Cannot run Python script using sudo

Question

I have a simple script which is using signalr-client-py as an external module.

from requests import Session
from signalr import Connection
import threading

When I try to run my script using the sudo python myScriptName.py I get an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "buttonEventDetectSample.py", line 3, in <module>
    from signalrManager import *
  File "/home/pi/Desktop/GitRepo/DiatAssign/Main/signalrManager.py", line 2, in <module>
    from signalr import Connection
ImportError: No module named signalr

If I run my script typing only python myScriptName.py it works perfectly fine but I need to have the sudo in front because later on in my other scripts (that use this one) I perform write operation on the File system.

I am quite new to Python and that's why I need to know how I can handle this situation. If I type pydoc modules I get a list which contains:

signalr
signalrManager

If I type pip freeze I can see there listed:

signalr-client==0.0.7

Answer 1

By default sudo runs commands in different environment. You can ask sudo to preserve environment with -E switch.

sudo -E python myScriptName.py

It comes with it's own security risks. So be careful

Answer 2

You need to check where signalr is installed. sudo runs the program in the environment available to root and if signalr is not installed globally it won't be picked up. Try 'sudo pip freeze' to see what is available in the root environment.

Answer 3

Another easy solution can be installing required packages via sudo instead of trying to match the paths:

sudo pip3 install <your-required-package-name>

After that you can execute the scripts via sudo .