Starting some operation as common user (for example compiling/building) before promoting to privileged (generally root) by su'ing or sudo'ing (for example to install) is common.
But does somebody know of an established program or library that allows to start a process as root and to automatically downgrade rights for tasks (I mean identified chunks of whatever code) that do not require privileges? This can of course be written in scripting, by su'ing to a defined unprivileged user to exec a task and wait for it before using the result with root privileges, but I wonder if there is prior art in this area?---or perhaps simply if root is identified but for a task that doesn't need privileged, the program is re-exec'ed with downgraded rights? -- Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ kergis +dot+ com> http://www.kergis.com/ http://kertex.kergis.com/ Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C