How to run a shell script in automator as root?

This is super helpful, thank you for sharing this. I wanted to run an elevated shell script to disable/enable a service , and this works perfectly, using an AppleScript followed by the Shell script using -S.

😀

You may want to describe what problems you are trying to solve. There could be a better way of doing what you want.

"will purge system memory" doesn't sound right to me. Mac OS X make use off all the memory it can. Any excess memory is used to store copies of applications that you have quit, so if you restore the appl it will load faster.

Anyway, here is an applescript with root access which you could invoke from automator:

(*

It is easier to diagnose problems with debug information. I suggest adding log statements to your script to see what is going on. Here is an example.

Author: rccharles

For testing, run in the Script Editor.

1) Click on the Event Log tab to see the output from the log statement

2) Click on Run

For running shell commands see:

http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html

*)

on run

-- Write a message into the event log.

log " --- Starting on " & ((current date) as string) & " --- "

-- debug lines

set unixDesktopPath to POSIX path of "/System/Library/User Template/"

log "unixDesktopPath = " & unixDesktopPath

set quotedUnixDesktopPath to quoted form of unixDesktopPath

log "quoted form is " & quotedUnixDesktopPath

try

set fromUnix to do shell script "sudo ls -l " & quotedUnixDesktopPath with administrator privileges

display dialog "ls -l of " & quotedUnixDesktopPath & return & fromUnix

on error errMsg

log "ls -l error..." & errMsg

end try

end run

Hello

You may simply combine a Run AppleScript action to ask for password and a Run Shell Script action to invoke sudo with -S option to get password from STDIN.

Run AppleScript action:

- code =

tell application "System Events" activate return text returned of (display dialog "Enter password" default answer "" with hidden answer) end tell

Run Shell Script action:

- shell = /bin/bash

- pass input = to stdin

- code (e.g.) =

sudo -S id -u

Workflow will look something like this:

Regards,

H

could someone show me how Hiroto's post would translate in how the current automator apple script widget is structured as I am not a coder.

This works for me.

Thanks Vincent,

It works! and,

Is it possible to built in the password as I use a 3D app that gets corrupted frequently and during the course of the day need to purge memory to clean out its config file and a one click solution would be of great help.

Well, I'm not an expert (I came across the thread when trying to do similar) - others will hopefully chime in.

Is it possible? Yes. Should you do it? Be very careful (as the applescript will contain your password, so if someone accesses your machine, they can edit via Automator and just read your password).

This code worked for me:

______________________________

on run{}

tell "System Events"

activate

return "yourpasswordhere"

end tell

end run

______________________________

Once again, and I'll write it in CAPS just to be clear, THIS SOLUTION CREATES A SECURITY VULNERABILITY IF YOUR MACHINE IS ACCESSED!!! 🙂

Vince

Thanks Vincent, Appreciate the heads up. I am the only one on this machine and I work out of my home. I could if concerned log out with password required to get back in.

Thanks for the tip, this actually made me get it to work. I do have a few questions though.

1) What exactly does "sudo -S id -u" do?

2) Am I correct in assuming the AppleScript makes it so that you store the password in STDIN (I've Googled this but I have no idea what it actually is) ?

Hello

You can read manual pages of sudo(8) and id(1) commands in Terminal by man(1) command:

man sudo man id

sudo -S lets sudo read password from stdin.

id -u lets id print effective user id, which should be 0 for root.

Thus sudo -S id -u is just a test code to demonstrate id is successfully run as root.

The Run AppleScript action presents password input dialogue and returns the inputted text, which is then passed to the next Run Shell Script action's stdin from which sudo is to read the password by -S option.

I'm not really sure this workflow is safe, though.

Regards,

H

Perfect, thank you