Restart nginx without sudo?

Question

So I want to be able to cap:deploy without having to type any passwords. I have setup all private keys so I can get to the remote servers fine, and am now using svn over ssh, so no passwords there.

I have one last problem, I need to be able to restart nginx. Right now I have sudo /etc/init.d/nginx reload. That is a problem b/c it uses the capistrano password, the one I just removed b/c I am using keys. Any ideas on how to restart nginx w\out a password?

Answer 1

I just spent a good hour looking at sudoer wildcards and the like trying to solve this exact problem. In truth, all you really need is a root executable script that restarts nginx.

Add this to the /etc/sudoers file

username hostname ALL=NOPASSWD: /path/to/script

Write script as root

#! /bin/bash
/bin/kill -HUP `cat /var/run/nginx.pid`

Make the script executable

Test.

sudo /path/to/script