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Visudo

Linux visudo commandΒΆ

Read more at Computer Hope On Unix-like operating systems, the visudo command edits the sudoers file, which is used by the sudo command. To change what users and groups are allowed to run sudo, run visudo.

One should not edit sudoers directly, by opening it in a text editor. Instead, edit it with visudo, which will verify its validity before saving the changes to disk.

sudo visudo
  • Visudo edits the sudoers file in a safe fashion, similar to the way that vipw safely edits the passwd file.
  • Visudo locks the sudoers file against multiple simultaneous edits, provides basic sanity checks, and checks for parse errors.
  • If the sudoers file is currently being edited by someone else, or by you in another session, you will receive a message to try again later.
  • 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 prints a message stating the line number(s) where the error occurred and the user will receive the "What now?"
  • At the prompt, type e to re-edit the sudoers file, x to exit without saving the changes, or Q(NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL**) to quit and save changes.