How to run commands as root from Rails?

Question

I am thinking of writing a Rails application for managing servers like cPanel.

The most difficult task is to choose the best way to run commands that require root privileges, for example adduser , or to do what other user privileges require, for example, modify nginx configuration files.

I know only two ways to achieve this:

• I can write a stand-alone daemon that will run as administrator and do all the work, receive commands through IPC or something like that.
• Run the Rail server as the root user and do something from it or run the / bash scripts from it.

Which of these methods is better? Is there any other way of doing this?

Answer 1

You need to do # 2.

Run the application with administrator rights, and you can perform all operations with administrator rights.

Writing code to run as a daemon will also work, but it's harder to debug.

In any case, you need to protect against hacking attempts through unauthorized access. One miss and your system will be compromised.

Answer 2

sudo -i

I tried to do things like sudo bundle exec rails console , but it would not run it as root, so when I tried to create a directory from the console, it informed me that I did not have the correct permissions.

However, using sudo -i , it enters you into the "interactive console" as the root sudo user, and then you can run bundle exec rails console as the root sudo user.

Hopes that help others.