tempts to run sudo. If an I/O plugin is configured, the running
command’s input and output may be logged as well.
The options are as follows:
-A, -‐askpass
Normally, if sudo requires a password, it will read it from the
user’s terminal. If the -A (askpass) option is specified, a
(possibly graphical) helper program is executed to read the
user’s password and output the password to the standard output.
If the SUDO_ASKPASS environment variable is set, it specifies
the path to the helper program. Otherwise, if sudo.conf(5) con‐
tains a line specifying the askpass program, that value will be
used. For example:
# Path to askpass helper program
Path askpass /usr/X11R6/bin/ssh‐askpass
If no askpass program is available, sudo will exit with an er‐
ror.
-B, -‐bell
Ring the bell as part of the password prompt when a terminal is
present. This option has no effect if an askpass program is
used.
-b, -‐background
Run the given command in the background. It is not possible to
use shell job control to manipulate background processes started
by sudo. Most interactive commands will fail to work properly
in background mode.
-C num, -‐close‐from=num
Close all file descriptors greater than or equal to num before
executing a command. Values less than three are not permitted.
By default, sudo will close all open file descriptors other than
standard input, standard output, and standard error when execut‐
ing a command. The security policy may restrict the user’s
ability to use this option. The sudoers policy only permits use
of the -C option when the administrator has enabled the
closefrom_override option.
-D directory, -‐chdir=directory
Run the command in the specified directory instead of the cur‐
rent working directory. The security policy may return an error
if the user does not have permission to specify the working di‐
rectory.
-E, -‐preserve‐env
Indicates to the security policy that the user wishes to pre‐
serve their existing environment variables. The security policy
may return an error if the user does not have permission to pre‐
serve the environment.
-‐preserve‐env=list
Indicates to the security policy that the user wishes to add the
comma‐separated list of environment variables to those preserved
from the user’s environment. The security policy may return an
error if the user does not have permission to preserve the envi‐
ronment. This option may be specified multiple times.
-e, -‐edit
Edit one or more files instead of running a command. In lieu of
a path name, the string "sudoedit" is used when consulting the
security policy. If the user is authorized by the policy, the
following steps are taken:
1. Temporary copies are made of the files to be edited with
the owner set to the invoking user.
2. The editor specified by the policy is run to edit the tem‐
porary files. The sudoers policy uses the SUDO_EDITOR,
VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables (in that order).
If none of SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR are set, the first
program listed in the editor sudoers(5) option is used.