From owner-freebsd-hackers  Sun Oct  6 18:13:17 1996
Return-Path: owner-hackers
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id SAA23846
          for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 6 Oct 1996 18:13:17 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id SAA23841
          for <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 6 Oct 1996 18:13:15 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id KAA28805; Mon, 7 Oct 1996 10:42:41 +0930
From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Message-Id: <199610070112.KAA28805@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Subject: Re: su problem
To: roberte@mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (Robert Eckardt)
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 10:42:40 +0930 (CST)
Cc: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org,
        hasty@rah.star-gate.com
In-Reply-To: <199610062115.XAA01101@ghost.mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> from "Robert Eckardt" at Oct 6, 96 11:15:15 pm
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Robert Eckardt stands accused of saying:
> 
> > > su -l hasty <shell>
> > > 
> > > it gets a core dump...
> > 
> > Analyze it.  That's what coredumps are for.
> > 
> > Are you sure that it's not actually
> > 
> >   su -l hasty -c "<something>"
> 
> It would be nice if this would work.
> I was searching for that feature since the time I changed
> from SysVr3.2 to FreeBSD. (And it's not in the manpage.)
> 
> Is the missing ability to execute commands like sh BSD-specific
> or a security precaution ?

It's not missing.  We do a bunch of :

if [ -x <script> ]; then
	su -l <user> -c <script> &
fi

in the startup for our radar systems; on some installations there
are as many as 10 or so of these run at startup.  Note that '-c' is
passed to the shell and interpreted there.  This is a FAQ.

> Robert

-- 
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au    [[
]] Genesis Software                     genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au   [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and      (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496       [[
]] realtime instrument control          (ph/fax)  +61-8-267-3039        [[
]] Collector of old Unix hardware.      "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick  [[