Run command as not-root

Hi everyone

At work, I have to run a command in an AWS instance. In that particular instance only exists the root user. The command should not be executed with root privileges (it executes mpirun, which is not recommended to run as sudo or the machine might break), so I was wondering if there is a way to block or disable the sudo privileges while the command is running. As mentioned, the only user existing there is root, so I suppose “sudo -u” is not an option.

Does anyone know how to do it? Thanks in advance!

@linux

  • Oisteink@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    Read your other post and it seems to me that a rebuild of the system to accommodate non-root users would be my preferred solution. Trying to “work around“ issues like this are prone to break as the system is updated/changed. And you’re back to trying to figure out what’s changed and makes your script break.

    • Nicolas Rojas@social.vivaldi.netOP
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      1 year ago

      @Oisteink yep, that seems the right thing to do. Honestly, most of the real problem was lazyness to reconfigure everything, and that’s why I published the question. But now I’m convinced that that’s the only way lol
      Thanks for the help!

      • Oisteink@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Laziness sparks innovation, and there could possibly be some other way to drop privileges. There’s loads of stuff I learn about Linux still - and my first install was summer 94

        Keep at it!

      • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        You’re not wrong for trying to find another solution. Unfortunately, I think, in this case, your up against fundamental Linux permissions. One possibility would be running the work in a container with reduced capabilities but, it really is going to depend on what behaviors you’re trying to avoid.

        Overall, it’s likely a better idea to re-install because noone should be running stuff directly as root in the majority of production scenarios.