electron-sudo

Electron subprocess with administrative privileges

Run a subprocess with administrative privileges, prompting the user with a graphical OS dialog if necessary. Useful for background subprocesse which run native Electron apps that need sudo.

- Windows, uses elevate utility with native User Account Control (UAC) prompt (no PowerShell required)
- OS X, uses bundled applet (inspired by Joran Dirk Greef)
- Linux, uses system pkexec or gksudo (system or bundled).

If you don't trust binaries bundled in npm package you can manually build tools and use them instead.

Features

- Supports ``spawn` and `exec` subprocess behavior
- Supports applications packaged as `asar` archive
- Separate password prompt for each call (use `sh` or `bat` script for single prompt)
- No external dependencies, does not depend on OS versions

Installation

`
npm install electron-sudo
`

Usage

Note: Your command should not start with the `sudo` prefix.

$3

`js
import Sudoer from 'electron-sudo';

let options = {name: 'electron sudo application'},
sudoer = new Sudoer(options);

/ Spawn subprocess behavior /
let cp = await sudoer.spawn(
'echo', ['$PARAM'], {env: {PARAM: 'VALUE'}}
);
cp.on('close', () => {
/*
cp.output.stdout (Buffer)
cp.output.stderr (Buffer)
*/
});

/ Exec subprocess behavior /
let result = await sudoer.exec(
'echo $PARAM', {env: {PARAM: 'VALUE'}}
);
/ result is Buffer with mixed (both stdout and stderr) output /


/ Usage with Vanila JS /

var Sudoer = require('electron-sudo').default;
var sudoer = new Sudoer(options);
sudoer.spawn('echo', ['$PARAM'], {env: {PARAM: 'VALUE'}}).then(function (cp) {
/*
cp.output.stdout (Buffer)
cp.output.stderr (Buffer)
*/
});

`

$3

`js
var sudo = require('electron-sudo');
var options = {
name: 'Your application name',
icns: '/path/to/icns/file' // (optional, only for MacOS),
process: {
options: {
// Can use custom environment variables for your privileged subprocess
env: {'VAR': 'VALUE'}
// ... and all other subprocess options described here
// https://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html#child_process_child_process_exec_command_options_callback
},
on: function(ps) {
ps.stdout.on('data', function(data) {});
setTimeout(function() {
ps.kill()
}.bind(ps), 50000);
}
}
};
sudo.exec('echo hello', options, function(error) {});
`

Tests


`
npm i && npm test
`

Usage with Webpack

Webpack config should contain `__dirname` equals `true` for work properly

`js

let nodeModules = fs.readdirSync('./node_modules')
.filter((module) => {
return module !== '.bin';
})
.reduce((prev, module) => {
return Object.assign(prev, {[module]: 'commonjs ' + module});
}, {});

export default {
...
target: 'electron',
node: {
/ http://webpack.github.io/docs/configuration.html#node /
__dirname: true
},
externals: nodeModules
};
``