Am Samstag 11 August 2018 schrieb Pétùr: > Using 'su' generates now an path error when launching programs such as > 'shutdown'. The cause is a new behavior described below. --- > util-linux (2.32-0.4) unstable; urgency=medium > > The util-linux implementation of /bin/su is now used, replacing the > one previously supplied by src:shadow (shipped in login package), and > bringing Debian in line with other modern distributions. The two > implementations are very similar but have some minor differences (and > there might be more that was not yet noticed ofcourse), e.g. > > - new 'su' (with no args, i.e. when preserving the environment) also > preserves PATH and IFS, while old su would always reset PATH and IFS > even in 'preserve environment' mode. > - su '' (empty user string) used to give root, but now returns an error. > - previously su only had one pam config, but now 'su -' is configured > separately in /etc/pam.d/su-l > > The first difference is probably the most user visible one. Doing > plain 'su' is a really bad idea for many reasons, so using 'su -' is > strongly recommended to always get a newly set up environment similar > to a normal login. If you want to restore behaviour more similar to > the previous one you can add 'ALWAYS_SET_PATH yes' in /etc/login.defs. > --- > > The new 'su' is useless for me because it cannot launch root program. > I did the modification in /etc/login.defs and restore the previous > behavior. However I am concern with the statement " Doing plain 'su' > is a really bad idea for many reasons". > > Could someone explain to me why this is a bad behavior? > > Pétùr
Hello Pétùr, only recently until a couple days ago there was a lengthy discussion about just that. Have you missed that? Have a look in the archives for a subject line like this: "use of su vs sudo" ... Kind regards, Stefan
