Somebody . . . Eureka!

[Bill Vermillion]

In article <9105150354.AA03687 at enuxha.eas.asu.edu> crawford at ENUXHA.EAS.ASU.EDU (Brian Crawford) writes:
 
>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.

I have a site with several machines, all running Xenix 2.3.2.  

I took the shutdown scripit, edited it to look for another user id at the
console called poweroff.

Gave that id privledges of root.  To shutdown they login is poweroff and
away it goes.

The machines are in an environment where we aren't worried about someone
trying to break in but we don't want people playing so only very few in the
building know of the root password.  We also let that run with no password
so the machine can be brought down rapidly in the event of severe
approaching storms.

If you are not in a secure area, double and triple check to make sure you
can't break out of your script, if you decide to do it this way.

It has saved lots of headaches because if someone really screws something
up and they can't find me (I'm only there 12 hours/week) or the person that
knows a bit about the system (sort of) the user reponsible knows that
poweroff and restart will usually cure most of their problems.

You can also assign that a password and limit it.

-- 
Bill Vermillion - UUCP: ...!tarpit!bilver!bill
                      : bill at bilver.UUCP