su -l and password in script

[ddrillich]

Good Day,

In my script I would like to run a command as another user.
How can I do it?

su -l userB -c "command args" logs me as userB but prompts me for the password.
How can I place the password in my script?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[marrow]

I assume you can't run script from root.

 

[ddrillich]

You are right - I can't run it as root.

 

[mdet]

Don't put _any_ password in a file. Install and use "sudo" instead (see

http://www.sudo.ws).

It's availabe from sunfreeware site.

 

[bonifale]

You could change the owners id to the one you want using chown and then execute a chmod 6755 (I think 6755 is correct; I don't have a Unix box on site to check) on the file to set the setuid bit on execution. Not a recomemended method for root owned shell scripts though. Bit of a security hole.

alternatively call su within the script. working from memory here so check the syntax.

This script simple runs if you are the root user or prompts for the password and then calls itself if you are not.

#!/bin/sh
# If I'm not root login and run script
# otherwise just run the script
if ( `uid` != 0 )
su - root -c ${0} # call myself
# The password prompt appears here
else
# run the commands
....
....
fi


good luck