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    Is there a group named $USER? getent group $USER Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 20:20
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    $USER variable is set during interactive login. How do you run your script - from login session or using cron or from daemon? Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 20:31
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    Check if the USER variable is even seen by the script. If you add a line to your script that says echo USER is $USER, what does it print out? Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 22:12
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    @BrassApparatus I guess technically you'd want to use $(id -nu):$(id -ng) to get the user and the group. Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 10:39
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    Try using $U or anything else, but not $USER, because this variable is special for sudo. See man sudo section ENVIRONMENT. Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 14:24