Shell – Switch from Root to User with Nologin Shell

nologinshellusers

I'm just learning linux. Working as root, I created a new user called testuser. I then changed testuser to a nologin shell.

Now I want to login as the testuser to see what a user with a nologin shell can/can't do.

I tried: su testuser and got: This account is currently not available.
I tried: su – testuser and got:
su: warning: cannot change directory to /home/testuser: No such file or directory
This account is currently not available.

How do I switch from root to a user with a nologin shell?

Best Answer

The point of the nologin shell is to prevent the user from logging in. Such a user may still use your server services like FTP, IMAP/POP3 and others but they won't be able to login e.g. using sshd or console, period.

How do I switch from root to a user with a nologin shell?

sudo -u USERNAME /bin/bash

Will work but only root can do that.

Related Solutions

Shell – How to Change from csh to bash as Default Shell

Make sure you've got bash installed.
Learn the location of bash:
```
which bash
```
or
```
whereis bash
```
Below, I'll assume the location is /bin/bash.

a) If you have administrative rights, just run as root:
```
usermod -s /bin/bash YOUR_USERNAME
```
(replacing YOUR_USERNAME with your user name).

b) If you don't have adm. rights, you can still just run bash --login at login, by putting the below line at the end of your .cshrc or .profile (in your home directory) :
```
setenv SHELL /bin/bash
exec /bin/bash --login
```

How to Reach Root After Switching from Bash to Zsh

try: cd /usr/bin; su. Since you didn't give an absolute path to zsh. su is checking the PWD. changing to the directory zsh exists in will work on some systems. an example:

% su
Password:
su: zsh: No such file or directory
% cd /usr/local/bin
% su
Password:
# print $OSTYPE
freebsd10.0
#

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Shell – How to Change from csh to bash as Default Shell

How to Reach Root After Switching from Bash to Zsh

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