Do Shell Script .. with Administrator Privileges ... ?

Question

hi everyone!
I have a script that have multiple lines like this:
do shell script " ... " with administrator privileges
do shell script " ... " with administrator privileges
Mac OS X 10.4 does it right(?) by asking ONCE for an admin login/password, and would run both lines above ... but 10.2 (and 10.3?) asks TWICE for the password using the same code. What am I doing wrong? I want all versions 10.2-4 to ask only once ... Any ideas?
Thank you!!
Cass

Answer 1

If you would prefer that your script would not ask for a password to get admin privileges, then this uses the keychain:
set aVariable to do shell script DefinedAsVariable password getPassw() with administrator privileges
-- The Handler --
The following handler assumes you have a password in your keychain called ASPW (could be anything you want) saved as a generic key. To do that, open your Keychain Access (in Utilities) application, choose file New, and in the sheet give it a name, enter your account name and type the password you want to use (your admin password in this case). OK. Now find the new password and double-click it. Under the attributes tab change Kind to generic key (it will be Applications). This makes for a fast search because there aren't many of them. Switch to the access control tab and select the "Allow all applications to access this item" button. Enter your admin password in the dialog that appears, and you are done. The first time you run the script, you'll have to click "Always Allow" in the dialog that appears - perhaps several times. After that, it won't ask.
to getPassw()
tell application "Keychain Scripting"
launch
tell current keychain to ¬
tell (some generic key whose name is "ASPW")
return password
end tell
end tell
end getPassw