I have a python script which I would like to launch from inittab, shown below
s1:respawn:/home/a_user/app/script.py 
I believe initab executes as root, so the a_user's envrinment is not available
The script needs to know "a_user" home directory for ini file settings and log file storage. I would like to avoid hard coding these paths in my script. Is it possible to execute this script as a_user and not a root? If this is possible would a_user HOME environment variable  be available?
Regards
Use runuser (or the distro's equvalent) to run it as a different user. runuser does change $HOME, but other similar commands may not.
Executing a python script from inittab not as root