Bug 269 – sudoers should point out why using visudo is a good idea

Bug 269 - sudoers should point out why using visudo is a good idea


Summary:	sudoers should point out why using visudo is a good idea

Status:	RESOLVED FIXED

Product:	Sudo
Classification:	Unclassified
Component:	Documentation
Version:	1.6.9
Hardware:	PC Linux

Importance:	low enhancement
Assigned To:	Todd C. Miller

URL:	https://launchpad.net/bugs/11620

Depends on:
Blocks:
	Show dependency tree / graph

Reported:	2007-11-14 07:23 MST by Martin Pitt
Modified:	2007-11-15 11:18 MST (History)
CC List:	0 users

See Also:

Attachments
improve comment about visudo in sudoers (501 bytes, patch) 2007-11-14 07:23 MST, Martin Pitt	Details \| Diff
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Description Martin Pitt 2007-11-14 07:23:47 MST

Created attachment 216 [details]
improve comment about visudo in sudoers

From the original Ubuntu bug:

  "There is a comment in the /etc/sudoers file that says that it MUST be edited with 'visudo'. It does not say WHY, and really should. I discovered the hard way that the reason is that 'visudo' performs sanity and syntax checks, preventing you from locking yourself out!

I think that the comments at the top of /etc/sudoers should make that clearer, so that foolish people like me don't lock themself out."

Admittedly he had that coming, but I think that a clearer comment cannot hurt. What do you think about attached patch?

Thanks,

Martin

Comment 1 Todd C. Miller 2007-11-14 15:18:31 MST

That seems a bit wordy, how about the following?

# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
# Failure to use 'visudo' may result in syntax or file permission errors        
# that prevent sudo from running.

Comment 2 Martin Pitt 2007-11-14 17:45:11 MST

Works for me. Thank you!

Comment 3 Todd C. Miller 2007-11-15 11:18:24 MST

I updated sudoers in cvs. The next release of sudo will include this wording.