[comp.sys.sun] 'su username' in ksh occasionally hang SunOS 4.0.x on Sparc

eho@clarity.princeton.edu (Eric Ho) (05/26/90)

Has anyone seen 'su username' hangs (the su process just stuck in
running-state) in ksh under SunOS 4.0.x (at least on Sparc so far) ??

A way out is to do a ctrl-c to get out of su.  And if you want to try 'su
usrname' later, you must logout entirely first, log back in and then you
can do 'su username' again.

I've never seen this under tcsh or csh though -- could it be some strange
interactions between ksh and su (or just su with init()) ??

Any pointers appreciated.

Eric Ho  
Princeton University
eho@clarity.princeton.edu

amos@taux01.nsc.com (Amos Shapir) (05/29/90)

In article <8194@brazos.Rice.edu> eho@clarity.princeton.edu (Eric Ho) writes:
>
>A way out is to do a ctrl-c to get out of su.  And if you want to try 'su
>usrname' later, you must logout entirely first, log back in and then you
>can do 'su username' again.

This symptom arises the suspicion that something is wrong with the ksh
environment (logging out & back resets it).  Check if you didn't manage to
create an alias or a function named 'su' - i.e. next time this happens, do
'type su' and check if it still points to /bin/su.  (Coming to think of
it, this may be a viral password-catcher planted in your home dir!)

	Amos Shapir		amos@taux01.nsc.com, amos@nsc.nsc.com
National Semiconductor (Israel) P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel
Tel. +972 52 522408  TWX: 33691, fax: +972-52-558322 GEO: 34 48 E / 32 10 N