su and su-

[sanalkumar]

i am new to hp unix can any one tell the differnce between su and su- can you suggest any books for knowing ssh..thanks in advance

[Anshumali · Accepted solution]

If the - flag is specified, the su command initializes the user environment else no.

[Jeeshan]

"su" is equiv "su root" and "su -" equiv "su - root"

the diff between "su" and "su -" is "su -" you log in as a root with the env setting/profile (i.e you really log in as a root).

if you "su" only then basically you just "borrow" the root permission without having all the root env setting/profile.

[Anshumali]

Ahsan, what if i am root already and do a
su - (username) ?

su isn;t limited for gaining root access. :)

[Aneesh Mohan]

Sanal,

su login :- to switch login without executing profile/env variable

su - login :- to switch login with executing the login profile/env


Thanks,

Aneesh

[sanalkumar]

Thanks to all of you for the immediate response.

[Mridul Shrivastava]

su means switch user and as its expansion describes it is used for switching user.. It could be root to non-rrot user or vice versa...

The difference between su and su - is already been explained by Anshumali.