Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!srhqla!nrcvax!kosman!kevin
From: kevin@kosman.UUCP (Kevin O'Gorman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Bug in /bin/su?
Message-ID: <1299@kosman.UUCP>
Date: 4 Mar 91 04:58:14 GMT
Organization: K.O.'s Manor - Vital Computer Systems, Oxnard, CA 93035
Lines: 23

I'm not sure I understand all the issues here, but I'm having trouble
with /bin/su.

After logging in, if I su to anything, it works as expected; if I then
try to su to something else, there seems to be no actual change of
which user I am.

For instance, if I want to su to 'news', which is generally unavailable
for normal login, on most systems you can su to root and then su to
news.  On the 3b1 this doesn't work -- you're stuck as root.

On this system, it seems that to work as 'news' I have to log in originally
as 'root' and use /bin/su only once.  This does seem to work.

The reasons that I think this is a bug are (1) there's no error report
and (2) the second /bin/su does actually leave you running a subshell,
just not as the user you expect.

Anyone with more insight?
-- 
Kevin O'Gorman ( kevin@kosman.UUCP, kevin%kosman.uucp@nrc.com )
voice: 805-984-8042 Vital Computer Systems, 5115 Beachcomber, Oxnard, CA  93035
Non-Disclaimer: my boss is me, and he stands behind everything I say.