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I got this simple script:

#!/bin/bash SOURCE_USER=$USER DESTINE_USER=$1 id -u $SOURCE_USER > /dev/null 2>&1 if [ "$?" == "1" ] || [ -z $SOURCE_USER ] then printf "Error: Invalid source user '$SOURCE_USER'\\n" exit 1 fi if [ -z $DESTINE_USER ] then printf "Error: Invalid destine user '$DESTINE_USER'\\n" exit 1 fi SOURCE_GROUPS=$(id -Gn ${SOURCE_USER} | sed "s/${SOURCE_USER} //g" | sed "s/ ${SOURCE_USER}//g" | sed "s/ /,/g") SOURCE_SHELL=$(awk -F : -v name=${SOURCE_USER} '(name == $1) { print $7 }' /etc/passwd) id -u $DESTINE_USER > /dev/null 2>&1 if [ "$?" == "1" ] then printf "Creating destine user %s\\n" "$DESTINE_USER" useradd --groups ${SOURCE_GROUPS} --shell ${SOURCE_SHELL} --create-home ${DESTINE_USER} passwd ${DESTINE_USER} xhost '+si:localuser:$DESTINE_USER' sudo usermod -G "$SOURCE_USER" "$DESTINE_USER" else printf "Updating destine user '%s' with groups '%s' and shell '%s'\\n" "$DESTINE_USER" "$SOURCE_GROUPS" "$SOURCE_SHELL" sudo usermod -a -G "$SOURCE_GROUPS" "$DESTINE_USER" sudo chsh -s "$SOURCE_SHELL" "$SOURCE_USER" fi sudo runuser sublime_vanilla -c "${@:2}"

I run it like this:

$ bash run_as_user.sh sublime_vanilla /usr/bin/subl -n "./New Empty File"

But when I run it, I got this error:

runuser: invalid option -- 'n' Try 'runuser --help' for more information.

But if I replace sudo runuser sublime_vanilla -c "${@:2}" with sudo runuser sublime_vanilla -c "\"$2\" \"$3\" \"$4\" \"$5\" \"$6\" \"$7\" \"$8\" \"${@:9}\""

Then, Sublime Text correctly opens the file "./New Empty File" in a new window.

How to make runuser correctly understand all argument with a variable number of command line arguments, i.e., without hard coding "\"$2\" \"$3\" \"$4\" ..."?

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This is slightly different from your last question because you have to make the expansion of the arguments into a single string for the -c option.

The bash printf formatter %q is your friend here:

cmd=$( printf '%q ' "${@:2}" ) sudo runuser sublime_vanilla -c "$cmd"

On the other hand, a quick perusal through the runuser man page suggests:

sudo runuser -u sublime_vanilla "${@:2}"

Another thought: sudo runuser -u sublime_vanilla -- "${@:2}" with the double hyphens to indicate the end of the runuser options.

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5 Comments

I also tried your second suggestion sudo runuser -u sublime_vanilla "${@:2}, but it gives the same error as my original question: runuser: invalid option -- 'n'. Hence, using your printf trick worked cmd=$( printf '%q ' "${@:2}" )
Another thought: sudo runuser -u sublime_vanilla -- "${@:2}" with the double hyphens to indicate the end of the runuser options.
This last one sudo runuser -u sublime_vanilla -- "${@:2}" worked too!
That's good. I think that should be your preferred option as you don't have to play tricks stringifying an array.
Ah, but stringifying an array is much way cooler and using --!

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