Execute a shell script in current shell with sudo permission

Question

For executing a shell script in current shell  we need to use a period   or a source command  But why does it not work with a sudo permission   I have a script with execute permission called setup sh  When I use a period  I get this     sudo     setup sh  sudo     command not found   The source command also produces a similar error  Am I missing out something  What should I do to run the script with sudo permission in the same shell   Thanks in advance

User · Answer

Even the first answer is absolutely brilliant, you probably want to only run script under sudo.

You have to specify the absolute path like:

sudo /home/user/example.sh
sudo ~/example.sh

(both are working)

THIS WONT WORK!

sudo /bin/sh example.sh
sudo example.sh

It will always return

sudo: bin/sh: command not found
sudo: example.sh: command not found

User · Answer

What you are trying to do is impossible  your current shell is running under your regular user ID  i e  without root the access sudo would give you   and there is no way to grant it root access  What sudo does is create a new  sub process that runs as root  The subprocess could be just a regular program  e g  sudo cp     runs the cp program in a root process  or it could be a root subshell  but it cannot be the current shell    It s actually even more impossible than that  because the sudo command itself is executed as a subprocess of the current shell -- meaning that in a sense it s already too late for it to do anything in the  current shell   because that s not where it executes

User · Answer

Easiest method is to type   sudo  bin sh example sh

User · Answer

Basically sudo expects  an executable  command  to follow  amp  you are providing with a    Hence the error   Try this way   sudo setup sh

User · Answer

I think you are confused about the difference between sourcing and executing a script   Executing a script means creating a new process  and running the program  The program can be a shell script  or any other type of program  As it is a sub process  any environmental variables changed in the program will not affect the shell   Sourcing a script can only be used with a bash script  if you are running bash   It effectively types the commands in as if you did them  This is useful as it lets a script change environmental variables in the shell     Running a script is simple  you just type in the path to the script    is the current directory  So   script sh will execute the file script sh in the current directory  If the command is a single file  eg script sh   it will check all the folders in the PATH variable to find the script  Note that the current directory isn t in PATH  so you can t execute a file script sh in the current directory by running script sh  you need to run   script sh  unless the current directory is in the PATH  eg you can run ls while in the  bin dir    Sourcing a script doesn t use the PATH  and just searches for the path  Note that source isn t a program - otherwise it wouldn t be able to change environmental variables in the current shell  It is actually a bash built in command  Search  bin and  usr bin - you won t find a source program there  So to source a file script sh in the current directory  you just use source script sh      How does sudo interact with this  Well sudo takes a program  and executes it as root  Eg sudo   script sh executes script sh in a sub process but running as root   What does sudo source   script sh do however  Remember source isn t a program  rather a shell builtin   Sudo expects a program name though  so it searches for a program named source  It doesn t find one  and so fails  It isn t possible to source a file running as root  without creating a new subprocess  as you cannot change the runner of a program  in this case  bash  after it has started   I m not sure what you actually wanted  but hopefully this will clear it up for you     Here is a concrete example  Make the file script sh in your current directory with the contents      bin bash     export NEW VAR  hello  whoami echo  Some text    Make it executable with chmod  x script sh   Now observe what happens with bash    gt    script sh david Some text  gt  echo  NEW VAR   gt  sudo   script sh root Some text  gt  echo  NEW VAR   gt  source script sh david Some text  gt  echo  NEW VAR hello  gt  sudo source script sh sudo  source  command not found

User · Answer

The answers here explain why it happens but I thought I d add my simple way around the issue  First you can cat the file into a variable with sudo permissions  Then you can evaluate the variable to execute the code in the file in your current shell   Here is an example of reading and executing an  env file  ex Docker     sensitive stuff   sudo cat   env    eval    sensitive stuff    echo  ADMIN PASSWORD

User · Answer

If you really want to  ExecuteCall a shell script in current shell with sudo permission  you can use exec to        replace the shell with a given program  executing it  not as new process    I insist on replacing  execute  with  call  because the former has a meaning that includes creating a new process and ID  where the latter is ambiguous and leaves room for creativity  of which I am full    Consider this test case and look closely at pid 1337      Don t worry  the content of this script is cat ed below     test sh -o foo -p bar  User ubuntu is running     PID TT       USER     COMMAND  775 pts 1    ubuntu   -bash 1408 pts 1    ubuntu       bash   test sh -o foo -p bar 1411 pts 1    ubuntu           ps -t  dev pts 1 -fo pid tty user args  User root is running     PID TT       USER     COMMAND  775 pts 1    ubuntu   -bash 1337 pts 1    root         sudo   test sh -o foo -p bar 1412 pts 1    root             bash   test sh -o foo -p bar 1415 pts 1    root                 ps -t  dev pts 1 -fo pid tty user args  Take  exec  out of the command and this script would get cat-ed twice   Try it       usr bin env bash  echo  echo  User   whoami  is running     ps -t   tty  -fo pid tty user args  if     EUID  gt  0     then       exec replaces the current process effectively ending execution so no exit is needed      exec sudo   0       fi  echo  echo  Take  exec  out of the command and this script would get cat-ed twice   Try it     echo cat  0   Here is another test using sudo -s    ps -fo pid tty user args    test2 sh   PID TT       USER     COMMAND 10775 pts 1    ubuntu   -bash 11496 pts 1    ubuntu       ps -fo pid tty user args  User ubuntu is running      PID TT       USER     COMMAND 10775 pts 1    ubuntu   -bash 11497 pts 1    ubuntu       bash   test2 sh 11500 pts 1    ubuntu           ps -fo pid tty user args  User root is running      PID TT       USER     COMMAND 11497 pts 1    root     sudo -s 11501 pts 1    root          bin bash 11503 pts 1    root             ps -fo pid tty user args    cat test2 src echo  echo  User   whoami  is running     ps -fo pid tty user args    cat test2 sh    usr bin env bash  source test2 src  exec sudo -s  lt  test2 src   And a simpler test using sudo -s      exec sh bash s PID 25194    user ID 7809 systemd 1 ---bash 23064 ---bash 25194 ---pstree 25196   Finally    bash s PID 25199    user ID 0 systemd 1 ---bash 23064 ---sudo 25194 ---bash 25199 ---pstree 25201     cat exec sh    usr bin env bash  pid    id   id -u  echo  bash s PID  pid    user ID  id  pstree -ps  pid    the quoted EOF is important to prevent shell expansion of the      exec sudo -s  lt  lt EOF echo echo  Finally     echo  bash s PID         user ID    id -u   pstree -ps  pid EOF

User · Answer

I m not sure if this breaks any rules but   sudo bash script sh   seems to work for me

[linux] Execute a shell script in current shell with sudo permission

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