sudo . source_file command not found

Mario Palumbo

10/19/23, 1:23 PM

. source_file

works.

sudo . source_file

doesn't work.

Is there a replacement command?

344

1 + 0

bash

sudo

22.04

Score:3

Ubuntu

Artur Meinild

10/19/23, 1:34 PM

source (and the alias .) is a builtin command, not an executable, therefore sudo doesn't work directly.

However, you could run:

sudo bash -c 'source /full/path/to/source_file'

This would start a bash session as root, and source source_file under this session. The file source_file could of course contain any number of commands that are run when it is sourced, but the shell would exit immediately this is done.

Another useful option would be to run a bash subshell with sudo, and source source_file as the initial commands. This can be done in a number of ways.

You could include source_file as the init file for bash:

sudo bash --init-file /full/path/to/source_file

This would source source_file, but on the other hand your ~/.bashrc will NOT be sourced.

To get both the ~/.bashrc and the source_file, we need to create a temporary init file that bash can use:

echo "source ~/.bashrc; source /full/path/to/source_file" > /dev/shm/initfile.rc; sudo bash --init-file /dev/shm/initfile.rc

With this command, bash sources both ~/.bashrc and source_file in an interactive root shell (since it uses your newly created init file).

+ 1

Mario Palumbo

10/19/23, 1:40 PM

This is an exhaustive and sufficient answer.

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