Configuring Superuser Privi-

leges with sudo

WHAT?
Get familiar with the basics of sudo configuration and learn how to
delegate superuser privileges with sudo .

WHY?
Some commands require administrator or root privileges. Using su-
do , you can delegate the privileges to execute these commands to cer-
tain users or groups.

EFFORT
It takes you up to 20 minutes to read through this article. Writing your
rst sudo configuration rule only takes a few minutes, but establishing
a functioning sudo configuration that works across your environment
will take considerably longer, depending on the complexity of your set-
up.

GOAL
Understand the basic aspects of sudo configuration. Address common
use cases for sudo configuration. Learn how to work with users, user
groups and aliases in sudo setups. Familiarize yourself with sudo best
practices and troubleshooting.

1 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 REQUIREMENTS

Basic understanding of sudo .

root privileges. For information on how to use sudo as a normal

user, refer to https://documentation.suse.com/smart/systems-man-
agement/html/sudo-run-commands-as-superuser/index.html .

The sudo package needs to be installed.

Publication Date: 27 Sep 2024

Contents
1 An introduction to sudo configuration 3

2 Creating custom sudo configurations 3

3 Changing the sudo password prompt timeout 8

4 Starting a shell with root privileges 9

5 sudo best practices 11

6 Troubleshooting 12

7 sudo configuration reference 13

8 Legal Notice 17

A GNU Free Documentation License 17

2 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

1 An introduction to sudo configuration
sudo provides a means to securely and efficiently delegate superuser privileges to
specific users or groups.
Certain operations on a Linux system require root or administrator privileges. Home users
who administer their own system do not have to delegate superuser privileges, because the
administrator and the normal user are the same person in this scenario. But as soon as a system
is part of a larger systems environment with multiple users, groups and hosts, it becomes vital
to maintain control of who is allowed to do what and where. At the same time, it is important
to provide all users and groups with the necessary privileges to carry out their tasks.
sudo is designed to help with this. It provides:

Enhanced system security

sudo offers ne-grained control over users, groups, hosts and commands and thus increas-
es system security by reducing the risk of malicious or accidental damage by an intruder
or a system user.

Complete audit trail

Whenever a user switches privileges, this appears in the system's log, and all operations
carried out by this user with elevated privileges can be traced back to them.

A means to delegate root -specific tasks

Using sudo , system administrators can enable single users or groups to carry out certain
tasks without the need to enter the root password and switch to the root account.

Important: How to read this article

This article provides in-depth sudo configuration information. However, it does not pro-
vide any advice on how to build a comprehensive and secure sudo policy. Security-relat-
ed policies are very complex and strongly depend on the environment they are created for.

2 Creating custom sudo configurations

Learn how to build a simple example custom sudo configuration and expand it step
by step. Create groups and use aliases to keep your custom configuration lean and
efficient.

3 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 Warning: Example configurations are for demonstration
purposes only
The example rules outlined below are purely for demonstration purposes. Use them to
understand the general syntax of sudo configuration les. Do not use them in real-world
setups, because they do not reflect the complexity of these environments.

2.1 sudo configuration best practices

Before your start, here are a few ground rules for maintaining sudo configurations:

Always use visudo to edit sudo configuration files

Any changes to the sudo configuration should be done using the visudo command. vi-
sudo is a tailor-made tool that allows you to edit the sudo configuration les and runs
basic syntax checks, making sure that the configuration remains intact and functional. A
faulty sudo configuration can result in a user being locked out of their own system.

Always create custom configurations under /etc/sudoers.d/

Custom configurations must reside under /etc/sudoers.d/ to be pulled in by sudo .
Settings in the custom configuration les take precedence over the ones in the default
configuration in /etc/sudoers .

Always mind the order in which configurations are read

To make sure the custom configurations are read in the correct order, prefix them with
numbers. Use leading zeroes to establish the order in which the les are read. For example,
01_myfirstconfig is parsed before 10_myotherconfig . If a directive has been set in
a le that is read before another le that contains conflicting information, the last-read
directive is applied.

Always use descriptive file names

Use le names that hint at what the configuration le does. This helps you keep track of
what your sudo setup is supposed to do.

4 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 Tip: sudo configuration and immutable file systems
An immutable le system is a le system that cannot be changed once it has been installed.
It is accessed read-only. If the SUSE product you are using relies on an immutable le
system, the sudo default configuration shipped with the product is installed under /usr/
etc/sudoers and any pre-configured adjustments reside under /usr/etc/sudoers.d/ .

Your own custom configurations are located under /etc/sudoers.d/ and take prece-
dence over anything that is provided in /usr/etc/sudoers.d/ . The visudo command
opens /usr/etc/sudoers and saves the changed le to /etc/sudoers , if there was no
prior sudoers le. If there was already one, visudo opens and writes that one. The
instance located under /etc/ takes precedence over the one that is kept under /usr/
etc/ . This way, user-made configuration adjustments will not get broken upon updates.

2.2 Create a user-specific configuration file

Create a sudo configuration le that allows a normal user ( tux ) to use the useradd command
with their own password instead of the root password.

EXAMPLE 1: CREATE A USER-SPECIFIC CONFIGURATION FILE

1. As system administrator ( root ), create a custom configuration le that holds the new
user-specific directives by starting visudo . Use both numbering and a descriptive name:

# visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/02_usermanagement

2. Create a rule that allows tux to execute the /usr/sbin/useradd binary in the entire
environment that this sudo configuration is applied to:

tux 1 ALL 2 = /usr/sbin/useradd 3

1 Specify the user or group. List users by name or #UID , and groups by %GROUPNAME .
If you have several items here, separate them with commas. To negate entries, use ! .
2 Specify one or several (separated by commas) hosts. Use (fully qualified) host names
or IP addresses. Add ALL to enforce this setting globally across all hosts. Use ! for
negations.

5 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 3 Specify one or several executables (separated by commas). When specifying them,
make sure to mind the following rules:

/usr/sbin/useradd
Without any additional options added, this allows the execution of every pos-
sible useradd command.

/usr/sbin/useradd -c
If you explicitly specify an option, then that option is the only one that is al-
lowed. Nothing else would be available to the user you specified above.

/usr/sbin/useradd ""
This would just let the user invoke a mere useradd without any option at all.

In the example above, you would want to either allow all options and subcommands
or limit them to a few for security reasons, but forbidding a user to specify any option
at all would be pointless in this context.

3. To let the user use their own password instead of the root password, add the following
line:

Defaults:tux !targetpw

When active, this ag requires the user to enter the password of the target user, i.e. root .
This ag is enabled by default on any SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system. Negate it using
! to require the user to just enter their own password instead of the root password.

4. Save the configuration, leave the editor and open a second shell to test whether sudo
honors your new configuration.

2.3 Create custom configurations by grouping items

Modify the configuration from Example 1, “Create a user-specific configuration file” so that a group
of named users can run the useradd command without the need for the root password. Also,
add the usermod and userdel to the list of commands available to this group.

EXAMPLE 2: CREATE CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS BY GROUPING ITEMS

1. To modify the example configuration, open it as system administrator with visudo :

# visudo /etc/sudoers.d/02_usermanagement

6 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 2. Add more users to the rule in a comma-separated list:

tux, wilber ALL = /usr/sbin/useradd

3. To allow the listed users to execute a list of commands, specify the commands as a com-
ma-separated list:

tux, wilber ALL = /usr/sbin/useradd, /usr/sbin/usermod, /usr/sbin/userdel

4. To let the listed users use their own password instead of the root password, add the
following line:

Defaults:tux, wilber !targetpw

When active, this ag requires the listed users to enter the password of the target user,
i.e. root . This ag is enabled by default on any SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system.
Negate it using ! to require the listed users to just enter their own password instead of
the root password.

5. Save the configuration, leave the editor and open a second shell to test whether sudo
honors your new configuration.

2.4 Simplify configurations by applying aliases

Use aliases to simplify your custom configuration from Example 2, “Create custom configurations by
grouping items” even further. Grouping items helps to a certain extent, but using global aliases for
users, commands and hosts is the most efficient way to keep a clean and lean sudo configuration.
Using aliases and groups instead of lists is a much better way to address changes in your setup.
Should a user leave, just remove them from the global User_Alias declaration in your alias
declaration le instead of scouring all the separate custom configuration les. The same proce-
dure applies for any other type of alias ( Host_Alias , Cmnd_Alias and Runas_Alias ).

EXAMPLE 3: SIMPLIFY CONFIGURATIONS BY APPLYING ALIASES

1. Create a new le to hold your global alias definitions:

# visudo /etc/sudoers.d/01_aliases

2. Add the following line to create the TEAMLEADERS alias:

User_Alias TEAMLEADERS = tux, wilber

7 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 3. Add the following line to create the USERMANAGEMENT alias:

Cmnd_Alias USERMANAGEMENT = /usr/sbin/useradd, /usr/sbin/usermod, /usr/sbin/

userdel

4. Save your changes and exit visudo .

5. As system administrator, start visudo to edit the example configuration le:

# visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/02_usermanagement

6. Delete the previous rule and replace it with the following rule that uses the aliases you
have just defined above:

TEAMLEADERS ALL = USERMANAGEMENT

7. To let all the users defined by User_Alias use their own password instead of the root
password, add the following line:

Defaults:TEAMLEADERS !targetpw

8. Save the configuration, leave the editor and open a second shell to test whether sudo
honors your new configuration.

Note: For more information

Find a more detailed description of the sudo configuration syntax in Section 7, “sudo
configuration reference” and refer to the man page of sudo .

3 Changing the sudo password prompt timeout

Learn how to change the timeout settings to execute commands that require root
privileges without being prompted for the root password for each command.
When running a command prefaced with sudo for the rst time, you are prompted for the
root password. This password remains valid for a certain period. Once it is expired, the user is
prompted for the password again. To extend or shorten the timeout when executing commands
that require root privileges, make the following changes to your sudo configuration le.

8 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 Warning: Do not grant unlimited passwordless access to root
privileges
For security reasons, do not give unlimited access to root privileges. Instead, set a rea-
sonable timeout to prevent misuse of the root account by any intruder.

PROCEDURE 1: CHANGING THE TIMEOUT FOR sudo PASSWORD PROMPTS

1. As system administrator, create a new sudo configuration le for the timestamp config-
uration with:

# visudo --f=/etc/sudoers.d/timestamp_timeout

After successful authentication with the root password, the le is opened.

2. Enable editing and add the line timestamp_timeout= . Enter a value for the timestamp.
For example, to shorten the timeout to three minutes, enter:

timestamp_timeout=3

If the timestamp is set to zero, you are prompted for the root password for every execu-
tion of a sudo command.

3. Save the changes and close the le.

You have created a sudo configuration le and shortened the timeout setting for the execution
of sudo commands.

4 Starting a shell with root privileges

Start a shell with permanent root privileges by using the sudo -s or sudo -i
command. With both commands, you are prompted for the root password only
once.

9 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

4.1 Difference between sudo -s and sudo -i
Having to enter sudo every time you want to run a command as root can become tedious.
Instead, you can use one of the built-in mechanisms to start a shell with permanent root priv-
ileges. For this, there are two command options available:

sudo -s launches the shell with the environment of the current user and offers a few
privilege control measures. To run this command, enter the root password.

sudo -i starts the shell as an interactive login shell with a clean environment. To run
this command, you enter the root password.

With both commands, the shell is started with a new environment, and you are logged in as
root . Any subsequent command that is executed within that shell is run with elevated privileges
without having to enter the password again. This environment is terminated when you close the
shell, and you must enter the password again for another sudo command.

4.2 Starting a shell with sudo -s

The sudo -s command launches an interactive non-login shell. After successful authentication
with the root password, all subsequent commands are executed with elevated privileges.
The SHELL environment variable or the user's default shell specifies which shell opens. If this
variable is empty, the shell defined in the /etc/passwd is picked up.
By default, the sudo -s command runs from the directory of the previous user because the
target user inherits the environment of the previous user. The command is also logged in your
history.
To start a shell with permanently elevated privileges, enter the following command:

tux:~ > sudo -s

[sudo] password for root:
root:/home/tux # exit
tux:~ >

The prompt changes from > to # .

You have started a shell with permanently elevated privileges. All subsequent commands are
executed without prompting for the password again.

10 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

4.3 Starting a shell with sudo -i
The sudo -i is similar to the sudo -s command-line option but launches an interactive
login shell. When using the sudo -s command, the target user inherits the environment of the
previous user. You can prevent it by using the sudo -i command, where the target user gets
a clean environment and starts at their own $HOME directory.
To run a command with sudo -i , enter the following:

tux:~ > sudo -i

[sudo] password for root:
root:~ # exit
tux:~ >

You have started a shell with permanently elevated privileges, and the command is logged in
your history. All subsequent commands are executed without prompting for the password again.

5 sudo best practices

Learn about some of the best practices of sudo to control system access and enable
users to be productive.

Thoroughly test and audit your sudo configurations

To build a truly efficient and secure sudo configuration framework, establish a routine
of regular testing and auditing. Identify possible loopholes and deal with them. Do not let
convenience trump security.

Keep custom sudo configurations in separate files

The main policy configuration le for sudo is /etc/sudoers . This le is supplied by the
system packages, and changes made to it may break updates. Therefore, create separate
configuration les holding your custom settings under the /etc/sudoers.d/ directory.
These are pulled in by default by a directive in /etc/sudoers .

Limit the sudo timeout

For security reasons, do not give unlimited access to root privileges. Instead, set a rea-
sonable timeout instead to prevent misuse of the root account by any intruder. For more
information, refer to Section 3, “Changing the sudo password prompt timeout”.

11 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

Use the visudo command
Use the visudo command to safely edit the /etc/sudoers le, because it checks the
syntax of the le before saving the changes. This is a preventive way to correct any errors
that can break the system. Besides the basic syntax check, you can also run visudo -c to
check whether your entire framework of sudo configuration is parsed in the right order
and without an error.

Manage users in groups rather than individually

Keep your sudo configuration as lean and manageable as possible. Manage users by adding
them to groups and then granting privileges to these groups rather than to the individuals.
This allows you to add or remove users by simply changing the group settings instead of
having to look for the user across your configuration.
An example rule that allows all users in an example %admingrp group to execute all com-
mands:

%admingrp ALL = (ALL) ALL

Restrict the path for binaries

With the secure_path directive, restrict the areas where users can execute commands.
The following example is the default setting that ships with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Defaults secure_path="/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin"

Keep sudo logging transparent

sudo logs to the standard log le where its log entries may easily get overlooked. Add the
following rule to your configuration to specify a dedicated sudo log le.

Defaults logfile=/var/log/sudo.log

6 Troubleshooting

Learn how to debug and troubleshoot sudo configuration issues.

12 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

6.1 Custom configurations under /etc/sudoers.d/ are ignored
The #includedir directive in /etc/sudoers ignores les that end with the ~ character or
contain the . character. This is to avoid issues with configuration les provided by the package
manager (containing . ), or with an editor's temporary or backup les (ending in ~ ). Make sure
that the names of your custom configuration les neither contain nor end in these characters.
If they do, rename them.

6.2 Custom directives conflict

The order in which the configuration les are read determines when a sudo configuration
directive is applied. Directives in a le located under /etc/sudoers.d/ take precedence over
the same directives in /etc/sudoers . If custom directives stated in /etc/sudoers.d/ do not
work, check the order in which the les are read using visudo -c . Adjust the order, if necessary.

6.3 Locked out due to broken sudo configuration

If you have accidentally broken your system's sudo configuration and locked yourself out of
sudo , use su - and the root password to start a root shell. Run visudo -c to check for
errors and then x them using visudo .

7 sudo configuration reference

This section provides a basic sudo configuration reference that helps you under-
stand and maintain both default and custom sudo configurations.

7.1 sudoers configuration syntax

The sudoers configuration les contain two types of options: strings and ags. While strings can
contain any value, ags can be turned either ON or OFF. The most important syntax constructs
for sudoers configuration les are as follows:

# Everything on a line after # is ignored 1

Defaults !insults # Disable the insults flag 2

13 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

Defaults env_keep += "DISPLAY HOME" # Add DISPLAY and HOME to env_keep 3

tux ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/frobnicate, PASSWD: /usr/bin/journalctl 4

1 There are two exceptions: #include and #includedir are regular commands. The more
current version does not use the # anymore. Instead, include directives are now preceded
by @ . The # notation is still supported for backward compatibility reasons.
2 Remove the ! character to set the desired ag to ON.
3 Specify a list of environment variables that should be kept when env_reset is enabled.
4 A complex rule that states that the user tux requires a password to run /usr/bin/jour-
nalctl and does not require one to run /usr/bin/frobnicate on all hosts.

USEFUL FLAGS AND OPTIONS

targetpw
If set, sudo prompts for the user password specified in the -u option or the root pass-
word, if -u is not used. The default is ON.

Defaults targetpw # Turn targetpw flag ON

rootpw
If set, sudo prompts for the root password. The default is OFF.

Defaults !rootpw # Turn rootpw flag OFF

env_reset
If set, sudo constructs a minimal environment with TERM , PATH , HOME , MAIL , SHELL ,
LOGNAME , USER , USERNAME , and SUDO_* . Additionally, variables listed in env_keep are
imported from the calling environment. The default is ON.

Defaults env_reset # Turn env_reset flag ON

env_keep
The list of environment variables to keep when the env_reset ag is ON.

# Set env_keep to contain EDITOR and PROMPT

Defaults env_keep = "EDITOR PROMPT"
Defaults env_keep += "JRE_HOME" # Add JRE_HOME
Defaults env_keep -= "JRE_HOME" # Remove JRE_HOME

env_delete
The list of environment variables to remove when the env_reset ag is OFF.

14 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 # Set env_delete to contain EDITOR and PROMPT
Defaults env_delete = "EDITOR PROMPT"
Defaults env_delete += "JRE_HOME" # Add JRE_HOME
Defaults env_delete -= "JRE_HOME" # Remove JRE_HOME

7.2 Basic sudoers rules

Each rule follows the following scheme ( [] marks optional parts):

#Who Where As whom Tag What

User_List Host_List = [(User_List)] [NOPASSWD:|PASSWD:] Cmnd_List

SUDOERS RULE SYNTAX

User_List
One or several identifiers (separated by commas): either a user name, a group in the format
%GROUPNAME , or a user ID in the format #UID . Negation can be specified with the ! prefix.

Host_List
One or several identifiers (separated by commas): either a (fully qualified) host name or
an IP address. Negation can be specified with the ! prefix. ALL is a common choice for
Host_List .

NOPASSWD:|PASSWD:
The user is not prompted for a password when running commands matching Cmd_List
after NOPASSWD: .
PASSWD: is the default. It only needs to be specified when both PASSWD: and NOPASSWD:
are on the same line:

tux ALL = PASSWD: /usr/bin/foo, NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/bar

Cmnd_List
One or several specifiers (separated by commas): a path to an executable, followed by an
optional allowed argument.

/usr/bin/foo # Anything allowed

/usr/bin/foo bar # Only "/usr/bin/foo bar" allowed
/usr/bin/foo "" # No arguments allowed

ALL can be used as User_List , Host_List and Cmnd_List .

15 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

7.3 Simplify sudoers using aliases
Administrators can avoid having to maintain a set of repetitive and individual rules by intro-
ducing aliases to group items. Their syntax is the same as the syntax of the rules. The following
types of aliases are supported:

User_Alias
A list of user names

Runas_Alias
A group of users by UID

Host_Alias
A list of host names

Cmnd_Alias
A list of commands and directories, and aliases

Think of aliases as named lists of users, groups, commands and hosts. To illustrate the power
of aliases, take this example:

Host_Alias WEBSERVERS = www1, www2, www3 1

User_Alias ADMINS = tux, wilber, suzanne 2

Cmnd_Alias REBOOT = /sbin/halt, /sbin/reboot, /sbin/poweroff 3

ADMINS WEBSERVERS = REBOOT 4

1 The three servers are grouped into one Host_Alias WEBSERVERS . You can use (fully quali-
fied) host names or IP addresses.
2 Similar to the hosts grouped above, group users or even groups of users (like %wheel ) are
listed here. Negation is achieved with the ! prefix, as usual.
3 Specifies a group of commands that are used in the same context.
4 All aliases are wrapped into a single rule stating that all users specified by the User_Alias
can execute the group of commands specified under Cmnd_Alias on all hosts named in
Host_Alias .

In summary, aliases help administrators to keep sudoers lean and manageable (and therefore
secure). If, for example, one of the users has left the company, you can delete this person's name
from the User_Alias statement and any system group they belonged to just once instead of
having to search for all rules including this particular user.

16 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

8 Legal Notice
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
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All information found in this book has been compiled with utmost attention to detail. However,
this does not guarantee complete accuracy. Neither SUSE LLC, its affiliates, the authors, nor the
translators shall be held liable for possible errors or the consequences thereof.

A GNU Free Documentation License

Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
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17 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

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18 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

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HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.
The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are
needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works
in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near the most
prominent appearance of the work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely
XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language.
(Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledgements",
"Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".) To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you
modify the Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this Li-
cense applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by
reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that
these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.

2. VERBATIM COPYING

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or non-com-
mercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this
License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other condi-
tions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or
control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may
accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies
you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display
copies.

19 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the
Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts,
you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-
Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also
clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the
full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material
on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve
the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in
other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to t legibly, you should put the rst
ones listed (as many as t reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must
either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in
or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using
public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent
copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take rea-
sonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that
this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year
after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers)
of that edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before
redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated
version of the Document.

20 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

4. MODIFICATIONS

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sec-
tions 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License,
with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and mod-
ification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do
these things in the Modified Version:

A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document,
and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the
History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the
original publisher of that version gives permission.

B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship
of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least ve of the principal
authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than ve), unless they
release you from this requirement.

C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.

D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright
notices.

F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permis-
sion to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
the Addendum below.

G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts
given in the Document's license notice.

H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at
least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the
Title Page. If there is no section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the
title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an
item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.

21 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

 J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Trans-
parent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document
for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History" section. You
may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the
Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.

K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve the Title of the
section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their
titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the
Modified Version.

N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with
any Invariant Section.

O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Se-
condary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option
designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of
Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from
any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements
of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the
text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to ve words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25
words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only
one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through
arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the
same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting
on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission
from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use
their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

22 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the
terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combi-
nation all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them
all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all
their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant
Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the
same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the
end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known,
or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant
Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original
documents, forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Ac-
knowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections Entitled
"Endorsements".

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under
this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a
single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License
for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under
this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow
this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent docu-
ments or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate"
if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the com-
pilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in
an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not
themselves derivative works of the Document.

23 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if
the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be
placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent
of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers
that bracket the whole aggregate.

8. TRANSLATION

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Doc-
ument under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires spe-
cial permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all
Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may in-
clude a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any War-
ranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License
and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between
the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original
version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or "History", the
requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual
title.

9. TERMINATION

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided
for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document
is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who
have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses termi-
nated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documenta-
tion License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present ver-
sion, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See https://www.gnu.org/
copyleft/ .

24 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies
that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have
the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later
version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document
does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published
(not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU
Free Documentation License”.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the
“with...Texts.” line with this:

with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three,
merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these
examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public
License, to permit their use in free software.

25 Configuring Superuser Privileges with sudo