run0(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON

RUN0(1)                           run0                           RUN0(1)

NAME         top

       run0 - Elevate privileges

SYNOPSIS         top


       run0 [OPTIONS...] [COMMAND...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       run0 may be used to temporarily and interactively acquire
       elevated or different privileges. It serves a similar purpose as
       sudo(8), but operates differently in a couple of key areas:

       •   No execution or security context credentials are inherited
           from the caller into the invoked commands, as they are
           invoked from a fresh, isolated service forked off by the
           service manager.

       •   Authentication takes place via polkit[1], thus isolating the
           authentication prompt from the terminal (if possible).

       •   An independent pseudo-tty is allocated for the invoked
           command, detaching its lifecycle and isolating it for
           security.

       •   No SetUID/SetGID file access bit functionality is used for
           the implementation.

       Altogether this should provide a safer and more robust
       alternative to the sudo mechanism, in particular in OS
       environments where SetUID/SetGID support is not available (for
       example by setting the NoNewPrivileges= variable in
       systemd-system.conf(5)).

       Any session invoked via run0 will run through the "systemd-run0"
       PAM stack.

       Note that run0 is implemented as an alternative multi-call
       invocation of systemd-run(1).

OPTIONS         top

       The following options are understood:

       --no-ask-password
           Do not query the user for authentication for privileged
           operations.

           Added in version 256.

       --unit=
           Use this unit name instead of an automatically generated one.

           Added in version 256.

       --property=
           Sets a property on the service unit that is created. This
           option takes an assignment in the same format as
           systemctl(1)'s set-property command.

           Added in version 256.

       --description=
           Provide a description for the service unit that is invoked.
           If not specified, the command itself will be used as a
           description. See Description= in systemd.unit(5).

           Added in version 256.

       --slice=
           Make the new .service unit part of the specified slice,
           instead of user.slice.

           Added in version 256.

       --slice-inherit
           Make the new .service unit part of the slice the run0 itself
           has been invoked in. This option may be combined with
           --slice=, in which case the slice specified via --slice= is
           placed within the slice the run0 command is invoked in.

           Example: consider run0 being invoked in the slice foo.slice,
           and the --slice= argument is bar. The unit will then be
           placed under foo-bar.slice.

           Added in version 256.

       --user=, -u, --group=, -g
           Switches to the specified user/group instead of root.

           Added in version 256.

       --nice=
           Runs the invoked session with the specified nice level.

           Added in version 256.

       --chdir=, -D
           Runs the invoked session with the specified working
           directory. If not specified defaults to the client's current
           working directory if switching to the root user, or the
           target user's home directory otherwise.

           Added in version 256.

       --setenv=NAME[=VALUE]
           Runs the invoked session with the specified environment
           variable set. This parameter may be used more than once to
           set multiple variables. When "=" and VALUE are omitted, the
           value of the variable with the same name in the invoking
           environment will be used.

           Added in version 256.

       --background=COLOR
           Change the terminal background color to the specified ANSI
           color as long as the session lasts. If not specified, the
           background will be tinted in a reddish tone when operating as
           root, and in a yellowish tone when operating under another
           UID, as reminder of the changed privileges. The color
           specified should be an ANSI X3.64 SGR background color, i.e.
           strings such as "40", "41", ..., "47", "48;2;...",
           "48;5;...". See ANSI Escape Code (Wikipedia)[2] for details.
           Set to an empty string to disable.

           Example: "--background=44" for a blue background.

           Added in version 256.

       --machine=
           Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container
           name to connect to.

           Added in version 256.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

       All command line arguments after the first non-option argument
       become part of the command line of the launched process. If no
       command line is specified an interactive shell is invoked. The
       shell to invoke may be controlled via --setenv=SHELL=...  and
       currently defaults to the originating user's shell (i.e. not the
       target user's!) if operating locally, or /bin/sh when operating
       with --machine=.

EXIT STATUS         top

       On success, 0 is returned. If run0 failed to start the session or
       the specified command fails, a non-zero return value will be
       returned.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       As with systemd-run, the session will inherit the system
       environment from the service manager. In addition, the following
       environment variables will be set:

       $TERM
           Copied from the $TERM of the caller. Can be overridden with
           --setenv=

           Added in version 256.

       $SUDO_USER
           Set to the username of the originating user.

           Added in version 256.

       $SUDO_UID
           Set to the numeric UNIX user id of the originating user.

           Added in version 256.

       $SUDO_GID
           Set to the primary numeric UNIX group id of the originating
           session.

           Added in version 256.

SEE ALSO         top

       systemd(1), systemd-run(1), sudo(8), machinectl(1)

NOTES         top

        1. polkit
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/polkit

        2. ANSI Escape Code (Wikipedia)
           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#SGR_(Select_Graphic_Rendition)_parameters

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the systemd (systemd system and service
       manager) project.  Information about the project can be found at
       ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd⟩.  If you have
       a bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/#bugreports⟩.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/systemd/systemd.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At that
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systemd 257~devel                                                RUN0(1)

Pages that refer to this page: systemd-run(1)systemd.directives(7)systemd.index(7)