installing oh-my-zsh for a different user as root in cloud-init script

Question

I'm attempting to bootstrap my AWS EC2 ubuntu server with oh-my-zsh installed for the ubuntu user. I have a cloud-init script (more info here) that runs as the root user (with sudo). So, in my script I run the oh-my-zsh installation as the ubuntu user.

#cloud-config
runcmd:
# omitted other commands specific to my server, install zsh at the end
  - apt-get install -y zsh
  - su ubuntu -c 'sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreycole/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"' 
  - chsh -s $(which zsh) ubuntu
# change the prompt to include the server hostname
  - su ubuntu -c echo "echo export PROMPT=\''%{$fg[green]%}%n@%{$fg[green]%}%m%{$reset_color%} ${ret_status} %{$fg[cyan]%}%c%{$reset_color%} $(git_prompt_info)'\'" >> /home/ubuntu/.zshrc
# get environment variables defined above
  - echo "source ~/.profile" >> /home/ubuntu/.zshrc

When the cloud-init finishes and I ssh into the colors are not working in the $PROMPT, I see [green] and [cyan]:

[green]ubuntu@[green]ip-172-31-27-24  [cyan]~

If I run the same PROMPT command as the ubuntu user after ssh'ing in, the colors work correctly:

The problem seems to be how the colors are evaulated when the cloud-init script runs the echo command vs how the colors are evaulated when the ubuntu user runs the echo command. Does anyone know how I might change the PROMPT so the colors are only evaulated once ~/.zshrc is evaulated by the ubuntu user?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 20 '18 at 19:11

3

I solved this thanks to jgshawkey's answer here. I used bash variables to escape the color codes & commands to postpone their evaluation:

  - apt-get install -y zsh
  - runuser -l ubuntu -c 'sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreycole/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"' 
  - chsh -s $(which zsh) ubuntu
  - fgGreen='%{$fg[green]%}'
  - fgCyan='%{$fg[cyan]%}'
  - fgReset='%{$reset_color%}'
  - retStatus='${ret_status}'
  - gitInfo='$(git_prompt_info)'
  - runuser -l ubuntu -c "echo export PROMPT=\''${fgGreen}%n@%m${fgReset} ${retStatus} ${fgCyan}%c${fgReset} ${gitInfo}'\'" >> /home/ubuntu/.zshrc
  - echo "source ~/.profile" >> /home/ubuntu/.zshrc

It ended up looking like this in my ~/.zshrc:

answered Sep 20 '18 at 19:11

Corey Cole

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Attention to the script you are running is not from official ohmyzsh github script. – insign Mar 16 '20 at 17:38
I think you don't need the login flag there, `runuser ubuntu -c ...` is enough – Partha Mandal May 12 '22 at 02:48
Plus, no need for 2 `-c`, should work: `runuser ec2-user -c "$(wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmybash/oh-my-bash/master/tools/install.sh -O -)"` – Partha Mandal May 12 '22 at 02:57

insign · Answer 2 · 2020-03-16T20:49:22.810

Since I am creating a new user/server, I made this way:

user=you user here
pass=you password here

apt install -y zsh curl wget # considering you currently are root

#creates a new user with password and zsh as default shell
useradd "$user" -m -p $(openssl passwd -1 "$pass") -s $(which zsh)
usermod -aG sudo "$user" # append to sudo and user group (optional)

# mind the command above, with the parameter --unattended which means "no questions" and "no set default to zsh"
runuser -l $user -c 'sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)" "" --unattended'

Worked fine for me.

installing oh-my-zsh for a different user as root in cloud-init script

2 Answers2