Sean O'Dell
9/11/2003 10:17:00 PM
Berger, Daniel wrote:
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Sean O''Dell [mailto:sean@cSePlsoAfMt.com[REMOVE_THE_SPAM]]
>>Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 3:54 PM
>>To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
>>Subject: Re: backup under privileged mode (unix permissions)
>>
>>
>>Simon Strandgaard wrote:
>>
>>>I have some data which I make a backup of on daily basis.
>>>The data has many different owners/groups.
>>>
>>>I have writen some Ruby which does the job (when logged in
>>
>>as root). I
>>
>>>don''t like running things as root, so I have created a dedicated
>>>account only for backup, under which the backup script is
>>
>>supposed to
>>
>>>be executed.
>>>
>>>Unfortunatly I cannot figure out the last part (running the ruby
>>>script with root read-permissions).
>>>
>>>Q1: How should I setup the right permissions (setuid,
>>
>>/etc/group), any
>>
>>>ideas ?
>>>Q2: How do you execute your backup scripts with the right
>>
>>permissions ?
>>
>>It gets complicated (I''ve been there), and sometimes you just have to
>>say "hey, that''s what root is for."
>>
>>Assuming your backup script isn''t executing anything else through the
>>"system" method and such, you probably can''t make much use out of
>>playing with the real/effective user id''s. Your problem is probably
>>strictly that you need permission to read the files you need
>>backed up.
>>
>>First thought: run it as root. IMO, that''s one of the few
>>things root
>>is really there for.
>>
>>A slightly less "certain" method would be to make your backup user a
>>member of every group who might own files you want to back
>>up. You do
>>this by editing the /etc/group file so that each group you
>>want to add
>>backup to looks something like this:
>>
>> groupname:x:user,backup
>>
>>.... then the backup user will have group permissions for every file
>>whose group is one of those groups. Unfortunately, if the file is
>>readable by the user, but not by the group the file is owned by, your
>>backup script will still not be able to read the file.
>>
>>So, back to square one: run it as root. =)
>>
>> Sean O''Dell
>
>
> There''s always ''sudo''.
What problem is that a solution for?
Sean O''Dell