I am encountering three issues with run0: 1. not upstream related but Debian (currently) does not install systemd-run0 pamname 2. the man page is incorrect in stating that everything goes through systemd-run0 pam stack because if you omit --user= then run0 will not go through pam (you can verify that by looking at the ownership of the created pty. pty ownership is not reset to root.) 3. the way run0 is implemented differs from the way machinectl shell implements this functionality. I am not sure so bear with me but with machinectl shell, the shell gets executed by the systemd --user instance whereas with run0 the shell gets executed by systemd --system instance. This inconsistency potentially causes issues with pam because systemd --user is not -/bin/bash. Ipersonally prefer the way machinectl shell does it but I will be honest that this seems not perfect either.