Hi. I've got an issue. I want to run programs as standard, non-priveledged, non-superuser users but I do not want their accounts to have shell access. I don't want my users to be able to SSH in and do stuff on their own. I do however want to run programs under their user. What I have been doing is just logging in as root and su'ing to their user, running the programs and logging out, but this requires their account to have a shell. I want to replace the shell with /bin/false instead and just make it so that I can run programs as the user from root. I found one application that could do it, but it was made in 95 for linux .99 and up and um... doesnt exactly want to compile for me. I am wondering if any of you might now how I can do this. I know in winblowz i can use a runas command, but im stuck in linux.

I suppose you could use sudo

I can't resist: WHY??? You CAN disable logins and you CAN diable SSH for specific users. Why this specific need? (Just curious)

Because if I set the shell to /bin/false, I cant run any programs because I wont have a shell to su to. the sudo command was what I needed.