On Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 10:34:22AM -0600, Richard Owlett wrote: > I'm creating a Tcl script [to be run as user] which calls dumpe2fs , > requiring root privileges. On comp.lang.tcl I was pointed to [https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-unix-running-sudo-command-without-a-password/] > which pointed out that a user could be authorized to run specific > executables. > > Although I'm the only person with any access to my machine, I have > avoided using sudo in the past. That article dampened my qualms. > > Back in 2015, when wanting to modify users, I was pointed to > "mate-system-tools". According to > [https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mate-system-tools] it has been > removed from the repository. > > Is there a user friendly alternative? > > Following a series of links suggests using visudo. It doesn't look > friendly. I'm not sure yet if it can create new users from scratch. > There are references to adduser (and relatives) but > [https://packages.debian.org/stretch/adduser] gives its home page as > [http://alioth.debian.org/projects/adduser/] which seems to be > defunct. > > Where is a first time user to go for appropriate guidance? You are comfortable editing a text file? Because that's all it is about. Visudo is just a wrapper around an editor (I guess it expects a console based one, but whether it's vim or nano or joe or whatnot, it's settable via the EDITOR environment variable). It hasn't to be vi or vim (if that is what scares you). Thing is, you /can/ just edit /etc/sudoers by hand, but if you make a mistake, your box may end in a state in which you can't login anymore (or you can't invoke sudo, thus hindering your attempts at fixing the situation). Nothing unsurmountable, but definitely annoying. The visudo wrapper tries to catch some mistakes before they lead into harm. Or is it the prospect of editing a text file which puts you back? (I don't believe so, I "see" you doing that all the time :-) Do you have any favorite (console based) editor? Although it seems visudo can cope with a graphical editor [1], I've never tried that. Perhaps someone around here has. Cheers [1] https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/42726/how-do-i-change-the-default-text-editor-in-the-debian-squeeze-distro -- t
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