Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...?

bmalnad has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hey Guys,

I just inherited this Perl script from a former coworker. It works fine if I run it from my account using: sudo perl decrypt.pl foo.pgp bar.txt

If I do a sudo su - root and type: perl decrypt.pl foo.pgp bar.txt

It fails with this error: Use of uninitialized value $plaintext[0] in print at decrypt.pl line 23, <$ciphertext_fh> line 2486.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Crypt::GPG;
use Data::Dumper;

my $gpg = new Crypt::GPG;
$gpg->gpgbin('/usr/bin/gpg');
$gpg->secretkey('xxxxxxxxxx');
$gpg->passphrase('xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx');

my $inputfile = shift;
my $outputfile = shift;

open my $ciphertext_fh, '<', $inputfile or die "couldn't open $inputfi
+le: $!";
open my $output_fh, '>', $outputfile or die "couldn't open $outputfile
+ for writing: $!";

my @ciphertext = <$ciphertext_fh>;
my (@plaintext) = $gpg->decrypt(\@ciphertext) or die "didn't work: $!"
+;

print $output_fh @plaintext;

close $ciphertext_fh;
close $output_fh;
[download]

Thoughts??

Comment on Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? Download Code

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Re: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by MidLifeXis (Monsignor) on May 07, 2014 at 19:50 UTC
Which perl is being run? `su - root` will get you root's login shell along with root's default environment. `sudo blah blah blah` gets you your environment (notwithstanding any settings in your sudo configuration). Try the difference between the `env` and `which perl` commands in both environments. --MidLifeXis	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by bmalnad (Initiate) on May 07, 2014 at 20:42 UTC
I can't find anything that makes any sense. dlamb@xxxxxxxxxx:~$ env && which perl `TERM=xterm SHELL=/bin/bash SSH_CLIENT=172.20.202.137 38907 22 SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0 USER=dlamb MAIL=/var/mail/dlamb PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr +/games PWD=/home/dlamb LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHLVL=1 HOME=/home/dlamb LANGUAGE=en_US: LOGNAME=dlamb SSH_CONNECTION=172.20.202.137 38907 172.21.202.5 22 LESSOPEN=\| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s _=/usr/bin/env /usr/bin/perl` [download] root@xxxxxxxxxx:~# env && which perl `SHELL=/bin/bash TERM=xterm USER=root MAIL=/var/mail/root PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin PWD=/root LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHLVL=1 HOME=/root LANGUAGE=en_US: LOGNAME=root LESSOPEN=\| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s _=/usr/bin/env /usr/bin/perl` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by hippo (Archbishop) on May 07, 2014 at 21:00 UTC
Unsurprisingly, the two environments you have listed there differ in the value of $HOME. Crypt::GPG uses this to find the keyrings, so if the keys aren't present on root's keyring, it won't stand a chance.	[reply]
Re^3: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by Laurent_R (Canon) on May 07, 2014 at 22:13 UTC
It is likely that hippo's message above gives the right explanation, but I can tell you that I met a similar problem with a (DBI-Oracle) script that worked perfectly under my user and did not under the crontab (i.e. root user) because of environment variables being defined differently. I wasted almost a full day figuring out what the problem was, quite a poor performance if you think that I originally wrote the whole script in 2 or 3 hours.	[reply]
Re: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by LanX (Saint) on May 07, 2014 at 18:51 UTC
That's the only error message you get? No complaint about not locating a module? Cheers Rolf ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)	[reply]
Re^2: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by bmalnad (Initiate) on May 07, 2014 at 19:00 UTC
Correct. I don't get any other error messages.	[reply]
Re^3: Script works when run with sudo, but not when run directly as root...? by LanX (Saint) on May 07, 2014 at 19:07 UTC
My thought: Check the environment variables of your account and of root created by the login shell. Cheers Rolf ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)	[reply]