What user does cloud-config run as?

Question

When spinning up an AWS or other cloud vendor instance, and using cloud-init to configure the host, what user do bash scripts that get called run as?

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 14 '17 at 18:39

13

Building an instance with the following config:

#cloud-config
write_files:
  - path: /root/test.sh
    content: |
        #!/bin/bash
        set -x
        set -e
        whoami
runcmd:
  - bash /root/test.sh

I got an output of:

+ whoami
root

Ubuntu cloud-config runs as root.

answered Jun 14 '17 at 18:39

J0hnG4lt

4,337
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1

Is it possible to set a custom user? – Rovshan Musayev Sep 17 '21 at 12:35
4

@RovshanMusayev runuser -l $USER -c " – Aaron Baker Oct 05 '21 at 15:27
2

It seems to me like a hack, but not a native cloud-init feature. I am not only about running a command but also running whole cloud init including writing files with custom user – Rovshan Musayev Oct 14 '21 at 11:29
1

I'm not sure it is possible. However, if it is possible and someone knows how to do it, I would love to learn. – tdensmore Jan 06 '22 at 20:03
1

@RovshanMusayev As far as files go, you can write those files as root user, and after that `chown` them to whatever user you need to. – user3274289 Jan 21 '22 at 00:38

What user does cloud-config run as?

1 Answers1