Using su in Shell script

Question

Hi All, I am writing a shell script where in a condition the script will change the user like su - xxx and then it has to execute some commands/scripts and should stay login to that user/session for user interaction. Once user enter exit it should exit from that session and should return to script.

I have tried using su - xxx -c "commands" but it terminates the session after executing the commands. I want to stay on that session after execution of the commands, user should exit manually (type exit) to close that session and return to script.

Any hint will do..

Thanks in advance....for you suggestion..

Answer 1

What does "should stay login to that user/session for user interaction" mean? Do you want to give the user a regular shell prompt so they can type commands?

To do that, you need to start a shell separately. Try:

#!/bin/bash
echo Doing stuff...
echo Starting shell. Type "exit" when done.
sudo su - -c bash
echo Thanks for playing!

This will start a sub-shell for the user. If the sub-shell terminates (usually when the user types exit/Ctrl-D), the script continues.

Answer 2

Probably the easiest way is to start bash as the final command in your list of commands.