[solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

nstgc · 2014-09-27 14:45:28

Sudo was updated today and a since I don't have a vanilla sudoers file a .pacnew file was installed. I ran pacdiff and found no significant changes and so I left it unedited. However, had I needed to change it, I assume I would not have used pacdiff to do so, correct? The appropriate program to use is visudo, right?

[edit] This assumption comes from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sudo#Configuration

Last edited by nstgc (2014-11-26 02:46:45)

IMBJR · 2014-09-27 14:50:04

In this case I believe you are right. visudo should always be used for the sudoers file. Otherwise, yes, pacdiff is acceptable.

Personally, I just use diff.

Last edited by IMBJR (2014-09-27 14:50:26)

karol · 2014-09-27 15:07:17

I use visudo.

root · 2014-09-27 20:19:25

I use vimdiff (through yaourt -C) in order to see the changes and edit the file with visudo in another tab.

As I am still noobish with vi and even if there is no error message after writing the file with the changes I made, I repeat the vimdiff procedure in order to check that everything is fine before deleting the .pacnew file/proceeding to 'ok' the new sudoers file.

WorMzy · 2014-09-27 20:59:27

How I handle it (with vim set as my default editor):

$ sudo visudo
:diffthis
:vnew
Ctrl+w, r (optional, puts the new buffer on the right)
:e/etc/sudoers.pacnew
:diffthis
Ctrl+w, Ctrl+w

Then merge the differences. Chances are there's nothing worth losing sleep over. I think there was a couple of comment differences when I did mine earlier.

Last edited by WorMzy (2014-09-27 21:00:06)

colinkeenan · 2014-11-25 23:22:55

WorMzy wrote:

How I handle it (with vim set as my default editor):
$ sudo visudo
:diffthis
:vnew
Ctrl+w, r (optional, puts the new buffer on the right)
:e/etc/sudoers.pacnew
:diffthis
Ctrl+w, Ctrl+w
Then merge the differences. Chances are there's nothing worth losing sleep over. I think there was a couple of comment differences when I did mine earlier.

Great answer! That's what I was looking for. I don't remember how I handled it at the time, but now I'm updating a computer that I had not merged any pacnew files for all year. This has given me a long list of special files to deal with and I'm looking for the "proper" way because I remember having some issues before. Those files are:
passwd
shadow
group
gshadow
sudoers

After investigating them, this one is the only one I should've done anything with last time. Since I tried to merge all of them, I got myself into trouble. Seems like a mistake to ever put through pacnew files on group/passwd the related shadow files. I will investigate if they show up again, but probably end up deleting them.

For some reason, even though `echo $EDITOR` shows it's "vim", visudo isn't using vim unless I define the variable again. Even exporting VISUAL to "vim" or "/usr/bin/vim -p -X" in .bashrc or .zshrc doesn't work for me anymore. I have to change your first line to:

$ sudo VISUAL="/usr/bin/vim -p -X" visudo

Last edited by colinkeenan (2014-11-26 00:49:21)

nstgc · 2014-11-26 02:45:59

Forgot to mark this as [solved]. I'm just using pacdiff because I'm lazy, though I do think WorMzy's answer is the best.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-09-27 14:45:28

[solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

#2 2014-09-27 14:50:04

Re: [solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

#3 2014-09-27 15:07:17

Re: [solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

#4 2014-09-27 20:19:25

Re: [solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

#5 2014-09-27 20:59:27

Re: [solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

#6 2014-11-25 23:22:55

Re: [solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

#7 2014-11-26 02:45:59

Re: [solved] Handling sudoers.pacnew (pacdiff or visudo?)

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