Re: run shell command as another user

Welcome to the monastery.

You need some basic debugging here.

system ("su -l - $user -c \'$action > DBlist.txt && cat DBlist.txt\'")
+;
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doesn't work, but

system ("su -l - MyRealuser -c \'$action > DBlist.txt && cat DBlist.tx
+t\'");
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does work, then the only difference between them is $user and MyRealuser.

Use a print statement like this:

print ">>>$user<<<\n";
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Do you get:

>>>some_username<<<
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or:

>>>some_username
<<<
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If the former, replace MyRealuser with some_username (in the system() command that worked), and see if it still works. If not, see system to learn about checking for errors. Maybe there's a problem with some_username's account or privileges.

If the latter, the newline after $user may be the culprit. You can fix that with:

chomp(my $user = $line);
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I also note that you're using the same $line variable when reading from the EXEC and $cmd filehandles. Unless there's some specific reason for doing this, I'd use different variables, e.g.

while(my $exec_line = <EXEC>) {
    ...
    while (my $cmd_line = <$cmd>) {
        ...
    }
}
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Even if using the same variable isn't causing any problems now, it could well turn into a hard-to-track-down bug in the future following some (seemingly innocuous) modification.

-- Ken

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Re^2: run shell command as another user by ox1d0 (Acolyte) on Apr 19, 2014 at 03:19 UTC
Hello Ken, seems that the problem is in fact with system() I've tried with `#my @command = ("su - $user -c id") #################################### #system ("su - $user"); #this Works# #################################### #system ("@command") == 0 or die "system @command failed: $?"; #exec ('su - $user -c $action') or print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: +$!"; #exec("/bin/su","-",$user,$action); #system ("su", "-", $user, "-c", "/bin/bash -c $action"); #system ("su - $user -c /bin/bash -c $action"); #system "sudo","su","-" => $user, -c => $action;` [download] but each one fails!! also i tried these modules, same result .. `use warnings; use diagnostics; use strict; use Shell::Source; use Shell; my $action="\'Anything\'"; my $user="RealUser"; my $sh = Shell->new; say "$user"; say "$action "; print $sh->sudo("su -l - $user --command $action");` [download] I start to thinking if my Gentoo has problems , I'll try in another system... btw I've checked for $user seems that is good, just before function. thanks..	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^2: run shell command as another user
by ox1d0 (Acolyte) on Apr 19, 2014 at 03:19 UTC

#my @command = ("su - $user -c id")  
####################################
#system ("su - $user"); #this Works#
####################################
#system ("@command") == 0 or die "system @command failed: $?";
#exec ('su - $user -c $action')   or print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: 
+$!";
#exec("/bin/su","-",$user,$action);
#system ("su", "-", $user, "-c", "/bin/bash -c $action");
#system ("su - $user -c /bin/bash -c $action");
#system "sudo","su","-" => $user, -c =>  $action;
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but each one fails!!

also i tried these modules, same result ..

use warnings;
use diagnostics;
use strict;
use Shell::Source;
use Shell;
my $action="\'Anything\'";
my $user="RealUser";
my $sh = Shell->new;
say "$user";
say "$action ";
print $sh->sudo("su -l - $user --command $action");
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I start to thinking if my Gentoo has problems , I'll try in another system...

btw I've checked for $user seems that is good, just before function.

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