[SOLVED] How can I use sudo with a wildcard in file names? (* doesn't work)

abefroman · 04-19-2012, 10:42 AM

How can I use sudo with a wildcard in file names?

Code:

# sudo /usr/bin/head -4 /root/*.txt
/usr/bin/head: cannot open `/root/*.txt' for reading: No such file or directory

It looks like its literally trying to open "*.txt" rather than [match any characters].txt

Code:

# sudo /usr/bin/head -1 /root/test-2012-4-19.txt
hello world

TIA!

grail · 04-19-2012, 11:37 AM

What it is saying is that you have not .txt files in the root directory.

abefroman · 04-19-2012, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grail

What it is saying is that you have not .txt files in the root directory.

You are mistaken, as you can see from the second command there is a txt file in the root directory.

uhelp · 04-19-2012, 11:55 AM

Which distro you are talking from?

*buntu implements "sudo" totally different than any other Linux.

abefroman · 04-19-2012, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uhelp

Which distro you are talking from?

*buntu implements "sudo" totally different than any other Linux.

I'm using CentOS

grail · 04-19-2012, 01:13 PM

Ok my bad ... didn't look at second example ... although I discovered your issue is that the asterisk is not expanded due to the security. What this means is that everything you pass
to sudo will be read literally for the root directory at least due to the fact that a standard user does not have access. A simple confirmation you can try is the following:

Code:

$ sudo ls -la /root
<here you will see whatever files and folders exist>
$ sudo ls -la /root/*
ls: cannot access /root/*: No such file or directory

dayid · 04-19-2012, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abefroman

How can I use sudo with a wildcard in file names?

Code:

# sudo /usr/bin/head -4 /root/*.txt
/usr/bin/head: cannot open `/root/*.txt' for reading: No such file or directory

It looks like its literally trying to open "*.txt" rather than [match any characters].txt

Code:

sudo sh -c "/usr/bin/head -4 /root/*.txt"

This is also useful when trying to redirect output with sudo, e.g,:

Code:

sudo sh -c "grep foo /tmp/bar.txt > /tmp/bar2.txt"

abefroman · 04-19-2012, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dayid

Code:

sudo sh -c "/usr/bin/head -4 /root/*.txt"

This is also useful when trying to redirect output with sudo, e.g,:

Code:

sudo sh -c "grep foo /tmp/bar.txt > /tmp/bar2.txt"

That worked, thank you sir!