export shell function to su as a user with ksh default shell - function

Question

I have a situation where only root can mailx, and only ops can restart the process. I want to make an automated script that both restarts the process and sends an email about doing so.
When I try this using a function the function is "not found".
I had something like:
#!/usr/bin/bash
function restartprocess {
/usr/bin/processcontrol.sh start
}
export -f restartprocess
su - ops -c "restartprocess"
mailx -s "process restarted" myemail.mydomain.com < emailmessage.txt
exit 0
It told me that the function was not found. After some troubleshooting, it turned out that the ops user's default shell is ksh.
I tried changing the script to run in ksh, and changing "export -f" to "typeset -xf", and still the function was not found. Like:
ksh: exportfunction not found
I finally gave up and just called the script (that was in the function directly) and that worked. It was like:
su - ops -c "/usr/bin/processcontrol.sh start"
(This is all of course a simplification of the real script).
Given that user ops has default shell is ksh and I can't change that or modify sudoers, is there a way to export a function such that I can su as ops (and I need to run ops's profile) and execute that function?
I made sure ops user had permission to the directory of the script I wanted it to execute, and permission to run that script.
Any education about this would be appreciated!

Answer 1

There are many restrictions for exporting functions, especially
combined with su - ... with different accounts and different shells.
Instead, turn your script inside out and put all of the command
that is to be run inside a function in the calling shell.
Something like: (Both bash and ksh)
#!/usr/bin/bash
function restartprocess {
/bin/su - ops -c "/usr/bin/processcontrol.sh start"
}
if restartprocess; then
mailx -s "process restarted" \
myemail#mydomain.com < emailmessage.txt
fi
exit 0
This will hide all of the /bin/su processing inside the restartprocess function, and can be expanded at will.