How can I execute a series of commands in a bash subshell as another user using sudo?

Question

I\'m writing a bash script that needs to sudo multiple commands. I can do this:

( whoami ; whoami )

but I can\'t do this:

sudo          


        

Answer 1

You can pass the commands as standard input into sudo'ed bash with a here document:

sudo bash <<"EOF"
whoami
id
EOF

This way there is no need to fiddle with correct quoting, especially if you have multiple levels, e.g.:

sudo bash <<"EOF"
whoami
echo $USER ~
sudo -u apache bash <<"DOF"
whoami
echo $USER ~
DOF
EOF

Produces:

root
root /root
apache
apache /usr/share/httpd

(Note that you can't indent the inner terminator — it has to be alone on its line. If you want to use indentation in a here document, you can use <<- instead of <<, but then you must indent with tabs, not spaces.)