I want to limit certain users on my system to a subset of commands and have absolutely no access to the rest of the system. I figure chrooting is the way to solve this but I only know how to chroot a ftp user. Can this be done for normal shell users and how can I achieve this?
SnapOverflow
Jailkit simplifies it.
Jailkit is a set of utilities to limit user accounts to specific files using chroot() and or specific commands. Setting up a chroot shell, a shell limited to some specific command, or a daemon inside a chroot jail is a lot easier and can be automated using these utilities.
Please use chroot with extreme caution, it's well known that it doesn't provide the complete protection it seems to.
chroot limitations from wikipedia
I remember a debate on the LKML about fixing "bugs" in chroot that allowed users to escape; kernel developers have answered that chroot is not intended to be a security mechanism.