How do I edit /etc/sudoers from a script?

linux shell sudo
n-alexander picture n-alexander · Nov 27, 2008 · Viewed 76.3k times · Source

I need to edit /etc/sudoers from a script to add/remove stuff from white lists.

Assuming I have a command that would work on a normal file, how could I apply it to /etc/sudoers?

Can I copy and modify it, then have visudo replace the original with the modified copy? By providing my own script in $EDITOR?

Or can I just use the same locks and cp?

The question is more about potential issues than about just finding something that works.

Answer

beckerr picture beckerr · Feb 7, 2015

Old thread, but what about:

echo 'foobar ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL' | sudo EDITOR='tee -a' visudo

Related questions

Use sudo without password INSIDE a script

For some reason I need, as user, to run without sudo a script script.sh which needs root privileges to work. I saw as the only solution to put sudo INSIDE script.sh. Let's take an example : script.sh : #!/bin/…

Read More
Permission denied when trying to append a file to a root owned file with sudo

This is the shell command that results in "Permission denied" when I'm trying to append the data in a file to another file with sudo: sudo cat add_file >> /etc/file The file at /etc/file is owned …

Read More
Clear cache in remote server using ssh

I had been trying to clear cache in a remote server and i got these commands. First login as root user and execute sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches But I had to automate this in a script, …

Read More