how to use xauth to run graphical application via other user on linux

My regular user account is, let's say, user1. I created separate user2 for some x application that i would like to run while being logged into x as user1 but in a way that will prevent it from read/write access to user1 data. I thought that i could use xauth and sudo/su to user2 from user1 to run this application. How do i do this? I'm not sure how to configure xauth.

Solution 1:

To use xauth selectively, as user1 run:

xauth list|grep `uname -n`

This prints the hexkey authorization entries for you . You could have different displays associated with those hosts as well.

As user2 set your display (assuming default case):

DISPLAY=:0; export DISPLAY

Then run:

xauth add $DISPLAY . hexkey

Note the dot after the $DISPLAY and before the hexkey.

When access is no longer needed, as user2 you can run:

xauth remove $DISPLAY

Solution 2:

I put in my .zshrc a line with export XAUTHORITY=~/.Xauthority and now I am able to execute sudo -E xcommand. After a lot of googling, for me this was the easiest way.