Message "syntax error near unexpected token `('"

Question

I am trying to execute

sudo -su db2inst1 /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force application (1995)

but I get this error:

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

However,

sudo -su db2inst1 id

gives me correct output. So it must be something about the ()

If I try

sudo -su db2inst1 /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force application \(1995\)

I get

/bin/bash: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token (' \ /bin/bash: -c: line 0: /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force application (1995)'

Running /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force application (1995) as db2inst1 user gives me the same error, but running

/opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 "force application (1995)"

works fine

---

The right syntax is

sudo -su db2inst1 '/opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 "force application (1995)"'

Solution 1

NOTE: While this answer seems to have been correct at the time [sudo was changed later that same year to add extra escaping around characters in the arguments with -i and -s], it is not correct for modern versions of sudo, which escape all special characters when constructing the command line to be passed to $SHELL -c. Always be careful and make sure you know what passing a command to your particular version of sudo will do, and consider carefully whether the -s option is really needed for your command and/or, if it would, if you'd be better served with sudo sh -c.

---

Since you've got both the shell that you're typing into and the shell that sudo -s runs, you need to quote or escape twice. Any of the following three would have worked with this now-ancient version of sudo:

sudo -su db2inst1 '/opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 "force application (1995)"'
sudo -su db2inst1 '/opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force\ application\ \(1995\)'
sudo -su db2inst1 /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force\\ application\\ \\\(1995\\\)

Out of curiosity, why do you need -s? Can't you just do the following?

sudo -u db2inst1 /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 'force application (1995)'
sudo -u db2inst1 /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force\ application\ \(1995\)

Solution 2

Try

sudo -su db2inst1 /opt/ibm/db2/V9.7/bin/db2 force application \(1995\)

Comments

[user541686]

@Radek: Not sure what's happening, but that's definitely not a syntax error... :(

[user541686]

@Radek: Yeah I saw your update, but like I said, that's definitely not supposed to be a syntax error; I don't know what's happening. :(

[drysdam]

You might need to do \\(1995\\). One escape for the local shell and one for the remote shell. Or maybe even three parens?

[Radek]

the first suggestion doesn't work, you need to move the single quote after db2inst1. The next 2 works fine. Thank you.