authentication in python script to run as root

python pygtk
Dnyanesh Gate picture Dnyanesh Gate · Mar 7, 2011 · Viewed 14.7k times · Source

I am doing a project in Linux at system level in Python. So that, I want to know that if i am running my code as a normal user and if i am accessing system files then it should have root permissions for it, then how can i prompt for root password and run further code as superuser. I want to know that, how to run python script as superuser with password prompt for it..

Any help will be appreciated. Thank you in advance..

Answer

samplebias picture samplebias · Mar 7, 2011

The other thing you can do is have your script automatically invoke sudo if it wasn't executed as root:

import os
import sys

euid = os.geteuid()
if euid != 0:
    print "Script not started as root. Running sudo.."
    args = ['sudo', sys.executable] + sys.argv + [os.environ]
    # the next line replaces the currently-running process with the sudo
    os.execlpe('sudo', *args)

print 'Running. Your euid is', euid

Output:

Script not started as root. Running sudo..
[sudo] password for bob:
Running. Your euid is 0

Use sudo -k for testing, to clear your sudo timestamp so the next time the script is run it will require the password again.

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