Say in unix (AIX) m/c, I am logged in with s1 user and want to start process p1 with user credentials of s2.

This i can do manually in this way:
#su - s2
#enter password for s2> somePassword
$ p1

But all this I have to do through a java program. This I can do by running a script through java program.

In script how i can pass the password.
For ex (Can it be done like this):
su - s2
somePassword


I will be thankful, if anybody can suggest some solution to this problem.

Thanks in advance.

There is a possibility to do this as,

1) expect scripting
2) sudo utility

on shell.

With expect script as like as,
#!/usr/local/bin/expect
spawn su -
expect "Password:" { send "passwd\r" }
expect "# " { send "uname -a\r" }
expect "# " { send "pwd\r" }
expect "# " { send "q" }
exit

hth.

Thanks Muthukumar for your help.

I downloaded the expect utility. But if I use expect, I have to ship this utility with my application.
So, is their any easy way to achive this functionality.

Actually, I want to include this feature in my java program. Through java program, i tried reading "passwd" string (using std input/output stream) after the execution of command:
su - shail -c cleartool.
But I was not able to get this string in output stream. It was asking the passwd on the command promp in which i was executing my java program.
What I felt, unix might be starting new process to get the password from user.

Well, you also mentioned about sudo feature. Can you please eloborate on this command. How I have to use sodo for giving password interactivly using script.

Thanks in advance.

With regards....

Shailendra

if you're only trying to run a process and if you're initial user is root, just ...

su - s2 -c "p1"

You could use:

su -c <command with args> username

Don't know all options that AIX su supports though.

I have to start a new process using su under normal user and not under root.

muthukumar has suggested using expect. I tried to install expect but it was giving following error.

# ./configure.in
./configure.in[8]: Syntax error at line 8 : `(' is not expected.

If anybody can help me.

Thanks in advance.

With regards....

Shailendra

Actually, there is an ugly, interesting and not to be used workaround that you can use:

If you are user a and want to run a particular command as user b, you can enable rsh/remsh from localhost for user a to user b.

In user b's home directory, create .rhosts file and add the following entry:

localhost a

where localhost is the hostname and a is the username.

Then you can run whatever command you want using remsh/rsh

rsh -l b localhost <command to be executed>