Questions tagged [visudo]

visudo edits the sudoers file in a safe fashion

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314 votes
18 answers
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How to modify an invalid '/etc/sudoers' file?

How do I edit an invalid sudoers file? It throws the below error and it's not allowing me to edit again to fix it. Here is what happens: $ sudo visudo >>> /etc/sudoers: syntax error near ...
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211 votes
2 answers
226k views

How to change visudo editor from nano to vim? [duplicate]

When I use visudo, it always opens it with nano editor. How to change the editor to vim?
dedunu's user avatar
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48 votes
3 answers
17k views

What are the differences between sudo, su, visudo, chroot, and gksu?

What are the differences between sudo, su, visudo, chroot, and gksu ?
lambda23's user avatar
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37 votes
4 answers
22k views

Change the default editor when sudo visudo

When doing sudo visudo, the default editor is nano. I want to change it to vi or vim. I already made vim the default editor, and use it as a substitute for gedit to open php, .txt, .c and .h files,...
Cbhihe's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
4k views

Get email notification for using 'sudo' by a specific user

I have a server set-up and I let somebody that I trust with a little bit of sudo access have it. However, I also want an email anytime that they use sudo. I know that I can use Defaults ...
user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
7k views

Why I must use 'visudo' to edit the '/etc/sudoers' file?

In /etc/sudoers, it says: # This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root. My question is, why must this file be edited with visudo? It seems I was able to edit the file successfully ...
Tosh's user avatar
  • 409
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Difference between "select-editor" and "update-alternatives --config editor"

I'm looking at how Ubuntu selects a default editor, and I notice that to set the default editor for editing crontabs, I use select-editor while to set the default editor for visudo I use update-...
geckels1's user avatar
  • 183
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

How disable mysql command in sudoers file?

How can I disable /usr/bin/mysql command in sudoers file? I've tried to use it this way: %tailonly ALL=!/usr/bin/mysql But when I access user 'tailonly' of group 'tailonly', this command is still ...
Carlos Spohr's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to see what pkaction a software uses

So, I have one software that always asks for password when starting. And I want to run this software without this gksu password prompt popping up everytime. The first thing I tried was adding its ...
PKM's user avatar
  • 819
4 votes
1 answer
857 views

user not in sudo group but can perform sudo operations

Is this normal behaviour when I put a user student in sudoers file using visudo command like this : visudo student ALL = NOPASSWD: ALL And he is not in sudo group but can still perform sudo ...
Tomas.R's user avatar
  • 423
4 votes
1 answer
24k views

Add user to sudoers

I want to add a user account to sudoers. I type in sudo usermod -aG sudo username Then I reboot. I type apt update I get permission denied. I type sudo apt update Followed by account ...
rob18767's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
9k views

How to allow a command to be executed for a particular user without password with sudoers file?

Can anyone please explain the exact work of these in /etc/sudoers ? (I've done some research, so please don't share any links) I want to add myself (member of sudo) to execute a command without ...
Purnendu Nath's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
11k views

Change in sudoers does not take effect. Ubuntu 16.10 fresh install + one line.

Trying to remove password on sudo. My current sudoers file: Defaults env_reset Defaults mail_badpass Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:...
Vidar's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

systemctl still asking for password even with sudoers

My /etc/sudoers josh ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl restart servicename.service running systemctl restart servicename.service still asks for password. Does anyone have any ideas? Running ...
Josh's user avatar
  • 95
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Certain commands not working for a user with sudo after adding to `sudoers` file

I cannot seem to allow the user (In this case Ruby) to run sudo rm -rf, sudo rmdir, or sudo mkdir. I have tried it with other commands and it works fine allowing that user to run sudo apt-get update ...
Alex Lowe's user avatar
  • 471
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Explanation of visudo lock file

When I edit /etc/sudoers using visudo, I think it saves to sudoers.tmp, checks it for errors, then copies it to the real /etc/sudoers. However, I can't confirm my theory (how the lock file is used) ...
Tosh's user avatar
  • 409
3 votes
1 answer
53k views

sudo: can't open /etc/sudoers: Permission denied [duplicate]

sudo from a standard user works fine, but when I try to use it from root it returns this error: sudo: can't open /etc/sudoers: Permission denied sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting /etc/...
user263657's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
7k views

visudo: specified editor (./sudo_editor) doesn't exist

I tried to run the "sudo EDITOR=./sudo_editor visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/relax_requirements" command and the error came out as: visudo: specified editor (./sudo_editor) doesn't exist Anyone know what ...
Eve's user avatar
  • 73
3 votes
2 answers
10k views

Mount samba share at login using startup script (not fstab)

Background I'm trying to automatically execute a command that mounts a password protected Samba share when my user logs in. The catch is, I share my laptop with another user, and I don't want the ...
Scott's user avatar
  • 428
3 votes
0 answers
2k views

Reset sudoers file

I want to add a new user to run all commands without a password, so I went to edit /etc/sudoers (using visudo of course) by adding the line myuser ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL. Everything is OK, but 15 minutes ...
tan ho's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
0 answers
3k views

Lost visudo - I seem to have lost visudo, to my great surprise

Lost visudo I seem to have lost visudo, to my great surprise. I'm trying to add to /etc/sudoers or /etc/sudoers.d but when I try and run visudo as root I get this sudo: visudo: command not found ...
user235365's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

`sudo visudo /etc/hosts` gives syntax errors

Really dumb question, Ubuntu 20, and I have apache2 installed, not much else. I go sudo visudo /etc/hosts and want to add an alias "dummy.com" domain alias as a hack to point to the server ...
Conrad B's user avatar
  • 167
2 votes
1 answer
6k views

What is the difference between the group root and the group sudo? Why root user by default is not a member of the group sudo?

I am quite confused regarding this matter. As far as I know the user root has all the privelages. Also all the users of the group sudo has all privelages. But the user root by default is not a ...
rancho's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
6k views

Can't run visudo within Docker; sudoers file does not exist

Ubuntu n00b here. I am tinkering with a Docker container that I created using the following simple Dockerfile: FROM ubuntu CMD ["tail","-f","/dev/null"] Inside the container, as the root user, I try ...
Shaul Behr's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Changes to sudoers have no effect. Following basic Ubuntu tutorial

I'm following along the Ubuntu sudoers tutorial. Here's my exact /etc/sudoers file (screenshot instead of code block because the formatting was getting messed up). Notice the lines at the bottom ...
David Tuite's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
2k views

Run a specific sudo command without a password in Ubuntu 13.10

I would like to run vagrant without being prompted for a password. As this post suggests, I used visudo to add the following line to my sudoers file. john-moz ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/vagrant ...
John Karahalis's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
339 views

Why micro is not recognized as text editor in Ubuntu 22.04?

I installed micro with sudo apt install micro on 22.04 I want to use visudo with micro. export EDITOR=micro then next line visudo opens in nano. So, then I tried sudo update-alternatives --config ...
Pragmatic's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
628 views

sudoers doesn't work

I added powertop to /etc/sudoers (sudo visudo) but it doesn't work. I checked all possible problems I can imagine. What did I missed? user@ellie:~$ whoami user user@ellie:~$ groups user adm cdrom ...
Arno's user avatar
  • 485
2 votes
0 answers
29k views

Sorry, user is not allowed to execute X as root on lt

Whenever I try to run a command from the termainal as sudo, I am now getting the error: Sorry, user {user} is not allowed to execute {command} as root on lt. lt is the name of my computer. The only ...
Kohjah Breese's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
583 views

Is there a GUI to `visudo`?

Quite simply, is there a GUI to visudo I can recommend to other users, and use for myself? I have to set up a system where over 50 users have different sudo privileges and I need to juggle them all.
nanofarad's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
141 views

Do I have to do a new installation?

I was in the /etc/sudoers and might done something wrong, beacuse after I couldn´t use the commandline again. Maybe i deleted sudo in /etc/sudoers. It said something was wrong i line 28. What can I do ...
Jen's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
2 answers
3k views

Visudo Command Not Working on Sudo User

I recently bought a vps and I have am fairly new to using ubuntu on it since I have always used shared hosting. I have created a sudoer user and it worked perfectly fine yesterday except when I ...
questions's user avatar
  • 143
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Adding my user to sudoers does not work. Still ask for password

I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04 I made the mistake of editing /etc/sudoers with "vim" first instead of using "visudo". Therefore when I was doing "sudo command" it kept asking for my password. ...
Alain Star's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
744 views

How can I run a sudo command as sudo (!) without password? (cryptsetup needs to be run as sudo in order to use kernel module 'device-mapper')

Solved Besides not commenting the #includedir line in /etc/sudoers out, editing sudoers.d/myOverrides with sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/myOverrides, and using the syntax I first tried, did the ...
hghtch's user avatar
  • 13
1 vote
1 answer
579 views

Can I edit the sudoers file with visudo using my bootable USB

Something I did with a sudo dpkg ... installation in an attempt to fix problems with my audio clobbered my ability of my sole user-name to run sudo in 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver). This is a single OS ...
WhereIsTheManual's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
5k views

What is the purpose of group privileges in sudoers file?

I removed my regular user from the sudoers file but it is still part of sudo group which has all privileges granted in the sudoers file. When I try to execute any command in sudo from my regular user ...
enu's user avatar
  • 177
1 vote
1 answer
583 views

Visudo - Change user without password doesn't work

I want a user to be able to change to another user without a password and any other root rights. I followed already a hint on https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82438/allow-sudo-to-another-user-...
strader's user avatar
  • 413
1 vote
1 answer
807 views

Upstart for docker and setuid permissions

OK, this has kept me busy for a day at least, since last night. I am trying to do something very simple: run a bash script which creates a few folders and runs a docker container - but using upstart. ...
Aliostad's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

Auto-starting a GUI application that requires sudo

Question: I need to auto-start a GUI application that requires sudo. I know I need to edit the sudoers file with: sudo visudo However, I don't know what to write in the file. What I already tried:...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
279 views

/etc/sudoers file problem understanding

According to the documentation, modifications of this file may enables local users to execute sudo commands on remote machines: user1 192.168.1.14=(user2:group1) ALL According to what I read, ...
majestik33's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

Xubuntu visudo sudoers edit not working

I have been trying to specify a script that I would like to run without being prompted for a password. After a number of google and stack searches and a number of different syntax changes, I still ...
Pat Herrod's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
132 views

Changed suoders to an account that doesn't exist, what should I do

I've installed ubuntu 12.04 with single user, let's call him user1. I then created a new user, let's call him user2. I wanted user2 to be the only user with sudo rights, so I removed all users from ...
user1426692's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
682 views

NOPASSWD option not working in sudoer file

I know this has been asked before, but I tried answers from dozens of other posts, and nothing is working. I've also used this on other servers successfully, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong this ...
Jared's user avatar
  • 113
1 vote
1 answer
174 views

Allowing {USER} to run a command against a process owned by another user

I have been scouring the forums to find out how you can allow a command / process to be ran by a user that is normally only permitted by root or itself. There are some good resources out there but ...
Doopz's user avatar
  • 131
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

Allowing a sudo command to run without needing password [duplicate]

I have the following command: sudo service cron start When I type it into the terminal, it asks me for a password, just as it should. But I need for users (or if all users aren't possible, then at ...
Askerman's user avatar
  • 826
1 vote
1 answer
177 views

Messed up the sudo access!

Not sure if this is the place for troubleshooting, but I am gonna give it a shot. I was trying to make my computer turn off without needing sudo, and I must have done something wrong because I get a ...
misas's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
636 views

Root user access for another user [duplicate]

I am trying to gain root user access to another user so that I can run a command with adding sudo in front of any command. Example: fdisk -l Getting the error message as: fdisk: cannot open /dev/...
user497091's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

I have somehow locked or removed my access to sudo - how can I fix it? [duplicate]

I am fairly new at Ubuntu system and commands. I was trying to follow some tutorial online explaining how to setup using no password to download apps. I was in visudo, and next thing I know I can't ...
Mike Dugger's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
486 views

In which cases multiple hostnames are set/uses with sudo

My computer has a label/hostname, let's say learn_linux. In the /etc/sudoers the format is: user ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL %group ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL the first field -> user, %group is referring to ...
user3541631's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
1k views

user in sudo group can't run sudo

I've seen other similar questions but they don't solve my problem unfortunately. I've been added to the sudo group on my Ubuntu 14.04 with usermod -aG sudo testuser but I still can't run sudo: :~...
disgra's user avatar
  • 111