How do I make a User login shutdown my box?

[Jurvis LaSalle]

On Sep 27, 2004, at 6:02 AM, Stuart Halliday wrote:

> I've got RedHat 8 on a Athlon box and I'd like a user logon to perform 
> a shutdown of the box.
>
> I was advised to do the following:
> I've added a user called 'Sleep' and added this user to the root group 
> via the User Manager program and made its login shell /sbin/shutdown 
> in the /etc/passwd.
>
> I've added in the users directory 2 lines in the .bashrc of:
> PATH=$PATH:/sbin
> export PATH
> as I understand it this path isn't usually in a users path.
>
> I added the user sleep to the /etc/shutdown.allow file as well.
>
> But when I logon via the logon screen as user 'sleep', the picture 
> goes black and then comes back again!
>
> I tried pressing ctrl-alt-del at the logon screen but a wee box pops 
> up asking for the root password to halt or reboot.
>
> Any idea what else I need to do?
>
> If any kind and knowledgeable person could guide me, I would welcome 
> that. :-)
>
> -- 
> Stuart Halliday
>
>

Contrary to all the other advice you've received, the cleanest way to 
have done this would be to read the man pages on pam_console (8) , 
pam_console_apply (8), and console.apps (5).  Proper settings will 
allow users logged in on the console (and only on the console) to 
simply shut down the machine with no need for sudo or any other 
rigamarole.  This will also save you from mischief makers who could ssh 
into a machine while someone else is using it and then shut it down on 
them.

HTH,
Jurvis LaSalle