Linux/ Why su command is working from CMD but not from script?

Question

I have the next script:

cd /home
touch $PF ; chown $NU.$NU $PF
su -p -s /bin/sh root -c "node"

When I run it, it raises the next error:

sh: node: command not found

But when I run it from the linux command line, it success and gives me the node command line.

What can be the reason for that?

different PATH? Try echo $PATH before executing the command. — mata
– mata, Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 8:29
Question is offtopic here, try superuser.com to get an answer. — harper
– harper, Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 8:30
@mata su -p should preserve environment, including PATH, but I'm skeptical as well. — David C. Rankin
– David C. Rankin, Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 8:31
@mata good catch, it looked like a PATH problem. That's why I was skeptical. Glad it makes sense. — David C. Rankin
– David C. Rankin, Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 8:43

Jon Surrell · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-06 08:40:34Z

4

node is probably not in the root user's $PATH.

I checked the su documentation and noticed the following:

-m, -p, --preserve-environment
   Preserve the current environment, except for:

   $PATH
       reset according to the /etc/login.defs options ENV_PATH or ENV_SUPATH (see below);
[...]
   ENV_PATH (string)
       If set, it will be used to define the PATH environment variable when a regular user login. The value can be
       preceded by PATH=, or a colon separated list of paths (for example /bin:/usr/bin). The default value is
       PATH=/bin:/usr/bin.

   ENV_SUPATH (string)
       If set, it will be used to define the PATH environment variable when the superuser login. The value can be
       preceded by PATH=, or a colon separated list of paths (for example /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin). The default
       value is PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin.

So while you may have node in the current $PATH, it may not be in root's $PATH.

As some commenters have already mentioned, you may try giving an absolute $PATHto node: su -p -s /bin/sh root -c "/path/to/node"

If you can call node from your current user, try which node to determine the full path to the executable.

You may also try echoing your $PATH. su -p -s /bin/sh root -c 'echo $PATH'

answered Jul 6, 2014 at 8:40

Jon Surrell

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1 Comment

David C. Rankin Over a year ago

Good catch. That is a relative new change to man su occurring between coreutil 8.9 and the shuffle to util-linux 2.22.

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