PHP authentication script based on Linux login account

[bloodfire]

I'm wondering is it possible to create a PHP authentication script based on the linux login accounts. So that there's no need to create any login account database, just use the linux login accounts.

[tenbellys]

i tried to do this but wasnt very sucsesfully

only way i did it was to run a cron job to sync the users and pwords into a username and database
obviously leaving out system users such as root, mysql etc

but to do this you need to have the job run at root level.

i did this way because i have full root at access to my boxes and the only website to run on this box is mine.