How do you handle your sudoers file?

Logomachist · 08-24-2015, 09:05 PM

I'm just learning about the sudoers file and how to write it. It seems useful but unwieldy. I seem to have a choice between specifying programs and users granularly one by one or giving blanket permissions to everyone for everything. Even though I'm just working on my own system and don't have any other users to worry about, I wonder what the best practices are. How do you handle your "sudoers"?

frankbell · 08-24-2015, 09:08 PM

I use su, but then I don't have to deal with multiple users.

This article looks like it would be useful to you if you are administering a network: http://www.admin-magazine.com/Articl...-and-PolicyKit

syg00 · 08-24-2015, 09:51 PM

I am trying to get out of the habit of using su all time. Fedora now ships sudo on by default, so I'm trying to behave - but the password request timeout annoys the hell out of me, so I tend to make it 90 minutes.

Personally I don't think sudo offers much more in the way of security, but I digress.

Edit: didn't answer the question. I make sure I'm in the admin group, that way I can do anything without futzing with visudo. Just add the timeout for my own convenience.

fatmac · 08-25-2015, 05:14 AM

You assign yourself the programs that you need to use regularly.

But sudo is capable of a lot more than that. It is designed for large institutions/companies with thousands of users, multiple sysadmins responsible for only a few tasks, & every command used by every admin is logged.