Bug 1044

Created attachment 574 [details]
output from "urpmq -i sudo" on Mageia Linux version 8

This is a minor error in the sudo description that appears when I run the command to display information about sudo on the Mageia Linux distribution.

I have also reported this on Mageia linux bugzilla and have been advised to "report it upstream". Hence this bug report.

Mageia bug reference:
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31440

Summary:

The description provided when running "urpmq -i sudo" is misleading because it states that:

     "run some (or all) commands as root".

While the man page for sudo clearly states:

"sudo allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or another user, as specified by the security policy."

So, this is misleading because it implies it is only to access root privilege but it actually enables superuser or another user/group privilege.

The sudo man page also provides examples on using sudo to execute command(s) as another non-root user or a member of a group.

 exhibit-a: (non-root user)

"
     To edit the index.html file as user www:

           $ sudoedit -u www ~www/htdocs/index.html
"

exhibit-b: (group)

"
     To view system logs only accessible to root and users in the adm group:

           $ sudo -g adm more /var/log/syslog
"


So, in summary, the description from "urpmq -i sudo" only mentions root
but in reality sudo can do more.

This is a minor documentation error of omission. One would not expect a fully detailed explanation in the output from "urpmq -i sudo" but equally one might expect a little bit more than "run some (or all) commands as root".