Question

4

How can I run SSH as a different user on the same Ubuntu installation?

rated 0 times [ 4] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 11682 / 2 Years ago, thu, july 7, 2022, 9:55:42

I am creating a script which runs a series of command that would download a website to a machine and sets up everything.

So most of the commands require root access. For example adding a vhost in /etc/apache2/sites-available, enabling it, restarting apache, etc...

So in order to do that, I need to run the script with sudo.

sudo ./install-website.sh

The website is located on a server with a git repository which is setup with a password-less SSH access. But that only works for the user dan since the keys are in my home folder and not in the root's home folder.

So when it reaches this part:

git clone [email protected]:git-repo $PATH_TO_INSTALLATION

Since I started the script with sudo, the user that is trying to initiate the git command is root. So the host keeps asking for the host's user's password.

I have tried the following command:

sudo -u $SUDO_USER git clone [email protected]:git-repo $PATH_TO_INSTALLATION

But it was still asking for the host's user's password.

Is it possible to tell sudo to use the $SUDO_USER's home path?

Most of the stuff are variables, and have to be variables as I will run this on more than 1 machine.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

brellked

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 63

Total Questions: 107

Total Answers: 104

Location: Morocco

Member since Fri, May 22, 2020

4 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago ibuteking · Accepted Answer

Alternative 1 - Configuring sudo

Sudo is configure in the sudoers file which you should only edit through the visudo command.

This configuration file can override certain environment variables with the option env_reset. How to proceed:

visudo

Then find a line that states:

Defaults env_reset

and add after it (e.g. example with the HOME environement):

Defaults env_keep = "HOME"

This example is for every sudo configuration you may have. You can also specify it on a per user/group basis. See sudoers manual page.

Alternative 2 - configuring SSH

You can use the configuration file of SSH to specify users, key to use, etc. I have explain that at SuperUser.

Proposed solution (but you will have to correct the missing and assumed bits), edit the file /root/.ssh/config and set its permission chmod 0600 /root/.ssh/config:

Host host.com

  User dan

  IdentityFile /home/dan/.ssh/id_rsa

Then as root, you can do the next command and it will use the proper SSH identifications:

git clone host.com:git-repo $PATH_TO_INSTALLATION