Running Multiple Commands with sudo (Including source) in Linux

When managing a gbase database cluster, you often need to execute commands as the gbase user or with root privileges. Using sudo to run source directly fails because source is a shell built-in, not an external command. This article shows how to use sudo sh -c to chain multiple commands, correctly load environment variables, and handle special characters in Python scripts.

Direct sudo source Fails

Attempting to run source directly with sudo produces a “command not found” error:

[zxt2000@anolios86-1 ~]$ sudo source /home/gbase/.gbase_profile
sudo: source: command not found

Putting multiple commands in a string also fails:

[zxt2000@anolios86-1 ~]$ sudo "source /home/gbase/.gbase_profile;gccli"
sudo: source /home/gbase/.gbase_profile;gccli: command not found

Using sudo sh -c to Execute Multiple Commands

The solution is to spawn a child shell with sudo sh -c and pass the full command sequence as a string. If your commands contain double quotes or $ signs, escape them with a backslash.

[zxt2000@anolios86-1 ~]$ sudo sh -c "source /home/gbase/.gbase_profile;gccli -e\"show processlist\""
+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---------+-------+-----------------------------+------------------+
| Id | User            | Host      | db   | Command | Time  | State                       | Info             |
+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---------+-------+-----------------------------+------------------+
|  1 | event_scheduler | localhost | NULL | Daemon  | 12775 | Waiting for next activation | NULL             |
| 41 | root            | localhost | NULL | Query   |     0 | NULL                        | show processlist |
+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---------+-------+-----------------------------+------------------+

Handling Special Characters in Python

When building a sudo command in Python, escape double quotes and dollar signs before wrapping the entire command inside sudo sh -c.

cmd = "sudo sh -c \"" + cmd.replace('"', '\\"').replace('$', '\\$') + "\""

Summary

Using sudo sh -c is the cleanest way to run multiple commands that include shell built-ins like source. This technique is particularly useful in gbase database operations, where you frequently need to switch to the gbase user and load its environment before executing database commands.