After upgrading to new baselayout, env-update, etc.: $ . /etc/profile $ echo $PATH /usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/5.4.0:[...] [correct] $ sudo bash Password: # echo $PATH [empty] Same after using su. Funny enough, commenting the bit setting PATH=${ROOTPATH} seems to fix it somehow. Direct login to root works fine. /etc/profile.env contains ROOTPATH.
I can't reproduce this. Can you share your sudoers file?
Also, if you have secure_path enabled (it is enabled by default), the default value of PATH gets compiled into the sudo binary.
Turned out to be PEBKAC. I had an old .bashrc entry that grepped profile files for path end evaled that (probably workaround for some issue). The grep just happened to catch too much post the change.