Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!jgaltstl!terry
From: terry@jgaltstl.UUCP (terry linhardt)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Somebody .  .  .  Eureka!
Summary: Could use a login of shutdown
Message-ID: <459@jgaltstl.UUCP>
Date: 26 May 91 20:48:38 GMT
References: <9105150354.AA03687@enuxha.eas.asu.edu>
Organization: The Lafayette Group, St. Louis, MO.
Lines: 22

> 2)  We do not always have someone present w/ super-user privs, and need to run
>     'shutdown' from a few other accounts.  Could someone please recommend a way
>     to shutdown the system down without superuser privilages? The 'shutdown'
>     with this sytem (SCO XENIX 2.3.2) will only work from a super-user privs-
>     even when the file ownership is changed at the command line.
> 
> Comments appreciated.

Some people don't like this approach, but you could just have a
special login which does only one thing, which is to run the
shutdown program. A typical passwd entry would be as follows:
 
       shutdown:x:0:150:shutdown login:/:/etc/shutdown

Although whoever executed this program would have root priviledges,
the person logged in as shutdown would never get a shell and instead
be presented with a login prompt as soon as the shutdown program 
terminated.
-- 
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|  Terry Linhardt      The Lafayette Group      uunet!jgaltstl!terry  | 
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