Hi,

I need to switch from one user to another in a script in a solaris machine. No one of those users is root. I see I can use su command, but I think I can't pass the password as a parameter. I'm using bash. Is there anyway that I can switch user in a bash script?

Thanks in advance!

You can give permissions to any users to run any script or command as root (or any other privileged user) with the sudo facility.

In this case I'm not using either root or any other privileged user. I need to switch between NO root users.

Well, somebody in this situation needs to have elevated privileges, otherwise, what's the point? Why switch from Dave to Bob if they both have the same privileges?

In any case, the solution is still sudo.

Here's an example... let's say Dave is responsible for the installation and maintenance of a database. The database is going to run under a service account, called dbadmin.

1) Create the dbadmin account.
2) Use the visudo command to edit the /etc/sudoers, giving Dave the rights to execute commands under the dbadmin userid, like so:
3) Now Dave can execute script.sh under the dbadmin account's rights, as so:
When you configure sudo, you can set it up so that Dave gets a prompt for either dbadmin's password, or his own.

What is the purpose of changing users here? Is the target user one that can log in? Can you give the two users a common group and make the appropriate files group-writable? Will the source and target users always be the same, or will they vary?
Kevin Barry

I need to back up some files from different users. Some of them are the same group, others not, so that's why I need to switch between users. The logic of the script is the same for every backup, so that's why I don't want to run multiple scripts. I'm working on multiple user machine, so I don't have access to the root user or a priviled user.

I'm using solaris and the version that I'm using doesn't support sudo command.

If you don't have access to root, then I suggest you contact someone who does, because this is a task for root.

2 members found this post helpful.

That's what I thought. Thanks!