root
# . /home/username/.profile

Now you are using your profile again.

[Qcheck]

Thank you patrick. That is working, but how can I avoid typing/running my profile everytime I login? I want to run my profile as soon as I su . And when I su - then ot should use root's profile.

[OldSchool]

if you are willing to modify root's .profile, you should be able to leverage the "who" command to automate this. Something like

olduser=`who am i | awk 'print {$1}'`
if [ $olduser = '' ]
then
. /home//.profile
fi

"who am i" will return your original login, so you can source your profile, and the other admins won't get those changes

[Qcheck]

Thank you all for all your time and help.