Executing Alias Command as Another User Fails

Question

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

User2 sources a file in it's .bash_profile to set environment specific aliases.

# .bash_profile
source $HOME/set_environment_shortcuts

Inside $HOME/set_environment_shortcuts (there are many aliases in here). Example:

alias startservices="verylongcommand"

Now I would like to 'startservices from another user.

[User1@server1 ~]$ sudo su -l User2 -c '. ~/.bash_profile; startservices'
-bash: startservices: command not found

The runuser command produces the same result.

[User1@Server1 ~]$ sudo runuser -l User2 -c '. ~/.bash_profile; startservices'
-bash: startservices: command not found

Do aliases not work in this way?

Note, when bypassing the alias entirely, the command works.

Answer 1

Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless the expand_aliases shell option is set with shopt -s expand_aliases.

Aliases are a shortcut tool for use interactively. For any kind of scripting, use a shell function instead:

startservices () {
    # commands go here
}

Shell functions are a lot more flexible than aliases in many ways. They are able to take arguments like a shell script does, for starters:

startservices () {
    user="$1"
    service="$2"
    # code to start service "$service" as user "$user"
}

---

You should not have to source the other user's .bash_profile explicitly. Use sudo -i instead. This will start a login shell, which will read .bash_profile when starting:

$ sudo -i -u User2 startservices

This requires startservices to either be a script or other external utility in the $PATH of User2, a shell function defined in the shell startup files of User2, or an alias (with the shell running with expand_aliases set) defined in the shell startup files of User2.

See also Is there ever a good reason to run sudo su?

Answer 2

The alias is defined in user1's .bash_profile . When you use "su -l user2" it actually clears all the environment variables for user1 and loads user2's variables instead, where no "startservices' alias is defined.

You can use "su -p " option which will preserve the current environment, but in that case user2 has to have read permission on user1's .bashrc file.