mjhjmtu

I have created a variable $JAVA_HOME in `/etc/environment'

JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/jdk"
PATH="...bla bla bla:$JAVA_HOME/bin"

I also edited /etc/profile to have source /etc/environment so that all users get Java home. and the directory itself has been made 755 for access.

The printout as root for env:

LANG=C.UTF-8 
SUDO_GID=1000
USERNAME=root
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk
SUDO_COMMAND=/bin/su
USER=root
PWD=/home/ssuser
HOME=/root
SUDO_USER=ssuser
SUDO_UID=1000
MAIL=/var/mail/root
TERM=xterm
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHLVL=2
LOGNAME=root
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:$JAVA_HOME/bin

But when I do the same as ssuser without sudo-ing, the environment variable $JAVA_HOME is expanded to the actual path.

SSH_CONNECTION=193.128.134.115 18497 10.1.4.4 22
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
LANG=C.UTF-8
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk
XDG_SESSION_ID=2
USER=ssuser
PWD=/home/ssuser
HOME=/home/ssuser
SSH_CLIENT=193.128.134.115 18497 22
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
MAIL=/var/mail/ssuser
TERM=xterm
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHLVL=1
LOGNAME=ssuser
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/usr/lib/jvm/jdk/bin
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s

And this has nothing to do with what's set in /etc/sudoers for env_var reset/keep settings. Because I have tried this in a different computer and it works just fine.

I am slightly clueless as to why this is happening. Also, something very strange I have noticed is that for a single session sudo users aren't being prompted for password. I have checked /etc/sudoers and it is set up correctly to ask password for root.

I have tried closing the session and reopening. I can see as them as a normal user, not root. Also, rebooting doesn't do anything different.

As far as I know you don't need to put source /etc/environment in /etc/profile because it is not a shell script.

It should only contain key=value pairs (without "). Plus /etc/environment doesn't substitute variables like $JAVA_HOME here.

/etc/environment gets loaded at boot so you need to reboot and it will be available for all users.

This reference has a note specifically saying variable expansion does not work in /etc/environment:

Note: Variable expansion does not work in /etc/environment.