Is there any way to run a program as root at log on for a RedHat 9.0 system running Gnome? I have already used the rc.local file, and it starts up the program during boot - which works fine. But I need the program to be run during logon. I'm really lost. Thanks for any help,

Scott

You mean that when any non-root user logs on, this program should run with root permissions?

Make sure the program is owned by root, then chmod u+s

Put the command to call the program in ~/.login and you should be set.

John

You can always edit your /etc/sudoers file and add :
And put in ~/.bash_profile :
I assume your program does not present a risk to do
any damage and is not writtable by the user

Jkobrien, what exactly does chmod u+s do? Just curious. Also, I do not have a ~/.login file. Is it maybe called something else in RedHat 9.0? I do have a login.defs file, but I don't think that's what you were referring to.

Keefaz, I will try your suggestion. When you put down "scottjwoodford", did you mean that literally? Or should I put "root"?

Thanks guys!

It is the username as seen when you type 'id' or 'whoami'
in a terminal when you're logged as user

I would go with Keefaz' suggestion. It's neater and easier to track and modify later.

u+s means that whoever runs the program will have the same permissions as whoever owns the program. Type "man chmod".

You can always make a .login file if there isn't one there already - be adventurous! .login will be run, I think, regardless of which shell you use, while something like .bashrc, or .tcshrc, and so on, are shell specific.

John

Ok, but there's no way for me to know which user it will be logging on (there are multiple users), so can I add a line for all user's? And this may be a dumb question, but for <hostname>, do I literally enter that, or do I enter the actual hostname?

You'll have to a little reading up on this, but in /etc there are files that are read and executed for every user that logs in. I'm not clear myself on which ones are read when so, like I say, you'll have to do a little digging yourself but look at files like /etc/profile or it maybe that you can create /etc/login. The man pages and google will help you out there.

Watch out for the difference between scripts that are called at boot-up, log-on or when opening a new shell.

<hostname> means you should replace all that text (including the <>) with your actual hostname. It's a convention that's often used to indicate a placeholder (a bit like algebra) for your actual values. Square brackets [ ] are sometimes used for optional arguments.

Good luck,

John