Command not found when run as sudo

Question

I'm running centos7. I installed puppet. if I write puppet as a user, I get a proper output. If I write sudo puppet I get command not found.

The really weird thing is, if I do sudo su - and become root, then write puppet, I get the normal output that I get when I run it with the normal user...

[unu@centosmaster puppet]$ puppet
See 'puppet help' for help on available puppet subcommands
[unu@centosmaster puppet]$ sudo puppet
sudo: puppet: command not found
[unu@centosmaster puppet]$ sudo su -
Last login: Wed Sep 19 08:41:20 EDT 2018 on pts/0
[root@centosmaster ~]# puppet
See 'puppet help' for help on available puppet subcommands

This, to me, makes absolutely no sense...

The $PATH variable is the same for root and normal user.

There's no point in using sudo su -. Either just use su - or, if you don't have the root password, use sudo -i. — terdon, Sep 19 '18 at 14:38

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '18 at 13:28

According to this question on Super User site, CentOS sanitizes the enviromnent to a sane default.

That's why some commands won't work with sudo.

Looks like you should check in /etc/sudoers (edit it with visudo !!) for these options:

Defaults env_reset 
Defaults env_keep += "SOME_VARIABLE_NAME" # There should be one or more of these

This line:

Defaults    secure_path = "some path"

specifically overrides your user's $PATH with a predetermined one which evidently differs from what you're expecting.

You might want to modify secure_path to your needs, or just comment the whole line if you feel your standard user's $PATH should be used even with sudo [command].

Command not found when run as sudo

1 Answers1