Ubuntu – installing software package for any user account and root user

package-managementrootsudo

Suppose I've two users in my system viz. USER1 and USER2.

When I need to install any package for any user say USER1, I need to do "sudo su" which means root privilege. But is this software installed only for the USER1, though I've done "sudo su"? Why is it so?

How to install any package in a system that can be accessible to every user in the machine?

Best Answer

Programs installed from the Software Center or apt-get should be installed globally (system wide) and will be available to all users.

This is because they are not installed in a particular user's home folder but in the usr folder.

Each user will have their own file in their account to save there preferences and data except any user logged in as a guest, as their data is deleted on logging out.

.sh and .bin files that install without root will only be available by the user that installed it unless the folder that it is installed in is made available to all users via the sharing options via the mouse right click or the command line chmod. This is because programs that install without root only install into the home directory of the user that installed them.

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Ubuntu – Run script at user login as root, with a catch

Do not put the script in the user's home directory. Instead, put it in a fixed location. If the script needs some user-dependent arguments, make the script read that from a file — but you don't even need that since you're copying the script from /etc/skel anyway.

If you allow a user to run a script in their home directory with elevated privileges, then they can replace the script by another script. So your proposed rule would be equivalent from a security point of view to

ALL ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /etc/skel/createSambaShare.php
MANY ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

where MANY is any user whose home directory is under /home/DOMAIN. (Ok, unless a user's home directory is owned by root, not writable to the user, and the script is not writable by or owned by the user either. But that would be pretty unusual.)

Also, I recommend not using ALL in a User specification. Restrict the rule to a group.

%sambasharers ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/createSambaShare.php

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Ahmm.. the problem is that the standard shell of those users is normally set to /bin/false and for security reasons you should not change this. But you can still run for example: sudo -u www-data /bin/sh

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