Well, if you prefer the /etc/suauth way to do things it's up to you, just use su -c "command ..." if you like.

Otherwise it's not a good idea to save clear-text passwords in scripts, and security tools like su or sudo tend to actively resist attempts to feed them passwords from standard input. Maybe a setuid script is what you need but frankly if you ask questions like that you are not ready to write scripts run by a privileged user.

To reiterate, sudo (and sudo -n for CGI scripts) is the way to invoke privileged commands from a script run as regular user. Unlike general-purpose su it can check what user tries to do and limit his activities to safe ones only. However it's not omnipotent so your mileage may vary.

In reply to Re: how to su in a script ? by jmacloue
in thread how to su in a script ? by newkij1

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