macos rerun script as root with (gui) user prompt

readme.md

NOTE:

• you probably shouldn't do this (use sudo instead if you can)
• preserves stdin and cli args but not env vars (only PATH makes it through)
• test example script with ./make-it-root.sh with params <<<"and stdin"

make-it-root.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# $ ./make-it-root.sh with params <<<"and stdin"

set -e

# if not run as root, prompt user to allow this to run as root
# NOTE: Must use `whoami`, $USER won't be set when run this way, which will cause this to trigger recursively
if [[ "$(whoami)" != 'root' ]]; then
    exec osascript - "$0" "$@" 3<&0 <<APPLESCRIPT
    on run argv
        set stdin to do shell script "cat 0<&3"
        set command to ""
        repeat with arg in argv
          set command to command & quoted form of arg & " "
        end repeat

        do shell script (command & " <<< " & quoted form of stdin) with administrator privileges
    end run
APPLESCRIPT
fi

# do stuff as root
echo "do stuff as $(whoami) with params ($0 $*) and stdin $(cat)"

# NOTE: it's not just $USER missing, for me $PATH is the only environment variable preserved...
env

prompt.png