SCP – How to Sudo to Super-User After File Transfer

scpsudo

For deploying code to a server I run a script which scp's the deployment file onto the server using my private key .
But after scp I have to manually ssh to the machine
sudo to a superuser account and run a deployment script .

I would like to automate the second step too , but cannot figure out how to .

Any other alternatives to this two step process ?

Best Answer

If whomever controls the sudoers file will change it so that you can run certain commands without a password, it will be as simple as running:

$ ssh other-host sudo /path/to/deployment.script

If not, then you can have sudo take its input from a file:

$ ssh other-host 'sudo -S /path/to/deployment.script < password.file'

But, don't do that as that means you're putting your password into a file. And the server admin should kick your ass for that.

A better option than all of the above is to have the server admin set up an entry in root's authorized_keys file that is only allowed to run the deployment script. This way, to run the script you only need to ssh into the server as root with a special key.

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