On Tue, 2006-07-18 at 20:58 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote: > The subject was su-ing to another user in init 1 mode. > > I wrote: > > Out of interest, what do you think should stop su working in init level > > 1? I mean on a "physical", which-bit-of-code-should-cause-an-error-and- > > why level? > > Jeff Vian wrote: > > Run level one does not have the concept of other users. It is called > > single user mode for a very good reason. > > I think you're over-estimating the importance of init. Run level one is > fundamentally an init concept -- it's defined in /etc/inittab and the > System V initscripts. It changes which programs get automatically run at > boot time. > > But the concept of "users", and "user ID" is a kernel one, which init > doesn't get to play with. The kernel doesn't have a concept of run-level > one, and neither does bash. (After all, you don't need to use a > traditional init at all -- in an emergency, bash will do perfectly > well). Well all this interested me enough that I booted to run level 1 on my FC5 machines. And indeed su works. I could do su - akonstam and be me. But why the blazes would anyone want to run: su - when they are already root in init level 1? ======================================================================= Humans are communications junkies. We just can't get enough. -- Alan Kay ======================================================================= Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx