Nicola Bernardelli wrote: > > GNU bash, version 1.14.7(1) > su - GNU sh-utils 1.12 > (Debian 1.2.4, going to get room for 1.3.1 soon.) > > VAR=<command options arg> ; export VAR > > Calling su like this > echo $VAR | su - <user> > gives a "stdin: is not a tty" message but does a fine job. > > Calling su in this other way > su - <user> -c $VAR > results in ANYTHING AFTER THE FIRST SPACE CHARACTER to be executed, that > is only <command>. > > No problems if I _write_ on the command line what had to be taken from > $VAR: > su - <user> -c <command options arg> > > -------------------------- EXAMPLE -------------------------- > nick:~/test# ls -l > total 3 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20 Sep 10 16:26 file1.cat > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Sep 10 16:27 file2.cat > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46 Sep 10 16:27 file3.cat > nick:~/test# COMMAND='ls -l /root/test' ; export COMMAND > nick:~/test# echo $COMMAND | su - nbern > stdin: is not a ttytotal 3 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20 Sep 10 16:26 file1.cat > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Sep 10 16:27 file2.cat > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46 Sep 10 16:27 file3.cat > nick:~/test# su - nbern -c $COMMAND > --cut-- > --cut-- > > <^ Here I get the same as from 'ls' done inside /home/nbern, that is > COMMAND has been truncated to ls; it does not happen if I explicitly copy > the content of $COMMAND to the command line: > > > nick:~/test# su - nbern -c 'ls -l /root/test' > total 3 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20 Sep 10 16:26 file1.cat > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 30 Sep 10 16:27 file2.cat > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46 Sep 10 16:27 file3.cat > nick:~/test# > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Am i missing something?
In: su - nbern -c 'ls -l /root/test' this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ is passed a single parameter. If you program C or perl, you know what I mean. If instead you typed su - nbern -c ls -l /root/test you'd get the same results as when you do su - <user> -c $VAR This is becuase the variable substition (as well as file globbing and other stuff) is done *before* chopping the line up into "tokens" or "parameters" or whatever you wish to call them. The answer to your problem is to do: su - <user> -c "$VAR" (One reason why we need quotes which both allow and disallow substition) -- Jens B. Jorgensen [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
