From: "Sean O'Dell" Date: 2003-09-12T07:34:39+09:00 Subject: Re: backup under privileged mode (unix permissions) 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