1

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
Improve this question
1
  • Look into man sudoers, you can fiddle around with secure_path, env_reset, env_keep, env_check, or possibly even exempt_group. Commented Apr 23, 2013 at 23:43

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
6

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.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

When I try to do that, it gives me the error: -sh: ./script.sh: no such file or directory. Do you know why that would be?
@CorayThan- Is your script named script.sh and is it chmoded?
well, really I tried start-mongod-jboss.sh. The real issue would be the chmoded. What does chmoding a script do? The system is a CentOS linux server.
It makes the script executable.
specify the full path to the script.
|
2

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")

Improve this answer

Comments

1

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!

Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.