SU Priviledges

[Michael Scully]

Greetings:

	I have an application where I need to prompt a user for the root
password so that they can do some administrative function (kill dead users,
other's print jobs, etc.).  I don't want to execute an 'su' since I don't
want to create a new shell - I want to continue within my application.  I've
noticed on the gnome console that when regular users are logged in and
select an administrative function that requires root access, the session and
prompt them for it and carry on.  Does anyone know how this is done?  Is
this possible from within a character shell?

Scully