To change $USER in OS X's terminal

Question

I would like an other way to change my current user than by GUI.

It would be great that if you can change the user as fast as you can your login shell by chsh.

How can you change the user in OS X's terminal?

Rutger Nijlunsing · Answer 1 · 2009-07-30 18:03:05Z

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Normal Unix would do that with 'su' meaning 'super user'.

Something like

su - otherusername

GUI applications might or might not work, I don't know on OSX...

answered Jul 30 '09 at 18:03

Rutger Nijlunsing

Thank you for your answer! – Masi Jul 30 '09 at 18:10

feedback

Dan Abramov · Answer 2 · 2011-09-23 19:01:34Z

su actually means “substitute user”.

Use su -l USERNAME to simulate a full shell logon that changes your variables and sets you to the user's home directory.

Type man su for other options.

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jun 9 '11 at 12:55