samiham wrote:

WinSCP seems like it could start a new session to shortcut what I currently do using a different user (and optionally disconnect when finished).

WinSCP could if direct root login is actually possible on your site. If your are required to use 'su', WinSCP cannot do that automatically as there is no automatic and platform-independent way to do that.

So, according to the FAQ, it is _currently_ not possible. That doesn't mean it can't be made possible in the future. Hence the feature request. WinSCP seems like it could start a new session to shortcut what I currently do using a different user (and optionally disconnect when finished). Corporate policies require me to be logged in as a minimalistic user at all times except for the rare instances when I need to be at a higher privilege level.

Please read FAQ.

This is possibly somewhat related to my previous request for chained sessions.

I have root access to a number of servers I use (not all, just a couple). Here is my general order of operations:

1) Start WinSCP and connect to a server using my regular username/password.
2) Edit some file.
3) Save the file.
4) WinSCP complains that it can't write to the file.
5) Leaving the complaint window open, log into the same server using Putty.
6) sudo -s to gain root access.
7) cd to the directory.
8) chown the file to the same logged in user as WinSCP is logged in as.
9) Switch to WinSCP and click 'Retry'.
10) Switch back to Putty and chown the file back to the original user.
11) Log out of Putty.

It would be great if WinSCP had a way to be able to sudo/su as root or another user that could simply write to the file. It would save me from having to do 8 extra steps to save just one file.