Strange behavior of su

[Dave Cohrs]

> Every now and then after I have been logged in for a while I will try to
> su, have su ask the password, and then it sits for a bit and exits.  It
> does not generate any error messages, the exit status is 0.  After this
> has happened it will keep happening until I log out, I have always been
> able to su immediately after logging in.

You didn't say to whom you were su'ing.  However, if you were becoming
root, this behaviour doesn't make sense.  If you were becoming another
normal user, this probably means the current directory was inaccesable
to the new user.  In this case, su gives up quietly.  I think this is
a case there things could be a bit more verbose.

-- 
Dave Cohrs
(608) 262-1204
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dave at wisc-romano.arpa