check admin rights inside python script

Solution 1:

How about this? Check if uid == 0:

[kbrandt@kbrandt-admin: ~] python -c 'import os; print os.getuid()'
196677

[kbrandt@kbrandt-admin: ~] sudo python -c 'import os; print os.getuid()'
0

Solution 2:

How about that one:

import os
username=os.system("whoami")
if username is not "root":
    print "You aren't root"
else:
    print "Hello, "+username

Solution 3:

Don't be tempted to match a username against the string "root".

Generally you will either have to provide less efficient callouts to obtain the textual representation of the UID or you will be relying on environment variables which may not be so trustworthy.