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I'm running FreeBSD 7 and apache-2.2.13.

I am trying to debug a cgi script at http://www.example.org/cgi-bin/printenv . This script is a simple script written in Bourne shell.

I would like to run this script from the unix commandline, as user 'www'. However, the user 'www' does not have a shell (by design). This means I cannot 'su' to user 'www' to execute this script:

# su www -c /usr/local/www/apache22/cgi-bin/printenv
This account is currently not available.

# su - www -c /usr/local/www/apache22/cgi-bin/printenv
su: no directory

How can I run this script as user 'www'?

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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Your first example is fine - that error probably means the shell is currently pointed to nologin. Simply change it to a valid shell or use something like sudo which is sort of a hack but would work.

[root@monkey]# grep monkey /etc/passwd
monkeyman:x:100:101:monkeyman:/home/monkeyman:/sbin/nologin

[root@monkey]# sudo -u monkeyman echo "hi"
hi
[root@monkey]# su monkeyman -c 'echo hi'
This account is currently not available.
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This is Linux however I suspect the same behavior. – WinkyWolly Mar 23 '11 at 0:59
1  
The same behavior happens on Linux. However, Linux has a su --shell=/bin/sh option to bypass this problem. – Stefan Lasiewski Mar 24 '11 at 17:39
I was hoping to avoid sudo (I was hoping to avoid any system modifications). But it seems this is the only option for me. Thanks. – Stefan Lasiewski Mar 24 '11 at 17:40
Ah, I never thought to check if I could set a shell with su. Good catch :). – WinkyWolly Mar 26 '11 at 18:49
up vote 1 down vote

Have you tried what is suggested on Run as different user under FreeBSD?

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