Linux: how to give a user permission to restart apache?

Question

I have a script running under a non-root user which, under certain conditions, should restart apache httpd.

What would be the simplest way for me to allow the user to do that?

I'm using Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS.

Solution 1

Short answer:

Using visudo, add the following to your sudoers file, replacing username with the proper username:

username ALL = /etc/init.d/apache2 

If you want to not have to type in a password before you do this, use the following:

username ALL = NOPASSWD: /etc/init.d/apache2 

After this, the 'username' user can execute sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start (or stop, restart,etc)

Long answer: You'll likely want to setup a separate user for this if you haven't already, and then configure the /etc/sudoers file to allow a user or group to execute the command you want.

For example, to allow the user 'ben' to execute all commands as root prompting for a password, you would do the following:

ben ALL= ALL

To allow 'ben' to execute only one command (like say, rm), you would do the following:

ben ALL= /bin/rm 

If you are running a script as a user and don't want to prompt for a password, you'll want to use the 'NOPASSWD' option like so:

ben ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/commandname options

You can do the same thing for groups by prefixing group names with a percentage sign, like so:

%supportstaff          ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/commandname 

Solution 2

Short answer: sudo.

The call would look similar to the following: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Easiest is to use visudo to set up the /etc/sudoers file. See man sudoers and man visudo for details.

Comments

[Matt Fletcher]

OP said about doing it through a script- the script won't be able to enter a password so this answer won't make any sense.

[ThorSummoner]

Can username be restricted to a subset of parameters? Say start restart but not stop?

[ThorSummoner]

the visudo command does safety checks on your edits so you don't break the sudo/su command by accident: unix.stackexchange.com/a/27595/61349

[Robin Kanters]

@MattFletcher unless you use NOPASSWD