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technical note
A G R E A T E R M E A S U R E O F C O N F I D E N C E
Providing Secure Access to
Required Root Commands
Under KTHMGR Login
Introduction
Beginning with Version 5.1.0, the Keithley Test Environment (KTE) software has
a new architecture. New commands that test engineers must use to maintain,
debug, and update their testers have come with this new architecture. (See the
section titled "How to Use Sudo" for a list of these new commands.) These com-
mands are process daemons, which require root access on the SUN workstation.
Granting full root access is often considered dangerous, and the arguments for
and against doing so are beyond the scope of this note. While most sysadmins are
unwilling to grant root access on workstations they maintain; test engineers often
require this level of access to perform their jobs. These conflicting needs can lead
to delays and system downtime.
Sudo, a shareware program distributed under a BSD-style license, is designed to
allow a sysadmin to give limited root privileges to certain users and then log that
activity. The program's underlying philosophy is to provide as few privileges as
possible, while still allowing test engineers to get their work done.
Any sysadmin or test engineer with root access can install Sudo and its associated
files in about 30 minutes per workstation. Once Sudo is properly installed and set
up within the Keithley environment, no maintenance is required.
Using Sudo reduces the sysadmin's workload and allows test engineers to perform
system updates, maintenance, and troubleshooting with minimal delays and test
cell downtime.
Applicability
The information in this note is applicable to all Keithley Series 400 and 600 para-
metric testers that use KTE V5.1 or later. The version of Sudo that accompanies
this note (V1.6.8) should be compatible with any SUN