transferring files to /etc and /usr/local/bin via bash scr..

Is it possible to sftp files to remote Macs in which I have the the
admin password?

Below is a snippet from my script but it does not succeed because of
permission problems
(i.e. not being root).

admin_sftp() {
sftp admin@$1 << EOF
cd /usr/local/bin/cron
put osx_update
chmod 700 osx_update
cd /etc
put crontab
chmod 600 crontab
put hosts
chmod 644 hosts
put machinelist
chmod 644 machinelist
quit
EOF
}

The above function is called in a loop varying through a range of IP
addresses
to which I want to distribute files. However, since the files are
owned by root,
the file transfer does not succeed. No root user is enabled other
than by sudo.
Is there a way to do this right?

Thx. Jack

In article
<149879d8-2963-488b-9c99-17eead72db8e.RemoveThis@v15g2000prn.googlegroups.com
>,
Jack Shown <jackshown.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:

> Is it possible to sftp files to remote Macs in which I have the the
> admin password?
>
> Below is a snippet from my script but it does not succeed because of
> permission problems
> (i.e. not being root).
>
> admin_sftp() {
> sftp admin@$1 << EOF
> cd /usr/local/bin/cron
> put osx_update
> chmod 700 osx_update
> cd /etc
> put crontab
> chmod 600 crontab
> put hosts
> chmod 644 hosts
> put machinelist
> chmod 644 machinelist
> quit
> EOF
> }
>
> The above function is called in a loop varying through a range of IP
> addresses
> to which I want to distribute files. However, since the files are
> owned by root,
> the file transfer does not succeed. No root user is enabled other
> than by sudo.
> Is there a way to do this right?
>
> Thx. Jack

The files in question are owned or controlled by 'root', and until
the admin does an 'sudo' the admin is working in 'mortal' mode.

You could give the 'root' account a password, which would then
enable 'root' login

sudo passwd root
password: your admin password here
Changing password for root.
New password:
Retype new password:

-OR- Instead of enabling the root account, you could instead,
create an ssh key and put that in the root's authorized_keys file

ssh-keygen
copy the $HOME/.ssh/*.pub file to the other system.
Store the .pub file in the root account's
.ssh/authorized_keys file
Then you should not need to know the root account's password.

Now you can use sftp or even better scp to copy files into
directories owned by 'root'

chmod 700 osx_update
scp -p osx_update root@$1:/usr/local/bin/cron/osx_update
chmod 600 crontab
chmod 644 hosts machinelist
scp -p crontab hosts machinelist root@$1:/etc/crontab

Bob Harris