VIEW-OS(1)

📦 version 0.8.2, in debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

👑 VIEW-OS(1) — the manual page, bestie edition ✨

okay so. welcome to the General Commands Manual for View-OS, and today's main character is viewsu. grab a snack, we're doing this 💅

🦋 NAME

viewsu — change your (virtual) user ID, or just go ahead and become the (virtual) superuser. yes, that's the whole vibe.

🌸 SYNOPSIS

viewsu [options] [username]

✨ DESCRIPTION

So viewsu is how you become another user mid-login-session, no cap. If you run it with no username at all? It defaults to becoming the superuser. iconic behavior tbh 👑

That optional argument -? You can use it to hand yourself an environment that feels like you logged in directly, which is the whole point.

Real talk: this command is the View-OS counterpart of the su(1) command. Like, same energy, View-OS flavored 🫶

And the $PATH situation, because yes we care:

  • for normal users, $PATH gets reset to /bin:/usr/bin
  • for the superuser, it's /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

You can change all that with the ENV_PATH and ENV_SUPATH definitions inside /etc/login.defs. that file is literally the plug 🔌

💖 OPTIONS

The options that apply to the viewsu command are, and I cannot stress this enough, all of them:

  • -c, --command COMMAND — specify a command that's gonna get invoked by the shell using its -c. so like, you tell it what to run, the shell runs it, done ✨
  • -, -l, --login — provides an environment similar to what the user would expect if the user had logged in directly. the cozy homecoming fit 🧚
heads up bestie: when you use -, it must be specified as the last viewsu option. the other two forms (-l and --login) do not have this restriction. don't get caught out, fr fr.
  • -s, --shell SHELL — the shell that will be invoked. that's it, that's the option 🐚

The invoked shell is chosen from the following, highest priority first:

  • The shell specified with --shell.
  • The shell indicated in the /etc/passwd entry for the target user.
  • /bin/sh if a shell could not be found by any of the above methods.

so it's giving fallback chain, and honestly? reliable. lowkey a slay.

🌈 SEE ALSO

go read them, iykyk 📚

🎀 AUTHORS

View-OS is a project of the Computer Science Department, University of Bologna. Project Leader: Renzo Davoli.

<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/view-os>

Howto's and further information can be found on the project wiki:

<wiki.virtualsquare.org>

💀 NOTE

Most part of the text is taken from su(1). credit where credit is due, periodt.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was the VIEW-OS manual, source tag "VIEW-OS: a process with a view", dated August 5, 2009. drink some water, log out when you're done, and stay slay 💜🌈

📦 where this page comes from