visudo

visudo

SYNOPSIS

visudo [ -c ] [ -f sudoers ] [ -q ] [ -s ] [ -V ]

DESCRIPTION

visudo edits the sudoers file in a safe fashion, analogous to vipw(8). visudo locks thesudoers file against multiple simultaneous edits, provides basic sanity checks, and checks for parse errors. If the sudoers file is currently being edited you will receive a message to try again later.

There is a hard-coded list of editors that visudo will use set at compile-time that may be overridden via the editor sudoers Default
variable. This list defaults to the path to vi(1) on your system, as determined by theconfigure script. Normally, visudo does not honor the EDITOR
or VISUAL
environment variables unless they contain an editor in the aforementioned editors list. However, if visudo is configured with the ---with-enveditor flag or the enveditor Default
variable is set in sudoers, visudo will use any the editor defines by EDITOR
or VISUAL
. Note that this can be a security hole since it allows the user to execute any program they wish simply by setting EDITOR
or VISUAL
.

visudo parses the sudoers file after the edit and will not save the changes if there is a syntax error. Upon finding an error, visudo will print a message stating the line number(s) where the error occurred and the user will receive the ``What now?'' prompt. At this point the user may enter ``e'' to re-edit the sudoers file, ``x'' to exit without saving the changes, or ``Q'' to quit and save changes. The ``Q'' option should be used with extreme care because if visudo believes there to be a parse error, so will sudo and no one will be able to sudo again until the error is fixed. If ``e'' is typed to edit the sudoers file after a parse error has been detected, the cursor will be placed on the line where the error occurred (if the editor supports this feature). 

OPTIONS

visudo accepts the following command line options:

-c

Enable check-only mode. The existing sudoers file will be checked for syntax and a message will be printed to the standard output detailing the status of sudoers. If the syntax check completes successfully, visudo will exit with a value of 0. If a syntax error is encountered, visudo will exit with a value of 1.

-f

Specify and alternate sudoers file location. With this option visudo will edit (or check) the sudoers file of your choice, instead of the default, @sysconfdir@/sudoers. The lock file used is the specified sudoers file with ``.tmp'' appended to it.

-q

Enable quiet mode. In this mode details about syntax errors are not printed. This option is only useful when combined with the -c flag.

-s

Enable strict checking of the sudoers file. If an alias is used before it is defined,visudo will consider this a parse error. Note that it is not possible to differentiate between an alias and a hostname or username that consists solely of uppercase letters, digits, and the underscore ('_') character.

-V

The -V (version) option causes visudo to print its version number and exit.

ERRORS

sudoers file busy, try again later.

Someone else is currently editing the sudoers file.

/etc/sudoers.tmp: Permission denied

You didn't run visudo as root.

Can't find you in the passwd database

Your userid does not appear in the system passwd file.

Warning: undeclared Alias referenced near ...

Either you are using a {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias before defining it or you have a user or hostname listed that consists solely of uppercase letters, digits, and the underscore ('_') character. If the latter, you can ignore the warnings (sudo will not complain). In -s (strict) mode these are errors, not warnings.