Re^4: How run a daemon as non-root user

Well the pid is stored in /var/run and I can't put together the information to create a user like postgres or apache that can create a pid in /var/run other than root.

I realize this is probably a silly question, so I can't imagine the answer would be too complicated. It's probably more of a OS issue than Perl, like I said I'm running Debian/Linux.

Comment on Re^4: How run a daemon as non-root user

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Re^5: How run a daemon as non-root user by JavaFan (Canon) on Dec 06, 2008 at 02:26 UTC
Well, there are a couple of ways to solve this. Start the daemon as root, let it create the pid file, then drop the priviledges. Make /var/run group owned by the group 'daemons' (with group write permission). Start the deamon as a user that belongs to the group 'daemons'. Use file ACLs to allow the process to write to /var/run. Make /var/run world writable. Make a subdirectory in /var/run that's owned by the user running the daemon. Have the daemon use that subdirectory to write the pidfile into. (Any other directory works as well). You might consider putting a symlink from /var/run pointing to the new location. Create a (permanent) pidfile in /var/run that's owned by the user running the daemon. Let the daemon clear the pidfile when it exists upon removal. And where it currently associates a meaning to the (non-)existance of the pidfile, let it now associate a meaning to it being of (non-)zero size.	[reply]

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Re^5: How run a daemon as non-root user
by JavaFan (Canon) on Dec 06, 2008 at 02:26 UTC

Start the daemon as root, let it create the pid file, then drop the priviledges.
Make /var/run group owned by the group 'daemons' (with group write permission). Start the deamon as a user that belongs to the group 'daemons'.
Use file ACLs to allow the process to write to /var/run.
Make /var/run world writable.
Make a subdirectory in /var/run that's owned by the user running the daemon. Have the daemon use that subdirectory to write the pidfile into. (Any other directory works as well). You might consider putting a symlink from /var/run pointing to the new location.
Create a (permanent) pidfile in /var/run that's owned by the user running the daemon. Let the daemon clear the pidfile when it exists upon removal. And where it currently associates a meaning to the (non-)existance of the pidfile, let it now associate a meaning to it being of (non-)zero size.

[reply]