sudo won't work in shell

Question

I have a problem with the following command

sudo -u ${USER} -H sh -c "bash ${START_SCRIPT}"

I can exclude errors with the START_SCRIPT, since

bash ${START_SCRIPT}

works excellent.

I think there must be a problem with the sudo-syntax, but I can't find the answer. Everywhere (eg this link , answer by Kimvais or the sudo manpages) suggest the formatation I used above.

USER=some_user START_SCRIPT=/some/long/path/start.sh

I can only guess that it has to do with the long path or that I miss any arguments for the sudo-command.

In this thread I read:

sudo -H -u otheruser bash -c 'echo "I am $USER, with uid $UID"'

That works perfectly, but neither

sudo -H -u otheruser bash -c '${START_SCRIPT}'

nor

sudo -H -u otheruser -c 'bash "${START_SCRIPT}"'

works.

Can anyone help me please or at least give a hint?

Answer 1

The single quotes in

sudo -H -u otheruser bash -c '${START_SCRIPT}'

prevent the shell from expanding the $ . Simply use double quotes:

sudo -H -u otheruser bash -c "${START_SCRIPT}"