gr65@sdcc12.UUCP (06/05/87)
I would like to enable users without special privileges to execute a command file that requires privileges. I would rather not use a special captive account. The problem I am addressing involves a beta test version of a VMS ditroff package for Talaris laser printers. Apparently, the symbiont 'goes away' when the laser printer is turned off (and under mysterious other circumstances I have not been able to nail down). The only solution Talaris offers at this point is to stop and restart the laser queue and the symbiont. Since privileged users are not always available for the queue stop/restart operation (night and weekends), I want to allow unprivileged users to do the operation themselves as painlessly as possible. As a quick and dirty solution, awaiting bug fixes for the root problem from Talaris, I wrote a small fortran program, which I installed with privileges, which asks the user if he has carefully checked for other jobs on the queue and then uses lib$do_command to execute the privileged command file. This does not work since privileges are not passed from the image to the environment of the command file execution. I imagine that I need to use sys$creprc instead (?) to pass privileges to a subprocess that will execute the command procedure. Before I start slogging through, can someone tell me if I am on the right track, and maybe give me a few pointers as to what to look out for? Can the privileges on the queue itself be changed to allow all users to start and stop the queue? Please don't send me messages about security considerations; I am in a small university research group where this is not an overwhelming problem. (The primary reason full privileges are given to only 2 members in the group is as a means of keeping track of modifications to the system.) Thanks very much, Steve Piper gr65%sdcc12@SDCSVAX.ARPA ------------------------------------------------------------------