running a command as a super user from a python script

Question

So I\'m trying to get a process to be run as a super user from within a python script using subprocess. In the ipython shell something like

proc = subproces         


        

Answer 1

I tried all the solutions, but did not work. Wanted to run long running tasks with Celery but for these I needed to run sudo chown command with subprocess.call().

This is what worked for me:

To add safe environment variables, in command line, type:

export MY_SUDO_PASS="user_password_here"

To test if it's working type:

echo $MY_SUDO_PASS
 > user_password_here

To run it at system startup add it to the end of this file:

nano ~/.bashrc  

---

#.bashrc
...
existing_content:

  elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
  fi
fi
...

export MY_SUDO_PASS="user_password_here"

---

You can add all your environment variables passwords, usernames, host, etc here later.

If your variables are ready you can run:

To update:

echo $MY_SUDO_PASS | sudo -S apt-get update

Or to install Midnight Commander

echo $MY_SUDO_PASS | sudo -S apt-get install mc

To start Midnight Commander with sudo

echo $MY_SUDO_PASS | sudo -S mc

Or from python shell (or Django/Celery), to change directory ownership recursively:

python
>> import subprocess
>> subprocess.call('echo $MY_SUDO_PASS | sudo -S chown -R username_here /home/username_here/folder_to_change_ownership_recursivley', shell=True)

Hope it helps.