Another dumb question...

[Konstantin Ryabitsev]

murphy pope wrote:
> Everything that I've read says that the 'su' command will change my 
> Linux user ID but not my identity.  Here's what I see:
> 
> # id -Z
> root:staff_r:staff_t
> # su fred
> Your default context is fred:sysadm_r:sysadm_t.
> 
> Do you want to choose a different one? [n]n
> $ id -Z
> fred:sysadm_r:sysadm_t
> 
> My identity changed from 'root' to 'fred'.  Bug?  That seems a pretty 
> fundamental flaw considering that every document that I've read uses 
> 'su' to explain the difference between a user ID and an identity.
> 
> By the way, I see the same result whether I use 'su' or 'su -'.  I see 
> the same result (a change in identity) whether I su from root to fred or 
> from fred to root.
> 
> So which one is right?  The documentation or the code?

I can't confirm this:

icon at hagrid:[~]$ id -Z
user_u:user_r:user_t
icon at hagrid:[~]$ su
Password:
root at hagrid:[/home/einstein/staff/icon]# id -Z
root:sysadm_r:sysadm_t
root at hagrid:[/home/einstein/staff/icon]# su -
Your default context is root:sysadm_r:sysadm_t.
 

Do you want to choose a different one? [n]
[root at hagrid root]# id -Z
root:sysadm_r:sysadm_t
[root at hagrid root]# su icon
icon at hagrid:[/root]$ id -Z
user_u:user_r:user_t
icon at hagrid:[/root]$ exit
[root at hagrid root]# su - icon
icon at hagrid:[~]$ id -Z
user_u:user_r:user_t
icon at hagrid:[~]$

-icon