sh: 0: Illegal option --

When I try to run the command below in Ubuntu:

sudo -n -u contd sh --login -c ". /home/contd/iib-10.0.0.5/server/bin/mqsiprofile;/home/contd/iib-10.0.0.5/common/jdk/jre/bin/java -cp $CLASSPATH:$MQSI_JREPATH//usr/share/ant/lib/ant-antlr.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-bcel.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-bsf.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-log4j.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-oro.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-regexp.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-resolver.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-apache-xalan2.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-commons-logging.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-commons-net.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-javamail.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-jdepend.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-jmf.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-jsch.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-junit.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-junit4.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-launcher.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-swing.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant-testutil.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/ant.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/jsch.jar:/usr/share/ant/lib/junit.jar -Djava.ext.dirs=/home/contd/iib-10.0.0.5/common/jdk/lib:/home/contd/iib-10.0.0.5/common/jdk/jre/lib/ext -Dant.home=/usr/share/ant org.apache.tools.ant.Main -f /home/contd/AntScript/build_main.xml"

I get this error:

sh: 0: Illegal option --

The above command is supposed to be supported in Linux, but when I try to implement the same solution (Ant scripting) in Ubuntu, I face this problem.

Solution 1:

sh on ubuntu is a symlink to the dash shell, not bash. Dash does not support the longform --login, but it does support the shorthand form, -l (from man dash):

-l Make dash act as if it had been invoked as a login shell.

Replacing --login with -l in your command should fix your issue.

sudo -n -u contd sh -l -c ". <etc>

If you want to invoke bash instead of dash simply call bash instead of sh.

sudo -n -u contd bash --login -c ". <etc>