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Re: su alternative for Win2k


Andrew Schulman wrote:
I was just installing postgreSQL and ran across the problem with
getting initdb to run as the postgres user. As expected, I could
neither su nor login to work. Searching the archives and the like
for a fix, the most often specified one was to use ssh.  But as I
don't run sshd, and it seems a shame to have to run this just to
get an su-like behaviour, that wouldn't work for me.


Now I'm curious. I haven't tried to search for bug reports on su in Cygwin. But it's never worked for me. I always figured that I was just doing something wrong, but it was never important enough to find out what it was and fix it-- I just used 'Run As' instead, as you suggest.

So now I wonder, is it not just me? Is su in Cygwin broken for everyone?

Yes, according to the FAQ, su is essentially unsupported. One suggestion is to use 'login' but that also requires lots of research and changing of security parameters and the like. I couldn't really get RunAs to work for me. It wouldn't let me type in a password. I like the shortcut because now I can get a real bash shell for any of my "users" at the click of a mouse.

--
Jonathan Arnold     (mailto:jdarnold@buddydog.org)
Amazing Developments       http://www.buddydog.org

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages. -
 William H. Mauldin


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