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kolypto
Asked: 2012-07-25 01:50:31 +0800 CST

Execute a command from another group

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In Linux, I have the following id:

uid=1005(username) gid=1005(username) groups=1005(username),33(www-data),1002(git)

I'd like to change my effective gid to git so that everything I create will belong to gid group. E.g. touch testfile gives owner=username group=git

How?

linux

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can change your current group using the newgrp commmand:

    ~$ id
uid=1000(bas) gid=1000(bas) groups=1000(bas),24(cdrom)
~$ newgrp - cdrom
~$ id
uid=1000(bas) gid=24(cdrom) groups=1000(bas),24(cdrom)
~$ touch foo && ls -l foo
-rw-r--r-- 1 bas cdrom 0 Jul 24 13:58 foo

    Groups can be locked or have a password. See the manpage for more details.

    man newgrp
    • 6

  2. If you have suitable sudo permissions you can run a shell as the new group

    username    ALL=(:git) /bin/bash

    this allows username to run /bin/bash as username:git

    id
uid=1005(test) gid=1005(test) groups=1005(test)

touch testfile
ls -l testfile
-rw-rw-r-- 1 test test 0 Jul 24 11:19 testfile

sudo -g git /bin/bash
id
uid=1005(test) gid=1003(git) groups=1005(test)
rm testfile
touch testfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 test git 0 Jul 24 11:21 testfile

    You could even use exec to replace your current shell with the one running as the git group

    exec sudo -g git /bin/bash
    • 2

  3. Globally, you cannot - not without changing the user's primary group.

    But on a per-directory basis, this is trivially achieved by setting the setgid bit on the directory, and chowning said directory to the correct group.

    Anything created below said directory will inherit the gid, regardless of the user who created it.

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