Question

is there any way to switch the user (to root or so) while deploying with capistrano without closing the current session (session is started with ssh keys)?

So i want to start the deployment with user foo and then change to root and then execute some commands.

Thanks for your answers!

Answer 1

You can use the capistrano sudo helper:

task :some_task_as_root do
  run "#{sudo} some_command"
end

you can even specify a different user:

task :some_task_as_other_user do
  run "#{sudo :as => 'other_user'} some_command"
end

The sudo helper will take care of getting the password from you if necessary and pass it along correctly.