Termination of "su" processes

[Davis, Ricardo C.]

Hi,

I'm using "su" (GNU sh-utils) version 2.0 on a RedHat Linux 6.2 box.  I also have OpenSSH 2.9.9p2 running on this box.  I wanted to do remote monitoring of this system's messages, so I logged in using a normal user account then did a "su --command='tail -100f /var/log/messages' root".

However, late in the evening when the system is inactive and the sshd daemon disconnects the session due to lack of activity the "su" process is left hanging and has to be terminated manually.  Is that expected behavior?  I would think that if the parent process dies then the "su" process would gracefully terminate.

-Ricardo
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Ricardo Davis
Intermedia Communications - Advanced Building Networks