VISUDO(8) BSD System Manager's Manual VISUDO(8)NAMEvisudo — edit the sudoers file
SYNOPSISvisudo [-chqsV] [-f sudoers]
DESCRIPTIONvisudo edits the sudoers file in a safe fashion, analogous to vipw(8).
visudo locks the sudoers file against multiple simultaneous edits, pro‐
vides 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 one or more editors that visudo will use
set at compile-time that may be overridden via the editor sudoers Default
variable. This list defaults to /usr/local/bin/vi. Normally, visudo
does not honor the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables unless they
contain an editor in the aforementioned editors list. However, if visudo
is configured with the --with-env-editor option or the env_editor Default
variable is set in sudoers, visudo will use any the editor defines by
VISUAL or EDITOR. Note that this can be a security hole since it allows
the user to execute any program they wish simply by setting VISUAL or
EDITOR.
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).
The options are as follows:
-c Enable check-only mode. The existing sudoers file will be
checked for syntax errors, owner and mode. A message will be
printed to the standard output describing the status of
sudoers unless the -q option was specified. If the check
completes successfully, visudo will exit with a value of 0.
If an error is encountered, visudo will exit with a value of
1.
-f sudoers Specify an alternate sudoers file location. With this option
visudo will edit (or check) the sudoers file of your choice,
instead of the default, /etc/sudoers. The lock file used is
the specified sudoers file with “.tmp” appended to it. In
check-only mode only, the argument to -f may be ‘-’, indicat‐
ing that sudoers will be read from the standard input.
-h The -h (help) option causes visudo to print a short help mes‐
sage to the standard output and exit.
-q Enable quiet mode. In this mode details about syntax errors
are not printed. This option is only useful when combined
with the -c option.
-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 host name or user name that consists solely of
uppercase letters, digits, and the underscore (‘_’) charac‐
ter.
-V The -V (version) option causes visudo to print its version
number and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables may be consulted depending on the
value of the editor and env_editor sudoers settings:
VISUAL Invoked by visudo as the editor to use
EDITOR Used by visudo if VISUAL is not set
FILES
/etc/sudoers List of who can run what
/etc/sudoers.tmp Lock file for visudoDIAGNOSTICS
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 user ID does not appear in the system passwd file.
Warning: {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias referenced but not defined
Either you are trying to use an undeclared
{User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias or you have a user or host name listed
that consists solely of uppercase letters, digits, and the under‐
score (‘_’) character. In the latter case, you can ignore the
warnings (sudo will not complain). In -s (strict) mode these are
errors, not warnings.
Warning: unused {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias
The specified {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias was defined but never
used. You may wish to comment out or remove the unused alias. In
-s (strict) mode this is an error, not a warning.
Warning: cycle in {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias
The specified {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias includes a reference to
itself, either directly or through an alias it includes. This is
only a warning by default as sudo will ignore cycles when parsing
the sudoers file.
SEE ALSOvi(1), sudoers(5), sudo(8), vipw(8)AUTHORS
Many people have worked on sudo over the years; this version consists of
code written primarily by:
Todd C. Miller
See the CONTRIBUTORS file in the sudo distribution
(http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/contributors.html) for an exhaustive list of
people who have contributed to sudo.
CAVEATS
There is no easy way to prevent a user from gaining a root shell if the
editor used by visudo allows shell escapes.
BUGS
If you feel you have found a bug in visudo, please submit a bug report at
http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/bugs/
SUPPORT
Limited free support is available via the sudo-users mailing list, see
http://www.sudo.ws/mailman/listinfo/sudo-users to subscribe or search the
archives.
DISCLAIMERvisudo is provided “AS IS” and any express or implied warranties, includ‐
ing, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and
fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. See the LICENSE file
distributed with sudo or http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/license.html for com‐
plete details.
Sudo 1.8.7 June 12, 2013 Sudo 1.8.7