Bash trouble with a game server

[whiskey]

Hi. I’m no coder, and new to Bash. I’m trying to write a Bash script that installs the server files for a game called Insurgency Sandstorm. The script works if I set my username and home directory explicitly in a certain part of the script, but I want to use variables in place of my explicit username and home directory.

sudo bash -c 'cat <<EOF > /etc/systemd/system/1insserver.service
[Unit]
Description=Sandstorm Server 1
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=whiskey
ExecStart=/home/whiskey/1sandstorm/Insurgency/Binaries/Linux/InsurgencyServer-Linux-Shipping

My username and home directory are on the last lines beginning with User= and ExecStart=. If I use $USER and $HOME in place of them, it uses root’s name and home folder (due to the use of sudo I assume). If I declare different variables at the top of the script (such as $USR and $Homedir), the entries when I run the game server are blank:

User=
ExecStart=/1sandstorm/Insurgency/Binaries/Linux/InsurgencyServer-Linux-Shipping

How can I set $USER and $HOME inside that ‘sudo bash -c’ part? Thanks.

[Aragorn]

@whiskey

sudo bash -c 'cat <<EOF > /etc/systemd/system/1insserver.service

First of all, why create a bash script from the command line and risk making typos that you cannot correct? Use a text editor — there are plenty of them available, both GUI-based ones and console-based ones. GUI editors like kwrite, kate et al are commonly also polkit-aware and will ask you for a password when writing to any area outside your home directory.

@whiskey

If I use $USER and $HOME in place of them, it uses root’s name and home folder (due to the use of sudo I assume).

If you want to literally quote variable names on the command line, then you must quote them with single quotes in order to not have the shell expand them. '$USER' and '$HOME', but better is to single-quote the entire path, like so:
'$HOME/1sandstorm/Insurgency/Binaries/Linux/InsurgencyServer-Linux-Shipping'

@whiskey

(such as $USR and $Homedir)

Neither of those two variables exist. The variable for the home directory is $HOME, and for the username, $USER.

Note 1: If you edit and save the file in a text editor, then you should use double quotes instead.

Note 2: Given that you’re writing a systemd service, you should launch this service as a regular user.

systemctl enable --user --now 1insserver

[whiskey]

Got it working thanks to your help and tips. Much appreciated!