I am attempting to make bash scripts that are independent from the user who uses them. In order to do this I need to use the $HOME variables in my scripts. I want the scripts to be owned by the root user so that those running them can run them but not view the code itself.

The scripts would be run from the custom commands module in usermin and the $HOME variable should recognize that the usermin user is the one using the script, thereby making the $HOME varibale = /home/username. However this is not the case. It seems to think that the home directory for the webmin user is always /root, which it is not.

This might be due to the fact that the scripts are owned by Root but I have given read write and execute permissions to everyone, (chmod 777) and the scripts are placed in the /bin directory so that they can be run from anywhere. Is there anyway I can make it so that the scirpts cannot be viewed by the users, but can be run by them and have the $HOME variable be successfully recognized as the correct home directory path? ANY help appreciated.

**FYI: I have also tried using the ~/ instead of $HOME but to no effect.

As an update: I have tried runing the scripts thru the terminal/SSH and they work as they should, so the problem is not with the scripts.

> In order to do this I need to use the $HOME variables in my scripts.

Yup. That's normal.

> I want the scripts to be owned by the root user so that those running
> them can run them but not view the code itself.

You don't want the users to be able to *view* the code? To run
a script, the user has to be able to "read" the code (that is,
the Python/Perl/Bash interpreter has to read the file).

BTW, what's the output of `ls -l your_script`? That might help.

Sorry, what I mean was that I do not want to allow the person access to the code of the script, but since they are using usermin this isn't a problem, sorry you can ignore that part.

As for the ls -l it is as follows:

I think the problem is not within the script itself but somewhere between usermin telling the script what user is running it and that the script is owned by root thereby usermin thinks that $HOME = /root

Well, there is this checkbox that says "Use User's environment, and that seems to have done it" wow i fell real dumb right now.

Don't feel dumb. What you were missing was not some fundamental GNU/Linux feature that everyone needs to know, but an arbitrary feature of some program called "usermin". Personally, I've never heard of this "usermin". I think webmin is a web-based admin tool, but I've never used it.

Yep, now it's giving me some other problems, but I'll sort it out.