How about using the su command? $ whoami user1 $ su - user2 Password: $ whoami user2 $ exit logout If you want to log in as root, there's no need to specify username: $ whoami user1 $ su - Password: $ whoami root $ exit logout Generally, you can use sudo to launch a new shell as the user you want; the -u flag lets you specify the username you want: $ whoami user1 $ sudo -u user2 zsh $ whoami user2 sudo -s gives you a shell like su , sudo -i simulates login like su - . Can be combined with -u $user ,