---
name: "calife"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "calife"
version: "1:3.0.1-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/calife"
---

# calife(1)

becomes root (or another user) legally.

## NAME

**calife** – becomes root (or another user) legally.

## SYNOPSIS

**calife** \[*-*\] \[*login*\]

or

**...** \[*-*\] \[*login*\] for some sites (check with your administrator).

## DESCRIPTION

**Calife** requests *user's* *own* password for becoming *login* (or  *root*, if no login is provided), and switches to that user and group ID after verifying proper rights to do so.  A shell is then executed.  If **calife** is executed by root, no password is requested and a shell with the appropriate user ID is executed.

The invoked shell is the user's own except when a shell is specified in the configuration file **calife.auth**.

If **\`\`-''** is specified on the command line, user's profile files are read as if it was a login shell.

This is **not** the traditional behavior of **su**.

Only users specified in **calife.auth** can use **calife** to become another one with this method.

You can specify in the **calife.auth** file the list of logins allowed for users when using **calife**. See [calife.auth(5)](/calife.auth/5.md) for more details.

**calife.auth** is installed as */etc/calife.auth*.

## FILES

- */etc/calife.auth*

  List of users authorized to use **calife** and the users they can become.

- */etc/calife.out*

  This script is executed just after getting out of **calife**.

## SEE ALSO

[su(1)](/su/1.md), [calife.auth(5)](/calife.auth/5.md), [group(5)](/group/5.md), [environ(7)](/environ/7.md)

## ENVIRONMENT

The original environment is kept. This is **not** a security problem as you have to be yourself at login (i.e. it does not have the same security implications as in [su(1)](/su/1.md) ).

Environment variables used by **calife**:

- HOME

  Default home directory of real user ID.

- PATH

  Default search path of real user ID unless modified as specified above.

- TERM

  Provides terminal type which may be retained for the substituted user ID.

- USER

  The user ID is always the effective ID (the target user ID) after an **su** unless the user ID is 0 (root).

## BUGS

The MD5-based [crypt(3)](/crypt/3.md) function is slower and probably stronger than the DES-based one but it is usable only among FreeBSD 2.0+ systems.

## HISTORY

A **calife** command appeared in DG/UX, written for Antenne 2 in 1991. It has evolved considerably since this period with more OS support, user lists handling and improved logging.

PAM support was introduced in 2005 to port it to MacOS X variants (Panther and up).

## AUTHOR

Ollivier Robert \<roberto@keltia.freenix.fr\>