how to emulate "su mysql" in ubuntu?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010, Steve Flynn wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 4:29 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> >
> >  i just know i'm going to regret asking this, but how can i
> > emulate the effect of doing "su mysql" in ubuntu?  i'm trying to
> > recover a damaged mysql db and in the list of instructions is the
> > note that you have to run the mysql server in rescue mode as the
> > mysql user, so the page instructs one to "su mysql" first.
> >
> >  well, if i was on fedora, that would be easy.  but what's the
> > equivalent on ubuntu?  is it simple?  or will it require editing
> > /etc/sudoers and so on?
>
> What's wrong with "su - mysql"? I presume you know the mysql password.

  that was the first thing i tried, but that requires knowing the
login password for the "mysql" account and there is none.  unless
i've completely forgotten how user accounts work, a lot of the
standard accounts are system or pseudo-user accounts which don't
support a login session and therefore cannot be logged into.

  IIRC, on fedora, i could still use "su" to invoke a terminal session
that had, as its UID and GID, one of those system accounts.  but on
ubuntu, apparently not.  i could assign a login password to the mysql
account, but i was wondering if there was some other way to do this.

  i hope i'm not writing total gibberish but, just to be clear, what
i'm obviously after is a command line session for which "id" tells me
that i am the "mysql" account.  and while i'm sure that was easy on
fedora, i can't use the same technique here.

rday

-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

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