why isn't my Upstart $JOB variable being interpolated?

Question

I installed upstart on a Debian 7.8 system, but last I checked this didn't work on an Ubuntu 11 system either. I've got my jobs running using sudo, but would like to do it right if possible. here's my .conf file:

start on stopped RUNLEVEL=[2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]
setuid newuser
respawn
pre-start exec logger "pre-start JOB $JOB in HOME $HOME"
script
 logger "start JOB $JOB in HOME $HOME"
 echo "DEBUG start: `env`" >> /tmp/$JOB_env.log
 timeout 360m $HOME/scripts/$JOB.py \
  >/tmp/$JOB.log 2>&1 || mail -s "error in $JOB.conf" \
  me@my.com < /tmp/$JOB.log
end script
post-stop exec sleep 60

the logger calls complete and yield:

Mar  7 15:56:13 vps39987 logger: pre-start JOB  in HOME 
Mar  7 15:56:13 vps39987 logger: start JOB  in HOME

/tmp contains no *_env.log, and /var/log/upstart/ contains no file for $JOB.

I get emails with subject error in .conf and containing timeout: failed to run command '/scripts/.py': No such file or directory

any ideas? I'm stumped.

[note: I commented out the setuid line and still no joy]

Answer 1

while I still don't know why $JOB isn't being expanded, I found by using for line in $(env); do logger env $line; done in the script stanza that $UPSTART_JOB is being set. I solved the missing $HOME variable in another way specific to my client's setup.