What does '-H' flag in 'sudo -H' mean?

Question

When I was installing Python 3 on Ubuntu 18.04, I came across the command

sudo -H pip install -U pip

What does -H do?

Related, on running pip as root: Is `sudo pip install` still a broken practice?, How to set up and use a virtual python environment in Ubuntu? See also pipenv. More broadly related, on sudo and -H: Why should users never use normal sudo to start graphical applications?, What specific bad things happen when gedit is used with sudo?, How does sudo handle $HOME differently since 19.10? — Eliah Kagan, Jan 27 '20 at 19:24

pomsky · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-27T10:24:33.900

30

From man sudo:

-H, --set-home
            Request that the security policy set the HOME environment variable 
            to the home directory specified by the target user's password 
            database entry.  Depending on the policy, this may be the default 
            behavior.

So the -H flag makes sudo assume root's home directory as HOME instead of the current user's home directory. Otherwise some files in the user's home directory would become owned by the root, which may lead to various problems.

edited Jan 27 '20 at 10:24

answered Jan 27 '20 at 07:04

pomsky

68,507

4

I like this answer, because it mentions the reason why -H is used, which is very important. +1 – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jan 27 '20 at 07:28
2

@SergiyKolodyazhnyy The (weak) reasons were covered in https://security.stackexchange.com/a/18399/60135. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Jan 27 '20 at 20:20

What does '-H' flag in 'sudo -H' mean?

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