Posted by Schraalhans Keukenmeester on 03/29/07 18:25

theGerm wrote:
> On Mar 29, 11:34 am, Toby A Inkster <usenet200...@tobyinkster.co.uk>
> wrote:
>> theGerm wrote:
>>> Is it possible for me to restart a service with PHP? I need to run
>>> this from a webpage
>>> /sbin/service squid reload
>> You can run that using PHP's system() function:
>>
>> <?php system("/sbin/service squid reload"); ?>
>>
>> However, normally "/sbin/service X" is just a shortcut to running
>> "/etc/init.d/X" and if you take a look at the permissions for the contents
>> of the "/etc/init.d/" directory, they'll mostly be only executable by
>> root. (And the web server doesn't run as root!)
>>
>> So the initial reaction is to just change the permissions on
>> "/etc/init.d/squid" to allow non-root users to run it. That won't work
>> though.
>>
>> What you'd need to do is use "sudo" to allow whatever user Apache runs
>> under (normally the user is called "httpd", "apache" or "nobody") to be
>> able to run "/etc/init.d/squid".
>>
>> --
>> Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
>> Contact Me ~http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
>> Geek of ~ HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python*/Apache/Linux
>>
>> * = I'm getting there!
>
> I have this
>
> <?php system("sudo /etc/init.d/squid reload 2>&1"); ?>
>
> on that page I just see text - Password:
>
>
You can configure sudo's behaviour per command/user. As it is, it seems
like yours is set up so the sudo-ing user has to supply their own
password first before sudo will exec the command (squid int his case,
which prolly has root exec rights only, maybe group wheel as well.)

in /etc/sudoers you can set the desired behaviour for squid and/or the
user that 'runs' apache/php. Normally apache is started as root, but in
httpd.conf the user that holds the apache processes is specified. See ps
aux for details on your apache user.

see man sudo, man sudoers for details on how to set the proper
behaviour. Or check google for mor elaborate examples/walkthroughs.

Hth

Sh.

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