# shell module with become\_user does not function correctly **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 27, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/shell-module-with-become-user-does-not-function-correctly/38475 "2023-09-27T20:52:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tlemons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@tlemons](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tlemons)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/shell-module-with-become-user-does-not-function-correctly/38475/1 "2023-09-27T20:52:09Z")
Hi - I’m having trouble using the shell module with become\_user. As a basic test, I created this playbook: - name: Retrieve environment variables for root shell: printenv - name: Retrieve environment variables for oracle shell: printenv become: yes become\_user: oracle When I ran this with ansible-playbook and ‘-vvv’, I noticed: - the output received from the first task was as expected: “stdout”: “HOSTTYPE=x86\_64\nSSH\_CONNECTION=10.247.229.46 35330 10.247.229.191 22\nLESSCLOSE=lessclose.sh %s %s\nXKEYSYMDB=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB\n\_=/usr/bin/printenv\nLANG=POSIX\nWINDOWMANAGER=xterm\nLESS=-M -I -R\nHOSTNAME=ldpdd191\nCSHEDIT=emacs\nGPG\_TTY=/dev/pts/0\nLESS\_ADVANCED\_PREPROCESSOR=no\nCOLORTERM=1\nMACHTYPE=x86\_64-suse-linux\nMINICOM=-c on\nOSTYPE=linux\nXDG\_SESSION\_ID=69\nUSER=root\nPAGER=less\nMORE=-sl\nPWD=/root\nHOME=/root\nLC\_CTYPE=C.UTF-8\nHOST=ldpdd191\nSSH\_CLIENT=10.247.229.46 35330 22\nXNLSPATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/nls\nXDG\_SESSION\_TYPE=tty\nXDG\_DATA\_DIRS=/usr/share\nLIBGL\_DEBUG=quiet\nPROFILEREAD=true\nSSH\_TTY=/dev/pts/0\nFROM\_HEADER=\nMAIL=/var/spool/mail/root\nLESSKEY=/etc/lesskey.bin\nTERM=xterm\nSHELL=/bin/bash\nXDG\_SESSION\_CLASS=user\nPYTHONSTARTUP=/etc/pythonstart\nSHLVL=3\nMANPATH=/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man\nLOGNAME=root\nDBUS\_SESSION\_BUS\_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/0/bus\nXDG\_RUNTIME\_DIR=/run/user/0\nXDG\_CONFIG\_DIRS=/etc/xdg\nPATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/root/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin\nG\_BROKEN\_FILENAMES=1\nHISTSIZE=1000\nCPU=x86\_64\nSSH\_SENDS\_LOCALE=yes\nLESSOPEN=lessopen.sh %s”, but the output received from the second task (which uses ‘become\_user’) was not correct: “stdout”: “\_=/usr/bin/printenv\nLANG=POSIX\nSUDO\_GID=0\nCOLORTERM=1\nSUDO\_COMMAND=/bin/sh -c echo BECOME-SUCCESS-ukrwuqlueafnghzqqoabhpfcwxwpieyw ; /usr/bin/python3.6 /var/tmp/ansible-tmp-1695847065.2341652-30706-3263662880779/AnsiballZ\_command.py\nUSER=oracle\nPWD=/home/oracle/.ansible/tmp/ansible-moduletmp-1695847065.5976799-u8hbo4o2\nHOME=/home/oracle\nLC\_CTYPE=C.UTF-8\nSUDO\_USER=root\nSUDO\_UID=0\nMAIL=/var/mail/oracle\nTERM=xterm\nSHELL=/bin/bash\nSHLVL=2\nLOGNAME=oracle\nPATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin”, so, it seem that using ‘become\_user’ perverts the function of the ‘shell’ module, and the command provided is not executed as expected. Is this a known bug/limitation? Thanks! tl ---
**Author:** ![dnmvisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e8cbc/32.png) [@dnmvisser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dnmvisser)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 2:38am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/shell-module-with-become-user-does-not-function-correctly/38475/2 "2023-09-28T02:38:56Z")
> Hi - I’m having trouble using the shell module with become\_user. As a basic test, I created this playbook: > > - name: Retrieve environment variables for root > shell: printenv > > - name: Retrieve environment variables for oracle > shell: printenv > become: yes > become\_user: oracle > > When I ran this with ansible-playbook and ‘-vvv’, I noticed: > > - the output received from the first task was as expected: > > “stdout”: “HOSTTYPE=x86\_64\nSSH\_CONNECTION=10.247.229.46 35330 10.247.229.191 22\nLESSCLOSE=lessclose.sh %s %s\nXKEYSYMDB=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB\n\_=/usr/bin/printenv\nLANG=POSIX\nWINDOWMANAGER=xterm\nLESS=-M -I -R\nHOSTNAME=ldpdd191\nCSHEDIT=emacs\nGPG\_TTY=/dev/pts/0\nLESS\_ADVANCED\_PREPROCESSOR=no\nCOLORTERM=1\nMACHTYPE=x86\_64-suse-linux\nMINICOM=-c on\nOSTYPE=linux\nXDG\_SESSION\_ID=69\nUSER=root\nPAGER=less\nMORE=-sl\nPWD=/root\nHOME=/root\nLC\_CTYPE=C.UTF-8\nHOST=ldpdd191\nSSH\_CLIENT=10.247.229.46 35330 22\nXNLSPATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/nls\nXDG\_SESSION\_TYPE=tty\nXDG\_DATA\_DIRS=/usr/share\nLIBGL\_DEBUG=quiet\nPROFILEREAD=true\nSSH\_TTY=/dev/pts/0\nFROM\_HEADER=\nMAIL=/var/spool/mail/root\nLESSKEY=/etc/lesskey.bin\nTERM=xterm\nSHELL=/bin/bash\nXDG\_SESSION\_CLASS=user\nPYTHONSTARTUP=/etc/pythonstart\nSHLVL=3\nMANPATH=/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man\nLOGNAME=root\nDBUS\_SESSION\_BUS\_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/0/bus\nXDG\_RUNTIME\_DIR=/run/user/0\nXDG\_CONFIG\_DIRS=/etc/xdg\nPATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/root/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin\nG\_BROKEN\_FILENAMES=1\nHISTSIZE=1000\nCPU=x86\_64\nSSH\_SENDS\_LOCALE=yes\nLESSOPEN=lessopen.sh %s”, > > but the output received from the second task (which uses ‘become\_user’) was not correct: > > “stdout”: “\_=/usr/bin/printenv\nLANG=POSIX\nSUDO\_GID=0\nCOLORTERM=1\nSUDO\_COMMAND=/bin/sh -c echo BECOME-SUCCESS-ukrwuqlueafnghzqqoabhpfcwxwpieyw ; /usr/bin/python3.6 /var/tmp/ansible-tmp-1695847065.2341652-30706-3263662880779/AnsiballZ\_command.py\nUSER=oracle\nPWD=/home/oracle/.ansible/tmp/ansible-moduletmp-1695847065.5976799-u8hbo4o2\nHOME=/home/oracle\nLC\_CTYPE=C.UTF-8\nSUDO\_USER=root\nSUDO\_UID=0\nMAIL=/var/mail/oracle\nTERM=xterm\nSHELL=/bin/bash\nSHLVL=2\nLOGNAME=oracle\nPATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin”, > > so, it seem that using ‘become\_user’ perverts the function of the ‘shell’ module, and the command provided is not executed as expected. What do you expect? And what do you mean by “perverts the function”? Because it seems to work fine to me. ---
**Author:** ![tlemons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@tlemons](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tlemons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/shell-module-with-become-user-does-not-function-correctly/38475/3 "2023-09-28T13:12:48Z")
Hi Dick Sorry I was vague. The issue is that the ‘printenv’ output returned by the second task was incorrect. It should have been: oracle@ldpdd191:~\> printenv LS\_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=00;36:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=41;33;01:ex=00;32:_.cmd=00;32:_.exe=01;32:_.com=01;32:_.bat=01;32:_.btm=01;32:_.dll=01;32:_.tar=00;31:_.tbz=00;31:_.tgz=00;31:_.rpm=00;31:_.deb=00;31:_.arj=00;31:_.taz=00;31:_.lzh=00;31:_.lzma=00;31:_.zip=00;31:_.zoo=00;31:_.z=00;31:_.Z=00;31:_.gz=00;31:_.bz2=00;31:_.tb2=00;31:_.tz2=00;31:_.tbz2=00;31:_.xz=00;31:_.avi=01;35:_.bmp=01;35:_.dl=01;35:_.fli=01;35:_.gif=01;35:_.gl=01;35:_.jpg=01;35:_.jpeg=01;35:_.mkv=01;35:_.mng=01;35:_.mov=01;35:_.mp4=01;35:_.mpg=01;35:_.pcx=01;35:_.pbm=01;35:_.pgm=01;35:_.png=01;35:_.ppm=01;35:_.svg=01;35:_.tga=01;35:_.tif=01;35:_.webm=01;35:_.webp=01;35:_.wmv=01;35:_.xbm=01;35:_.xcf=01;35:_.xpm=01;35:_.aiff=00;32:_.ape=00;32:_.au=00;32:_.flac=00;32:_.m4a=00;32:_.mid=00;32:_.mp3=00;32:_.mpc=00;32:_.ogg=00;32:_.voc=00;32:_.wav=00;32:_.wma=00;32:\*.wv=00;32: HOSTTYPE=x86\_64 LESSCLOSE=lessclose.sh %s %s XKEYSYMDB=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XKeysymDB ORACLE\_SID=orcl ORACLE\_BASE=/u01/app/oracle LANG=en\_US.UTF-8 WINDOWMANAGER=xterm LESS=-M -I -R ORACLE\_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/21.0.0/dbhome\_1 HOSTNAME=ldpdd191 CSHEDIT=emacs GPG\_TTY=/dev/pts/1 LESS\_ADVANCED\_PREPROCESSOR=no COLORTERM=1 MACHTYPE=x86\_64-suse-linux MINICOM=-c on OSTYPE=linux USER=oracle PAGER=less MORE=-sl PWD=/home/oracle HOME=/home/oracle HOST=ldpdd191 XNLSPATH=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/nls XDG\_DATA\_DIRS=/usr/share PROFILEREAD=true ORA\_INVENTORY=/u01/app/oraInventory FROM\_HEADER= MAIL=/var/spool/mail/oracle LESSKEY=/etc/lesskey.bin TERM=xterm SHELL=/bin/bash LS\_OPTIONS=-N --color=tty -T 0 PYTHONSTARTUP=/etc/pythonstart SHLVL=1 G\_FILENAME\_ENCODING=@locale,UTF-8,ISO-8859-15,CP1252 MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man LOGNAME=oracle XDG\_CONFIG\_DIRS=/etc/xdg PATH=/u01/app/oracle/product/21.0.0/dbhome\_1/bin:/u01/app/oracle/product/21.0.0/dbhome\_1/bin:/home/oracle/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin G\_BROKEN\_FILENAMES=1 HISTSIZE=1000 CPU=x86\_64 LESSOPEN=lessopen.sh %s \_=/usr/bin/printenv oracle@ldpdd191:~\> The STDOUT value for the second task does not show this output; instead, it show some information that is NOT the output of ‘printenv’. Is this expected? Thanks tl ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/shell-module-with-become-user-does-not-function-correctly/38475/4 "2023-09-28T18:39:11Z")
become does not always imply a full login nor sourcing .shell files, some of it depends on flags (`-i` for sudo or `-` for su), other times it depends on shell used. ---
**Author:** ![tlemons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@tlemons](https://forum.ansible.com/u/tlemons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 9:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/shell-module-with-become-user-does-not-function-correctly/38475/5 "2023-09-28T21:16:47Z")
Hi Brian Thanks very much for these hints. I did some more reading in [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook\_guide/playbooks\_privilege\_escalation.html](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_privilege_escalation.html) and its linked pages. I found that adding: become\_method: su allowed ‘printenv’ to run correctly in the non-root account, and the further addition of: become\_flags: ‘-’ allowed execution of .bash\_profile, allowing the environment variables to be set. Thanks again tl