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The pythonic way equal to "whoami"

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  The pythonic way equal to "whoami" TheSaint <nobody@nowhere.net.no> - 2011-06-07 22:24 +0800
    Re: The pythonic way equal to "whoami" Kushal Kumaran <kushal.kumaran+python@gmail.com> - 2011-06-07 20:29 +0530
      Re: The pythonic way equal to "whoami" TheSaint <nobody@nowhere.net.no> - 2011-06-08 21:58 +0800
        Re: The pythonic way equal to "whoami" Christopher Head <chead@is.invalid> - 2011-06-08 13:08 -0700
          Re: The pythonic way equal to "whoami" TheSaint <nobody@nowhere.net.no> - 2011-06-09 19:34 +0800
        Re: The pythonic way equal to "whoami" Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2011-06-09 03:38 +0100

#7156 — The pythonic way equal to "whoami"

Hello,
I was trying to find out whose the program launcher, but os.environ['USER'] 
returns the user whom owns the desktop environment, regardless the program 
is called by root.
I'd like to know it, so the program will run with the right privileges.

Is there any standard function on python, that will do it?
-- 
goto /dev/null

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#7158

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 7:54 PM, TheSaint <nobody@nowhere.net.no> wrote:
> Hello,
> I was trying to find out whose the program launcher, but os.environ['USER']
> returns the user whom owns the desktop environment, regardless the program
> is called by root.
> I'd like to know it, so the program will run with the right privileges.
>
> Is there any standard function on python, that will do it?

os.geteuid

You should consider using the access control mechanisms provided by
your OS to do this, though.  If your program is readable by
unauthorized users, they can simply make a copy, and change as
desired.

-- 
regards,
kushal

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#7235

Kushal Kumaran wrote:

> os.geteuid
This return 0 for *root* . I don't know if it's a standard for all distro.
Mine is Archlinux.
I'd just like to avoid error caused by wrong access by user

-- 
goto /dev/null

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#7253

On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:58:17 +0800
TheSaint <nobody@nowhere.net.no> wrote:

> Kushal Kumaran wrote:
> 
> > os.geteuid
> This return 0 for *root* . I don't know if it's a standard for all
> distro. Mine is Archlinux.
> I'd just like to avoid error caused by wrong access by user
> 

It is. Until Linux capabilities, EUID==0 used to be special-cased in the
kernel as being the test for binding to network ports <1024, bypassing
filesystem access control, changing the system time, and so on. Since
Linux caps, it's theoretically possible to use a different UID, but for
compatibility and convenience, as well as because PID 1 (/sbin/init) is
still invoked by the kernel as UID 0, everyone still does that.

Chris

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#7289

Christopher Head wrote:

> It is. Until Linux capabilities, EUID==0 used to be special-cased in the
> kernel

Thank you all, I got a good learning *and* something to rememeber.
-- 
goto /dev/null

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#7268

On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:58:17 +0800, TheSaint wrote:

>> os.geteuid
> This return 0 for *root* . I don't know if it's a standard for all distro.

UID 0 is the "superuser". The name "root" is conventional, but it's the
EUID (effective UID) which is used in permission checks; the kernel
doesn't care about names.

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