Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!oberon!sm.unisys.com!csun!polyslo!steve From: steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: halt not by root Keywords: halt ! not root Message-ID: <4051@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> Date: 20 Sep 88 18:20:27 GMT References: <1128@usfvax2.EDU> Reply-To: steve@polyslo.UUCP (Steve DeJarnett) Organization: Lab Rat Rumpus Room -- Cal Poly SLO Lines: 24 In article <1128@usfvax2.EDU> ssi@usfvax2.EDU (Ssi) writes: >I run a Sun file server with clients. My question is >how can I give halt(8) permission to users other than >root. We shut the system down at night and root is >at home. Well, one solution (not a good one, by any means, but it is quick and easy) is to make halt(8) group executable (not world) and make it setuid to root. As we all know, setuid programs aren't a great idea, and setuid root programs are an even worse idea. I think you probably wouldn't want halt(8) to be executable, but something more along the lines of shutdown(8). Halting a machine running in multi-user mode isn't a good idea (might just as well sync the disks and shut the machine off :-). The same caveats apply to making shutdown setuid as well as halt (only do one of these!!). The real question is, do you NEED to shut this machine down every night? Is it such a power hog that you can't leave it running??? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Steve DeJarnett | Smart Mailers -> steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU | | Computer Systems Lab | Dumb Mailers -> ..!ucbvax!voder!polyslo!steve | | Cal Poly State Univ. |------------------------------------------------| | San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 | BITNET = Because Idiots Type NETwork | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------