su GUI Application for MacOSX
This is a totally unsupported Application!
What it does: It allows you to temporally become root from a Administrators account on OSX.
This is useful for example, if you want to move a file or directory from a Users home folder into another Folder. Normally,
you have to logout - which involves closing all your running applications, then login as root, do the task, then login back as yourself. With su-gui, you can login
yourself as root on top of the currently running finder, then after completing the task you wanted to do,
go back to your own account, without terminating all applications.
There is only one thing you cant do: Change the owner/group of a folder or file when you are root. This
is clearly apples fault, since this also happens if you really login as root:
If you do a get-info on a file or Folder, all items which would allow you to change the owner or group
of an item are greyed out. Also, the little lock is missing. As long as Apple does not fix this, my little
Application is somewhat useless for doing administrative task when you want to assign rights and ownership
of Files.
The program is freeware. get it here: su-gui.tar.gz
Usage: unpack as root or with sudo:
- open a terminal
- navigate to where the archive is (cd ~/Desktop for example)
- type: sudo tar -zxf su-gui.tar.gz
This is because of one small shell script which needs root permission to execute inside the package. It is called "pidof".
If you dont trust it, open it with an editor and decide yourself. However su-gui wont work without it.
Now, you are able to use the application:
Start, enter YOUR password, not roots, press "Start root finder"
if anyone is able to enlighten my knowledge about how to assign ownership as root in MacOSX, please mail me:
su@biermann.org