From: MonkeeSage <MonkeeSage@...>
Date: 2007-12-01T17:45:00+09:00
Subject: Re: run system command as user

On Nov 30, 7:56 pm, Trey <treyb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm in need of running a system command as another user than the user
> that is executing the ruby script.  Is this possible?  Can I execute
> su (and somehow supply the correct password), then run the command?

Here is a naive version using the built-in pty extension (*nix only,
but since you mention su, I assume that's not a problem)...

require "pty"
require "expect"

cmd = "sleep 1; sudo -u someuser ls 2>&1"
PTY.spawn(cmd) { | stdin, stdout, pid |
  stdin.expect(/Password:|/) { | result, pass |
    stdout.write("secret_password\n") if pass
  }
  puts stdin.read
}

Regardsm
Jordan