How to use su command over adb shell?

On my Linux, I see an error with

adb shell "su -c '[your command goes here]'"

su: invalid uid/gid '-c'

The solution is on Linux

adb shell su 0 '[your command goes here]'

Well, if your phone is rooted you can run commands with the su -c command.

Here is an example of a cat command on the build.prop file to get a phone's product information.

adb shell "su -c 'cat /system/build.prop |grep "product"'"

This invokes root permission and runs the command inside the ' '.

Notice the 5 end quotes, that is required that you close ALL your end quotes or you will get an error.

For clarification the format is like this.

adb shell "su -c '[your command goes here]'"

Make sure you enter the command EXACTLY the way that you normally would when running it in shell.


By default CM10 only allows root access from Apps not ADB. Go to Settings -> Developer options -> Root access, and change option to "Apps and ADB".


The su command does not execute anything, it just raise your privileges.

Try adb shell su -c YOUR_COMMAND.