How do I run this script with sudo from the command-line?

Question

I have the following script in my user's bin directory; let's pretend the filename is 'myScript':

#!/bin/bash

python3 /myPath/myProgram.py "$@"

From the commandline, if I type myScript, it launches my myProgram.py. If I type sudo myScript, however it gives me this error: sudo: myProgram: command not found.

Why doesn't this work? How can I make it work?

Thanks!

@A.B. Sorry, I had a mistake in my question, which I edited out. It works if I'm in the bin directory and type sudo ./myScript. So, yes, with the full path it works. However, putting things in the bin directory makes it so you can run them without typing the path. So, I guess getting it to work with that functionality is what I'm asking about. — Brōtsyorfuzthrāx, Aug 21 '15 at 11:04
see this : http://askubuntu.com/questions/60218/how-to-add-a-directory-to-my-path — Ron, Aug 21 '15 at 11:08

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 21 '15 at 11:13

5

You probably need to run the script like:

sudo /path/to/myScript
sudo ./myScript (if the script is in the current directory)

The reason you get command not found is the script is not in the current user's PATH directory. However, using sudo runs it as a different user - root (compare echo $PATH and sudo -i then echo $PATH to see). So of you want to add it to the root user's PATH:

Copy it to /usr/local/bin, /usr/bin/ or another direcotry already in the root's PATH
Add the directory to the PATH, but do it as root (carefully).

answered Aug 21 '15 at 11:13

Wilf

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This is a very good explanation, well done. – fedorqui Aug 21 '15 at 11:15
That makes perfect sense, but adding the script to /usr/local/bin and restarting didn't solve the problem (although it's in both my path and the root path). However, I decided to resort to update-alternatives (I already knew about that, but I thought there might be an easier way to do it without it: update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/myScript myScript /home/myUsername/bin/myScript 0 – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Aug 21 '15 at 11:40

How do I run this script with sudo from the command-line?

1 Answers1