How to execute commands with specific user privilege in C and Python under Linux
27 Jul 2011 
Matteo Mattei 
c/c++ linux python 
If you have root access but you need to run some applications/scripts with some other user credentials you can do it with
su - username -c "command to execute"
But if you need to do it within a C/C++ program you need to write something like this:
This is how to compile and execute the above code:
[root@barracuda ~]# gcc mysu.c -o mysu
[root@barracuda ~]# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) gruppi=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel),19(log)
[root@barracuda ~]# ./mysu matteo /bin/bash
[matteo@barracuda /root]$ id
uid=1000(matteo) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),3(sys),10(wheel),14(uucp),91(video),92(audio),93(optical),95(storage),96(scanner),97(camera),98(power),108(vboxusers)
The same result could be obtained also in Python with a very little effort: