Restart apache2 from linux bash as root

Question

I want to restart apache from a bash in linux (OpenSUSE).

I am trying to read the root password from a file (stdin). This is how I do it:

exec < /opt/otrsadm/stdin
read a1
sudo apache2ctl -k graceful
echo $a1

I get this in my log:

[Mon Sep 12 23:23:12 2011] [error] [client 192.168.1.101] Restarting apache
[Mon Sep 12 23:23:13 2011] [error] [client 192.168.1.101] sudo
[Mon Sep 12 23:23:13 2011] [error] [client 192.168.1.101] : 
[Mon Sep 12 23:23:13 2011] [error] [client 192.168.1.101] no tty present and no askpass program specified

What's my problem and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

The sudo -S option reads the password from stdin.

The -S (stdin) option causes sudo to read the password from the standard input instead of the terminal device.

echo "password" | sudo -S apache2ctl -l graceful