change date/time using python in linux

I tried using date command to change the system time in debian linux:

os.system("echo passwd | "sudo date -s "Thu Aug 9 21:31:26 UTC 2012")

and I set the python file permission to 777 and also chown as root. But it does not work and says date: cannot set date: Operation not permitted. Any Ideas?

Thanks

Answer

Sudo doesn’t take password from stdin, but from the terminal device.

Add your date to the sudoers file so you can run it as root without a password. man sudoers.

bob     ALL = NOPASSWD: /bin/date

Next, use subprocess instead of os.system.

sudodate = subprocess.Popen(["sudo", "date", "-s", "Thu Aug  9 21:31:26 UTC 2012"])
sudodate.communicate()