In Linux how to add a build step in Qt Creator that uses su privileges without getting the wrong password attempts on builds?

Question

My goal is to successfully link a folder to /opt/ directory- which needs to be run with sudo.

I have tried this:

 system(sudo ln -s $$OUT_PWD/xampp /opt/lampp):message("You should manually link LAMPP")

But building from qt-creator it does not prompt for sudo password, therefore I couldn't get it to link the folder. I got the "wrong password attempts..." error in the Compiler Output. Then I tried these with build steps:

make
sudo make install

to see if it would prompt me there, but it failed on make install step with the same error, which is this in detail:

00:31:20: Starting: "/usr/bin/sudo" make install
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
Sorry, try again.
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
Sorry, try again.
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
Sorry, try again.
sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts
00:31:20: The process "/usr/bin/sudo" exited with code 1.

The system() function in the qmake script works fine when I use qmake && make && make install from terminal since it prompts me before sudo ln... command; but for fast testing purposes I feel that building with CTRL-B inside Qt Creator should also work with sudo commands...

Is there a way to be prompted from Qt Creator, or a way around this? Like storing the sudo pass within the Qt Creator (although it is risky)... Or maybe making it run build steps on a terminal where it would prompt me? Would prompt() function in qmake work with gathering sudo passwords?

Any suggestions are welcome...

Answer 1

After a lot of research:

ssh-askpass Sudo Password | sudo -S bash ./script

Worked like a charm, it asks for the password in a separate window/prompt box. I added it under custom build steps. The important thing is to let sudo know that it will expect a password input via -S option.

echo "password" | sudo -S bash ./script

Also works with bash scripts, however as you might think it is insecure storing the sudo password inside the script. It is said that read permissions should fix that issue.