Hi,

To log in from host1 to host2, I do the following (someone else set up this, I don't control these machines):

...so, as I understand it, my user account user1 at host1 is allowed to sudo and change the user to user2, and user2 is allowed to ssh to host2 without having to enter a password. That is simply some set-up some user admin of the systems used to give me access to host2 through my personal user account user1 at host1.

I'd like to script this - so, I want to create a script that can be executed by user1 at host1 to get directly logged in to host2.

I thought a scriptfile at host1 for user user1 with this line in it would do it:
...since it should run command "ssh host2" as the new user. But when I execute the above line as user1 at host1, I get the following:
...so it seems like that doesn't do what I need - or, this method won't work since I don't have sudo permissions to add the -c argument to su.

Any idea how I can achieve what I want - write a script in order to log into host2 as user1 from host1 as user1 with a script?

Thanks,
Carl

Try changing the order and see if that works:

Hi Carl,

As I can understand what you want to do is to be able to ssh from host1 to host2 using user1. You do not want to login to host2 machine as user2.

From what I can see from the output is that the previous admin has configured key based authentication for user2 to be able to login to host2 without entering any password.

You can configure user1 the same way as user2 is configure using the steps mentioned in the following document: http://www.linuxproblem.org/art_9.html

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. I tried your suggestion, but I get back the same thing as before:

*Yes* that is what I want do do actually, I was a bit unclear in my last line in my original post. This is what I want to do: as user1 at host1, I want to be able to run a script which when finished will leave me at host2 logged in as user2 (currently, user2 is the only allowed user at host2).

I know about key based verification and use it quite a lot. I have a chain of servers I must go through in order to reach host1 and I want to be able to fully atomate the process of getting into also host2 (and be logged in as user2 there) - so that's the part that this post is about.

So, this won't work unfortunately since user2 is the only user that can log on to host2.

You can put the script this way:

Give it a try and see if it works.

Actually
and
are the same since username@ is optional so if not provided ssh will automatically use the current USERNAME variable.

I agree that user1 is not allowed to run the above command. To see what you can run try;
sudo -l

Don't think expect will work so unless your admin wants to set up keys for user1 you are stuck as is.