Executing a command as a nologin user

Question

I've recently set up my server so that my suPHP 'virtual' users can't be logged into by using this article

My issue now is that before when I ran a rake command for my Ruby on Rails application running on the server, I used su to go into www-data and execute the command from there - obviously I can't do that anymore because of the nologin.

So as a root user, how can I execute commands as other user's, even if they are nologin?

One way is to launch a shell for that user (explicitly specifying the shell): `sudo -u www-data bash` execute your command(s) and logout — cyberx86, Nov 21 '11 at 18:21
@cyberx86 Your solution works a treat, could you submit it as an answer for me? — , Nov 21 '11 at 19:01

score 73 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 21 '11 at 19:03

73

One way is to launch a shell for that user (explicitly specifying the shell):

sudo -u www-data bash

This will launch a (bash) shell as the specified user. You can then execute your command(s) and logout (to return to your previous shell)

answered Nov 21 '11 at 19:03

cyberx86

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score 48 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 21 '11 at 18:32

48

As root you can use su -s /bin/sh $user — the -s option overrides the configured shell for the user.

answered Nov 21 '11 at 18:32

Sergey Vlasov

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This always seems to error for me. – Nov 21 '11 at 19:26
Works great for me, never had a prob. When running scripts with bash syntax needs /bin/bash rather than /bin/sh – ekerner Oct 08 '17 at 18:52
This answer is a life saver in situations where you don't have sudo - such as when working in kubernetes pods – Vance Palacio Dec 07 '21 at 18:40

Executing a command as a nologin user

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