sudo and PATH?

[Andy]

On 08/01/07, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> derek at othello:~$ sudo echo $PATH
> /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
>
> OK, that's _my_ path (not root's).

Doesn't the shell evaluate the $PATH variable prior to executing the command?
thus it will show your path because at the time it does the
substitution you are still you, and not root, yet. Its not until
'sudo' runs that you gain root privileges and by that time the
expansion has already been completed.


> derek at othello:~$ sudo -i
> root at othello:~# echo $PATH
> /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
>
> Those are the two paths set in login.defs, but the one you get directly
> using sudo, rather than using sudo to get a shell, appears to be mine.

This time you where root when the command was being expanded and thus
it was expanded as roots path.


- Andy


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