KDESU

NAME

kdesu − Runs a program with elevated privileges.

SYNOPSIS

kdesu [Qt−options] [KDE−options] [kdesu options] command

DESCRIPTION

Runs a program with elevated privileges.

KDE su is a graphical front end to the Unix su utility. It allows you to run programs as another user by entering their password. It is not a SUID root program, but runs unprivileged. The system program su is used for acquiring special privileges.

kdesu has the ability to store passwords for the convenience of users. The passwords are NOT written to disk, but stored in memory using a special program, kdesud. This is only done if the user specifies that the password be remembered. In this case, passwords are stored in memory for a certain period of time before being removed. kdesud runs in such a way that only the user who entered the password originally can use it, though no one, not even the user who originally entered the password, can retrieve the password that is stored by kdesud. Through these measures, users can avoid having to repeatedly enter root passwords or other passwords, without a significant risk to overall system security.

kdesu uses normally su to gain root by using the root password. kdesu can also be configured to use other commands to gain root like sudo to use users password.

OPTIONS

Generic options:

--help-qt

Show Qt specific options

--help-kde

Show KDE specific options

--help-all

Show all options

--author

Show author information

-v, --version

Show version information

--license

Show license information

kdesu Options:
-c <command>

Specifies the command to run

-f <file>

Run command under target uid if <file> is not writable

-u <user>

Specifies the target uid [default is root]

-p <prio>

Set priority value: 0 <= prio <= 100, 0 is lowest [default is 50]

--nonewdcop

Let command use existing dcopserver

-i <icon name>

Specify icon to use in the password dialog

Arguments:
command

Specifies the command to run

CONFIGURATION FILES

kdesu can be configured with a default configuration file /etc/kde3/kdesurc and with a per user configuration file in .kde/share/config/kdesurc. Alternative a section could be added to kdeglobals.

EXAMPLE

The configuration item for the configuration files is the following:
[super-user-command]
super-user-command=sudo

SEE ALSO

Full user documentation is available through the KDE Help Center. You can also enter the URL help:/kdesu/ directly into konqueror or you can run ‘khelpcenter help:/kdesu/’ from the command-line.

AUTHORS

Geert Jansen <jansen AT kde DOT org>
Pietro Iglio <iglio AT fub DOT it>

This manual page was written by Christopher Martin <chrsmrtn AT debian DOT org> for Debian GNU/Linux, but may be used by others. It borrows from an earlier manpage by Karolina Lindqvist <pgd−karolinali AT algonet DOT se>.