Run /etc/cron.daily from specific user
You are right, the jobs in /etc/cron.daily
(and weekly/monthly, etc.) are always
executed as user root
but you can simply swith the user from within the script
and call that very script again as that other user, including all supplied
arguments (although there won't be any in a cron.daily
job):
File /etc/cron.daily/my
:
#!/bin/sh
# If started as root, then re-start as user "gavenkoa":
if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then
exec sudo -H -u gavenkoa $0 "$@"
echo "This is never reached.";
fi
echo "This runs as user $(id -un)";
# prints "gavenkoa"
exit 0;
When the script is started as user root
it will detect so and
re-execute itself via sudo -H -u gavenkoa
, that is: as
user gavenkoa
. This requires no special entries in /etc/sudoers
because root
is always allowed to switch to any user.
The exec
replaces the current process with the new sudo …
call
and never returns. That's why you don't need an else
clause.