CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxbashsh
CorayThan
CorayThan

Reputation: 17825

when running shell script with sudo, user path is not available

I'm writing a shell script to start a few processes for me. Because those processes need sudo access, I run my shell script with sudo. However, I don't have access to my path variables when I do that. I've added a shell script to /etc/profile.d/extra-path.sh that adds those for my user.

Could someone tell me the way I should add those path variables so they can be accessed in the shell script run with sudo, or is there a way to run the commands with my user path in the shell script itself?

Here's the script I'd like to have work:

#!/bin/bash
#start stuff up

nohup mongod 
#mongod fails as an unknown command, even though it's part of my path

nohup /cust/env/local/cust/jboss-5.1.0.GA/bin/run.sh -b 0.0.0.0 -Djava.awt.headless=true
#jboss needs access to the JAVA_HOME path variable which 
#doesn't exist on the path used in this shell script

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3907

Answers (3)

vidit
vidit

Reputation: 6451

Try this..

sudo -i /path/to/script.sh

or.. 

sudo env PATH=$PATH /path/to/script.sh

or..

sudo -E /path/to/script.sh

One of them should work, depending on your system.

Upvotes: 6

BraveNewCurrency
BraveNewCurrency

Reputation: 13065

The fact that sudos drops the path is a feature. Don't try to work around it by copying the path from the user as some of the examples show. (Imagine if a bad user copies bash into /tmp/ls, then sets PATH=/tmp/. The root shell might do ls and accidentally run the bash command with root privileges! Oops, the bad user now has a root shell.)

You could add the extra path by adding this to the top of your script (just under #!/bin/sh)

. /etc/profile.d/extra-path.sh

(The . means "read this file as if it was copied here")

Upvotes: 2

CorayThan
CorayThan

Reputation: 17825

There are a few different solutions to this I've found out.

sudo -i [command]

and 

sudo -s [command]

both work, but with -i you access the command as if you're in the root directory, so you have to specify the full path to the shell script (or put it in your bin). With -s you access the command as if you're in your current directory.

You can also use these either to run the myscript.sh script itself, or use them inside the script in front of the commands you need the sudo access for. I preferred to put them in front of those commands as that way I don't have to type out as much to run my script!

Upvotes: 1

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