.\" DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, IT IS NOT THE MASTER!
.\" IT IS GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY FROM visudo.mdoc.in
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1996,1998-2005, 2007-2012
.\" Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\" ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" Sponsored in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects
.\" Agency (DARPA) and Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force
.\" Materiel Command, USAF, under agreement number F39502-99-1-0512.
.\"
.TH "VISUDO" "@mansectsu@" "July 12, 2012" "Sudo @PACKAGE_VERSION@" "System Manager's Manual"
.nh
.if n .ad l
.SH "NAME"
\fBvisudo\fR
\- edit the sudoers file
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP 7n
\fBvisudo\fR
[\fB\-chqsV\fR]
[\fB\-f\fR\ \fIsudoers\fR]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
\fBvisudo\fR
edits the
\fIsudoers\fR
file in a safe fashion, analogous to
vipw(@mansectsu@).
\fBvisudo\fR
locks the
\fIsudoers\fR
file against multiple simultaneous edits, provides basic sanity checks,
and checks for parse errors.
If the
\fIsudoers\fR
file is currently being edited you will receive a message to try again later.
.PP
There is a hard-coded list of one or more editors that
\fBvisudo\fR
will use set at compile-time that may be overridden via the
\fIeditor\fR
\fIsudoers\fR
\fRDefault\fR
variable.
This list defaults to
\fR@editor@\fR.
Normally,
\fBvisudo\fR
does not honor the
\fRVISUAL\fR
or
\fREDITOR\fR
environment variables unless they contain an editor in the aforementioned
editors list.
However, if
\fBvisudo\fR
is configured with the
\fR--with-env-editor\fR
option or the
\fIenv_editor\fR
\fRDefault\fR
variable is set in
\fIsudoers\fR,
\fBvisudo\fR
will use any the editor defines by
\fRVISUAL\fR
or
\fREDITOR\fR.
Note that this can be a security hole since it allows the user to
execute any program they wish simply by setting
\fRVISUAL\fR
or
\fREDITOR\fR.
.PP
\fBvisudo\fR
parses the
\fIsudoers\fR
file after the edit and will
not save the changes if there is a syntax error.
Upon finding an error,
\fBvisudo\fR
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
\fIsudoers\fR
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
\fBvisudo\fR
believes there to be a parse error, so will
\fBsudo\fR
and no one
will be able to
\fBsudo\fR
again until the error is fixed.
If
`e'
is typed to edit the
\fIsudoers\fR
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).
.PP
The options are as follows:
.TP 12n
\fB\-c\fR
Enable
\fIcheck-only\fR
mode.
The existing
\fIsudoers\fR
file will be
checked for syntax errors, owner and mode.
A message will be printed to the standard output describing the status of
\fIsudoers\fR
unless the
\fB\-q\fR
option was specified.
If the check completes successfully,
\fBvisudo\fR
will exit with a value of 0.
If an error is encountered,
\fBvisudo\fR
will exit with a value of 1.
.TP 12n
\fB\-f\fR \fIsudoers\fR
.br
Specify and alternate
\fIsudoers\fR
file location.
With this option
\fBvisudo\fR
will edit (or check) the
\fIsudoers\fR
file of your choice,
instead of the default,
\fI@sysconfdir@/sudoers\fR.
The lock file used is the specified
\fIsudoers\fR
file with
``\.tmp''
appended to it.
In
\fIcheck-only\fR
mode only, the argument to
\fB\-f\fR
may be
`-',
indicating that
\fIsudoers\fR
will be read from the standard input.
.TP 12n
\fB\-h\fR
The
\fB\-h\fR (\fIhelp\fR)
option causes
\fBvisudo\fR
to print a short help message
to the standard output and exit.
.TP 12n
\fB\-q\fR
Enable
\fIquiet\fR
mode.
In this mode details about syntax errors are not printed.
This option is only useful when combined with
the
\fB\-c\fR
option.
.TP 12n
\fB\-s\fR
Enable
\fIstrict\fR
checking of the
\fIsudoers\fR
file.
If an alias is used before it is defined,
\fBvisudo\fR
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
(`_')
character.
.TP 12n
\fB\-V\fR
The
\fB\-V\fR (\fIversion\fR)
option causes
\fBvisudo\fR
to print its version number
and exit.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
The following environment variables may be consulted depending on
the value of the
\fIeditor\fR
and
\fIenv_editor\fR
\fIsudoers\fR
settings:
.TP 17n
\fRVISUAL\fR
Invoked by
\fBvisudo\fR
as the editor to use
.TP 17n
\fREDITOR\fR
Used by
\fBvisudo\fR
if
\fRVISUAL\fR
is not set
.SH "FILES"
.TP 26n
\fI@sysconfdir@/sudoers\fR
List of who can run what
.TP 26n
\fI@sysconfdir@/sudoers.tmp\fR
Lock file for visudo
.SH "DIAGNOSTICS"
.TP 6n
\fRsudoers file busy, try again later.\fR
Someone else is currently editing the
\fIsudoers\fR
file.
.TP 6n
\fR@sysconfdir@/sudoers.tmp: Permission denied\fR
You didn't run
\fBvisudo\fR
as root.
.TP 6n
\fRCan't find you in the passwd database\fR
Your user ID does not appear in the system passwd file.
.TP 6n
\fRWarning: {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias referenced but not defined\fR
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 underscore
(`_')
character.
In the latter case, you can ignore the warnings
(\fBsudo\fR
will not complain)
\&.
In
\fB\-s\fR
(strict) mode these are errors, not warnings.
.TP 6n
\fRWarning: unused {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias\fR
The specified {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias was defined but never
used.
You may wish to comment out or remove the unused alias.
In
\fB\-s\fR
(strict) mode this is an error, not a warning.
.TP 6n
\fRWarning: cycle in {User,Runas,Host,Cmnd}_Alias\fR
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
\fBsudo\fR
will ignore cycles when parsing
the
\fIsudoers\fR
file.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
vi(1),
sudoers(@mansectform@),
sudo(@mansectsu@),
vipw(@mansectsu@)
.SH "AUTHORS"
Many people have worked on
\fBsudo\fR
over the years; this version consists of code written primarily by:
.sp
.RS 6n
Todd C. Miller
.RE
.PP
See the CONTRIBUTORS file in the
\fBsudo\fR
distribution (http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/contributors.html) for an
exhaustive list of people who have contributed to
\fBsudo\fR.
.SH "CAVEATS"
There is no easy way to prevent a user from gaining a root shell if
the editor used by
\fBvisudo\fR
allows shell escapes.
.SH "BUGS"
If you feel you have found a bug in
\fBvisudo\fR,
please submit a bug report at http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/bugs/
.SH "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.
.SH "DISCLAIMER"
\fBvisudo\fR
is provided
``AS IS''
and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited
to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a
particular purpose are disclaimed.
See the LICENSE file distributed with
\fBsudo\fR
or http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/license.html for complete details.