[iOXeR]

I've been using Linux for quite awhile now, but I've never actually had to do what I'm trying to do now. I want to run some commands at startup that I would normally run in the terminal after it has started up. Thanks in advance

[tsunam]

what sort of commands are you trying to run?

[Headrush]

We need to know more about your system.

Are you running a GUI? Which one? If no, what shell are you using?

[brendandonhu]

What distro is this?
And how far along in the boot process do you want to run the command?

[lynch]

Look for a file named like one of the following:

• etc/rc.d/rc.local
• /etc/rc.d/boot.local
• /etc/rc.local

Or similar; it could contain commented text like this:

#!/bin/sh
#
# This script will be executed *after* all the other init scripts.
# You can put your own initialization stuff in here if you don't
# want to do the full Sys V style init stuff.

Just add the commands there.
HTH
lynch

[iOXeR]

I'm currently trying to mount an ntfs drive on startup. I downloaded the ntfs rpm from the Linux-NTFS Project website, installed it, and it works. Now instead of manually typing in the mount command after it has started up, I want it to do this automatically. I'm using Fedora Core 4, by the way.

Lynch, I found the file, but the command I want to run has to be run as root. Is there any way to do this? Would I be able to do this with su?

[linuxphile]

You don't need another script to mount an NTFS drive. You can add an entry into /etc/fstab along with the other mounts. See the man pages for fstab for the correct syntax.

[iOXeR]

linuxphile, thanks! I got it working.

Just to know, how would I go about doing this using lynch's way? Not everything I'll want to run at startup in the future will be able to go into fstab.

[linuxphile]

I'm not entirely certain, although, I believe a script will run as root if root is it's owner.

[AGCurry]

Originally Posted by linuxphile

I'm not entirely certain, although, I believe a script will run as root if root is it's owner.

No. It will run as whoever's trying to run it.

[lynch]

Originally Posted by iOXeR

linuxphile, thanks! I got it working.

Just to know, how would I go about doing this using lynch's way? Not everything I'll want to run at startup in the future will be able to go into fstab.

I did'nt know you were trying to mount a drive at startup; linuxphile is right.
If you load commands in the file I suggested, you need to be root to enter anything in that file, so
it is being run by root.
lynch

[codejockey]

My $0.02 worth (subject to rounding error and inflation ):

The owner of a file and the owner of a process running that file are generally not associated. For example, if my ID is codejockey, I can run files owned by root, subject to the permissions associated with the file (i.e., if only the file owner has execute permission, then only the owner and root will be able to execute the file -- I will not). If I can run the file, the process executes with my permissions (not the permissions of the owner of the file) -- with one exception: if the setuid bit of the permissions mask is set, then my invocation of the file will run with the permissions of the file owner, rather than with my permissions.

The setuid capability is a well-known security hole, and its use is discouraged unless there really is no other option. Shell scripts do not honor the setuid bit, even if set.

Hope this helps.

[linuxphile]

Thanks for the info codejockey. I wasn't clear on how the init process determines the user that a process runs as. I understood that in an interactive shell the user executing the script is the user the script runs as, unless, as you noted, the setuid bit is set.