How to pass sudo\root password to a Linux command using Free Pascal

Question

Most of the other questions about this seem to be C related. I am using Free Pascal and the Lazarus IDE, version 2.4.0 and 0.9.30 respectively.

I am creating a GUI that calls and passes arguments to a Linux command. I don't want my users to have to run the whole GUI using sudo\root, but rather be prompted for the password at the appropriate time.

I am using TProcess to call the Linux commands and pass and read values. I can't work out, though, how to pass the sudo password to the command from my own program?

To give an example, take the following normal command line:

dd if=/dev/hda1 of=~/image.dd
Enter sudo password:

My program is calling dd, passing it the if and of values from a GUI interface - it then needs to gather and pass the sudo password to dd.

Answer 1

A little bit old, but - use pkexec in front of your command, like: pkexec ls /root

You will have each time the GUI info for entering root password. Tested on LinuxMint

Answer 2

On the premise that you're already using TProcess, instead of issuing the command line call directly to dd you can use one of the following established methods of invoking su/sudo:

• gksudo (Ubuntu natty man page)
• kdesudo (Ubuntu natty man page)