Log In And Switch Users In Multiuser Targets

General Information

Targets are the new “runlevels” equivalent if you are coming from RHEL 6. You need to be able to switch users.

View default target (target at boot)

~$ systemctl get-default
multi-user.target

Switch User

su - <username>

• -, -l, –login ⇒ Load login profile (~/.bash_profile)
• When no username is specified after options (such as -), root is assumed
• Always use a login shell when switching users (su -).

Types of profiles

• ~/.bash_profile ⇒ Execute upon login shells
• ~/.bashrc ⇒ Execute on every shell
• /etc/profile ⇒ Executed on every user login (system wide environmentals)
• /etc/bashrc ⇒ Executed on every user interactive shell (system wide functions and aliases)